A Canal of Civilization

Along the Grand Canal in Hangzhou, east China, cargo boats make their way to different destinations, just as they have been doing for centuries. Along its banks, people buy coffee or practice tai chi. The canal is not a museum piece. It is still part of people's lives.

On the arch of Gongchen Bridge, a 17th-century stone structure first built in 1631 that has witnessed nearly four centuries of Hangzhou's history, two people look out over the water. One of them, Ke Ning, works at the Hangzhou Arts and Crafts Museum, one of a cluster of canal-side museums dedicated to the crafts that flourished along this waterway. She walks beside the canal every day and crosses it on her way to work. Beside her stands Abubaker Hayaty, who came to China from Sudan nearly a decade ago and now lives in Hangzhou, where the Grand Canal ends its long journey from the north. Over the years, he has watched the boats pass and regards the canal as a living waterway that still shapes the city around it.

Ke asks him, "You see the bridge and the flowing water. But do you truly perceive what this canal means for this country, for this civilization?"

One canal, half a civilization

If you look at the map of China, most of its major waterways, the Yellow River, the Huaihe River, the Yangtze River, and the Qiantang River, all flow eastward. China's geography is naturally divided into north and south. But one waterway runs north-south, connecting what geography had separated. It is the Grand Canal, the world's longest artificial waterway, connecting Beijing in the north to Hangzhou in the east. The first section of the canal, the Han Gou, was dug in 486 BCE to connect the Yangtze and Huai rivers. Later dynasties extended it.

The Sui Dynasty (581-618) united it into a north-south waterway. The Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) rerouted it, creating the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal we know today. The over 1,700 km waterway links five major river systems into one network: the Haihe River, Yellow River, Huaihe River, Yangtze River, and Qiantang River. There is a saying among Chinese historians: "One canal, half a civilization."

From the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties onward, China's economic center gradually shifted south, while the political capital remained in the north. The canal bridged this divide.

In the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1126), millions of tonnes of grain traveled the canal each year to feed the capital at Kaifeng, now in Henan province in central China. In later dynasties, the system continued, with grain boats sustaining the northern capitals. Without this supply line, national unity could not have been maintained.

The canal and the economy

The canal was first built to move grain, but it soon carried more than grain. By the Tang and Song dynasties, private merchants were loading their own goods onto the barges that carried official shipments. Silk from the south, tea from the hills, and porcelain from the kilns moved north along the water. Northern goods traveled south in return. The canal turned a collection of regional economies into something larger.

Along its banks, market towns grew into cities. Huai'an, Jining, Linqing, Cangzhou, and Tongzhou became wealthy not only from the land around them, but also from the boats that passed through.

Ke points across the canal to the museum complex where she works. "The fans, the umbrellas, the swords were industries, not just art. They fed families. The craftsmen shipped their goods along this water to buyers hundreds of miles away. The canal was their market."

For the millions of people who lived along its banks, the canal was a lifeline. It carried what they made and brought what they needed. It connected them to a world beyond their village.

The canal and culture

People and skills traveled the canal too. Northerners brought wheat and farming methods south. Southerners carried their dialects and cooking north. Along the banks, these cultures met and changed one another.

The canal passes through five distinct cultural regions: the Yan-Zhao culture of the north, the Qi-Lu culture of Shandong, the Central Plains culture, the Huaiyang culture, and the Wu-Yue culture of the south. Before the canal, these regions were largely separate. The canal brought them together. It also linked the maritime Silk Road with the overