卷二十九·河渠书第七
卷二十九·河渠书第七
司马迁
夏书曰：禹抑洪水十三年，过家不入门。陆行载车，水行载舟，泥行蹈毳，山行即桥。以别九州，随山浚川，任土作贡。通九道，陂九泽，度九山。然河菑衍溢，害中国也尤甚。唯是为务。故道河自积石历龙门，南到华阴，东下砥柱，及孟津、雒汭，至于大邳。于是禹以为河所从来者高，水湍悍，难以行平地，数为败，乃厮二渠以引其河。北载之高地，过降水，至于大陆，播为九河，同为逆河，入于勃海。九川既疏，九泽既洒，诸夏艾安，功施于三代。
自是之后，荥阳下引河东南为鸿沟，以通宋、郑、陈、蔡、曹、卫，与济、汝、淮、泗会。于楚，西方则通渠汉水、云梦之野，东方则通沟江淮之间。于吴，则通渠三江、五湖。于齐，则通菑济之间。于蜀，蜀守冰凿离碓，辟沫水之害，穿二江成都之中。此渠皆可行舟，有余则用溉氵侵，百姓飨其利。至于所过，往往引其水益用溉田畴之渠，以万亿计，然莫足数也。
西门豹引漳水溉邺，以富魏之河内。
而韩闻秦之好兴事，欲罢之，毋令东伐，乃使水工郑国间说秦，令凿泾水自中山西邸瓠口为渠，并北山东注洛三百余里，欲以溉田。中作而觉，秦欲杀郑国。郑国曰：“始臣为间，然渠成亦秦之利也。”秦以为然，卒使就渠。渠就，用注填阏之水，溉泽卤之地四万余顷，收皆亩一钟。于是关中为沃野，无凶年，秦以富强，卒并诸侯，因命曰郑国渠。
汉兴三十九年，孝文时河决酸枣，东溃金隄，于是东郡大兴卒塞之。
其后四十有余年，今天子元光之中，而河决于瓠子，东南注钜野，通于淮、泗。于是天子使汲黯、郑当时兴人徒塞之，辄复坏。是时武安侯田蚡为丞相，其奉邑食鄃。鄃居河北，河决而南则鄃无水菑，邑收多。蚡言于上曰：“江河之决皆天事，未易以人力为强塞，塞之未必应天。”而望气用数者亦以为然。于是天子久之不事复塞也。
是时郑当时为大农，言曰：“异时关东漕粟从渭中上，度六月而罢，而漕水道九百余里，时有难处。引渭穿渠起长安，并南山下，至河三百余里，径，易漕，度可令三月罢；而渠下民田万余顷，又可得以溉田：此损漕省卒，而益肥关中之地，得谷。”天子以为然，令齐人水工徐伯表，悉发卒数万人穿漕渠，三岁而通。通，以漕，大便利。其后漕稍多，而渠下之民颇得以溉田矣。
其后河东守番系言：“漕从山东西，岁百余万石，更砥柱之限，败亡甚多，而亦烦费。穿渠引汾溉皮氏、汾阴下，引河溉汾阴、蒲坂下，度可得五千顷。五千顷故尽河壖弃地，民茭牧其中耳，今溉田之，度可得谷二百万石以上。谷从渭上，与关中无异，而砥柱之东可无复漕。”天子以为然，发卒数万人作渠田。数岁，河移徙，渠不利，则田者不能偿种。久之，河东渠田废，予越人，令少府以为稍入。
其后人有上书欲通襃斜道及漕事，下御史大夫张汤。汤问其事，因言：“抵蜀从故道，故道多阪，回远。今穿襃斜道，少阪，近四百里；而襃水通沔，斜水通渭，皆可以行船漕。漕从南阳上沔入襃，襃之绝水至斜，间百余里，以车转，从斜下下渭。如此，汉中之谷可致，山东从沔无限，便于砥柱之漕。且襃斜材木竹箭之饶，拟于巴蜀。”天子以为然，拜汤子卬为汉中守，发数万人作襃斜道五百余里。道果便近，而水湍石，不可漕。
其后庄熊罴言：“临晋民愿穿洛以溉重泉以东万余顷故卤地。诚得水，可令亩十石。”于是为发卒万余人穿渠，自徵引洛水至商颜山下。岸善崩，乃凿井，深者四十余丈。往往为井，井下相通行水。水穨以绝商颜，东至山岭十余里间。井渠之生自此始。穿渠得龙骨，故名曰龙首渠。作之十余岁，渠颇通，犹未得其饶。
自河决瓠子后二十余岁，岁因以数不登，而梁楚之地尤甚。天子既封禅巡祭山川，其明年，旱，乾封少雨。天子乃使汲仁、郭昌发卒数万人塞瓠子决。于是天子已用事万里沙，则还自临决河，沈白马玉璧于河，令群臣从官自将军已下皆负薪窴决河。是时东郡烧草，以故薪柴少，而下淇园之竹以为楗。
天子既临河决，悼功之不成，乃作歌曰：“瓠子决兮将柰何？皓皓旰旰兮闾殚为河！殚为河兮地不得宁，功无已时兮吾山平。吾山平兮钜野溢，鱼沸郁兮柏冬日。延道弛兮离常流，蛟龙骋兮方远游。归旧川兮神哉沛，不封禅兮安知外！为我谓河伯兮何不仁，泛滥不止兮愁吾人？齧桑浮兮淮、泗满，久不反兮水维缓。”一曰：“河汤汤兮激潺湲，北渡污兮浚流难。搴长茭兮沈美玉，河伯许兮薪不属。薪不属兮卫人罪，烧萧条兮噫乎何以御水！穨林竹兮楗石菑，宣房塞兮万福来。”于是卒塞瓠子，筑宫其上，名曰宣房宫。而道河北行二渠，复禹旧迹，而梁、楚之地复宁，无水灾。
自是之后，用事者争言水利。朔方、西河、河西、酒泉皆引河及川谷以溉田；而关中辅渠、灵轵引堵水；汝南、九江引淮；东海引钜定；泰山下引汶水：皆穿渠为溉田，各万余顷。佗小渠披山通道者，不可胜言。然其著者在宣房。
太史公曰：余南登庐山，观禹疏九江，遂至于会稽太湟，上姑苏，望五湖；东闚洛汭、大邳，迎河，行淮、泗、济、漯洛渠；西瞻蜀之岷山及离碓；北自龙门至于朔方。曰：甚哉，水之为利害也！余从负薪塞宣房，悲瓠子之诗而作河渠书。
Volume 29 · Treatise on the River and the Canals, Seventh
司马迁
The Documents of Xia say: Yu held back the floodwaters for thirteen years, and passed his own house without entering the gate. On land he went by cart, on water by boat, through mud he trod on sledges, in the mountains he used spiked clogs. By these means he marked off the Nine Provinces, followed the mountains and dredged the rivers, and assessed the soils to fix the tribute. He opened the nine roads, embanked the nine marshes, and took the measure of the nine mountains. Yet the disasters of the He, its spilling and overflowing, harmed the Central States most grievously of all; and this alone he made his business. So he channelled the He from Jishi past Longmen, south to Huayin, east down past Dizhu, and on to Mengjin and the bend of the Luo, as far as Dapi. Thereupon Yu, considering that the ground the He came down from was high and the water swift and fierce, so that it was hard for it to run over level country and it repeatedly worked havoc, cut two channels to lead the He off. He carried it north along the high ground, past the Jiang water, to Dalu, where he spread it into the Nine Rivers, brought them together again as the Ni River, and let it enter the Bohai. The nine watercourses being dredged and the nine marshes drained, the states of Xia had peace and quiet, and the benefit of his work extended to the Three Dynasties.
After this, below Xingyang the He was led off to the south-east as the Honggou Canal, to give passage to Song, Zheng, Chen, Cai, Cao and Wei, and to join with the Ji, the Ru, the Huai and the Si. In Chu, on the west a canal was opened to the waters of the Han and the wilds of Yunmeng, and on the east a channel between the Jiang and the Huai. In Wu, canals were opened to the Three Jiang and the Five Lakes. In Qi, a channel between the Zi and the Ji. In Shu, Bing the governor of Shu cut through Lidui, removed the harm done by the Mo water, and ran two channels through the midst of Chengdu. All these canals could carry boats, and what was left over was used for watering and soaking, and the hundred families enjoyed the benefit of them. And as for the places they passed, everywhere water was drawn off from them for the further use of canals to water the fields, in numbers reckoned by tens of thousands and by hundreds of millions, yet not worth the counting.
Ximen Bao led off the waters of the Zhang to water Ye, and thereby enriched Henei in Wei.
And Han, hearing that Qin was fond of undertaking works, wished to wear it out so that it should not campaign eastward; so it sent the hydraulic engineer Zheng Guo to go as a spy and persuade Qin to cut a canal from the Jing water, from Zhongshan west as far as Hukou, running along the northern hills and pouring east into the Luo, more than three hundred li, meaning it to water the fields. When it was half done the thing was discovered, and Qin wished to put Zheng Guo to death. Zheng Guo said: "At the outset I was a spy; but the canal once finished is also to Qin's advantage." Qin thought this right, and in the end had him complete the canal. When the canal was finished, the silt-laden water was run into it, and more than forty thousand qing of marshy and brackish land was watered, and the yield was everywhere a zhong to the mu. Thereupon the Land within the Passes became a fertile plain with no bad years, and Qin by it grew rich and strong and in the end annexed the feudal lords; and so it was named the Zheng Guo Canal.
In the thirty-ninth year since the rise of the Han, in the time of Emperor Xiaowen, the He broke through at Suanzao and burst the Jin embankment to the east; and thereupon the commandery of Dong called out a great levy of conscripts to close it.
More than forty years after that, in the Yuanguang period of the present Son of Heaven, the He broke through at Huzi and poured south-east into Juye, joining with the Huai and the Si. Thereupon the Son of Heaven sent Ji An and Zheng Dangshi to raise men and labourers to close it, and it kept breaking open again. At this time the Marquis of Wu'an, Tian Fen, was chancellor, and his fief and revenue lay at Shu. Shu lay north of the He; and if the He broke through and went south, then Shu would have no flood damage and the town's yield would be large. Fen said to the emperor: "The breaking through of the Jiang and the He is all Heaven's doing, and it is not easy by human strength to force them closed; to close them would not necessarily accord with Heaven." And those who observed vapours and used the arts of number thought so too. Thereupon the Son of Heaven for a long while did not set about closing it again.
At this time Zheng Dangshi was Grand Minister of Agriculture, and said: "In former times the grain shipped from east of the Pass came up by way of the Wei, and it took some six months to be done; and the water route for the shipping is more than nine hundred li, with difficult stretches here and there. If the Wei were led off to cut a canal beginning at Chang'an and running along the foot of the Southern Mountain to the He, three hundred li, it would be direct and easy for shipping, and could be reckoned to be done in three months; and the people's fields below the canal, more than ten thousand qing, could further be watered from it. This would reduce the shipping and save conscripts, and would further enrich the land within the Passes and gain grain." The Son of Heaven thought it right, and ordered Xu Bo, a hydraulic engineer of Qi, to lay out the line, and called out several tens of thousands of conscripts in all to cut the transport canal; and in three years it was opened. Once opened, it was used for shipping, and was a great convenience. Thereafter the shipping grew somewhat heavier, and the people below the canal were fairly able to water their fields from it.
After that Pan Xi, Grand Administrator of Hedong, said: "The grain shipped west from east of the mountains is more than a million dan a year; it passes the narrows of Dizhu, where the losses by wreck are very great, and the expense too is heavy. If a canal were cut to lead the Fen to water the lands below Pishi and Fenyin, and the He led off to water the lands below Fenyin and Puban, it might be reckoned to yield five thousand qing. Those five thousand qing were formerly all waste ground on the He's margins, where the people merely cut fodder and pastured; but if they were now watered as fields, it might be reckoned to yield more than two million dan of grain. The grain would come up by the Wei, no different from that of the Land within the Passes, and east of Dizhu there need be no more shipping." The Son of Heaven thought it right, and called out several tens of thousands of conscripts to make the canal and the fields. After some years the He shifted its course, the canal was of no use, and those who farmed there could not recover even their seed. After a long while the canal-fields of Hedong were abandoned and given to men of Yue, and the Privy Treasury took them as a minor source of revenue.
After that someone submitted a memorial wishing to open the Baoxie road and use it for shipping, and the matter was sent down to the Imperial Secretary Zhang Tang. Tang asked about it, and thereupon said: "To reach Shu one goes by the old road; the old road has many slopes and is a long way round. If the Baoxie road were cut, there would be few slopes and it would be four hundred li nearer; and the Bao water joins the Mian and the Xie water joins the Wei, and both can carry boats for shipping. The shipping would come from Nanyang up the Mian and into the Bao; from where the Bao water ends to the Xie is a hundred and more li, and this would be carried by cart; and from the Xie one would go down into the Wei. In this way the grain of Hanzhong could be brought in, and from east of the mountains by way of the Mian there would be no limit, and it would be better than the shipping past Dizhu. Moreover, the Bao and Xie abound in timber, bamboo and arrow-shafts, comparable to Ba and Shu." The Son of Heaven thought it right, appointed Tang's son Ang Grand Administrator of Hanzhong, and called out several tens of thousands of men to make the Baoxie road, more than five hundred li. The road did indeed prove convenient and short; but the waters were swift and rocky, and could not be used for shipping.
After that Zhuang Xiongpi said: "The people of Linjin wish to cut a channel from the Luo to water more than ten thousand qing of old brackish land east of Chongquan. If water could really be had, it might yield ten dan to the mu." Thereupon more than ten thousand conscripts were called out to cut the canal, leading the Luo water from Zheng to the foot of Mount Shangyan. The banks were apt to collapse, so wells were sunk, the deepest more than forty zhang. Wells were made here and there, and below the wells they were connected so as to carry the water. The water fell away underground and so passed through Shangyan, and eastward to the mountain ridge it ran for some ten and more li. The origin of well-canals begins from this. In cutting the canal dragon bones were found, and so it was named the Dragon-Head Canal. It was worked at for ten and more years, and the canal was tolerably open, but its full profit was still not got.
More than twenty years after the He broke through at Huzi, the harvests had repeatedly failed on that account, and in the lands of Liang and Chu most grievously of all. When the Son of Heaven had performed the feng and shan and toured and sacrificed to the mountains and rivers, the next year there was drought, and the drying of the feng mound with little rain. The Son of Heaven then sent Ji Ren and Guo Chang to call out several tens of thousands of conscripts to close the breach at Huzi. Thereupon the Son of Heaven, having performed his rite at Wanlisha, on his return came in person to look upon the broken river, sank a white horse and a jade disc in the He, and ordered his ministers and the officers in attendance, from the generals downward, all to carry faggots and stop up the broken river. At this time the commandery of Dong had been burning off the grass, and so faggots and firewood were scarce, and they brought down the bamboo of the Qi park to make the piles.
The Son of Heaven, having come to the broken river and grieving that the work was not accomplished, made a song, saying: "Huzi is broken through — what is to be done? Vast and wide, boundless and glittering — the villages are all made river! All made river, and the land cannot be at rest; the labour without an end, and my mountain levelled. My mountain levelled, and Juye brims over; the fishes seethe and swarm, and the winter days press near. The straight channels are slackened, and it has parted from its constant flow; the scaly dragons gallop, and go roaming far. Let it return to the old watercourse — a power divine and sweeping! But for the feng and shan, how should I have known what lies without? Say for me to the Earl of the He: why so unkind, that flooding without cease should be the grief of my people? Niesang floats, and the Huai and the Si are full; so long unreturned, the water's bonds are loosened." A second song said: "The He rolls and surges, dashing in swirling eddies; the northern crossing is drowned, and the dredged course runs hard. We take up the long bamboo ropes and sink the fine jade; the Earl of the He consents, but the faggots do not suffice. The faggots do not suffice — it is the fault of the men of Wei; the burning has left all desolate — alas, wherewith shall we master the water? We fell the forest bamboo and pile the stone-filled piles; Xuanfang is closed, and a myriad blessings come." Thereupon the breach at Huzi was at last closed, and a palace was built above it and named the Xuanfang Palace. And the He was led to run north in the two channels, restoring the old tracks of Yu; and the lands of Liang and Chu were at peace again, without flood damage.
From this time on, those in office vied in speaking of the profits of water. At Shuofang, Xihe, Hexi and Jiuquan, the He and the valley streams were all led off to water fields; and within the Passes the Fu Canal and the Lingzhi led off the Du water; Runan and Jiujiang led off the Huai; Donghai led off the Juding; and at the foot of Mount Tai the Wen water was led off: in every case canals were cut to water fields, each of more than ten thousand qing. As for the other small canals that pierce the hills and open ways through, they are past telling. But the notable one is at Xuanfang.
The Lord Grand Astrologer says: I climbed Mount Lu in the south and looked upon the Nine Jiang that Yu dredged; I went on to Taihuang at Kuaiji, went up Gusu and gazed over the Five Lakes; in the east I peered at the bend of the Luo and at Dapi, and went to meet the He; I travelled the Huai, the Si, the Ji, the Ta and the Luo canals; in the west I looked upon Mount Min in Shu and upon Lidui; in the north I went from Longmen as far as Shuofang. And I said: How great a thing it is, the benefit and the harm of water! I was among those who carried faggots to close Xuanfang; and grieving over the song of Huzi, I made the Treatise on the River and the Canals.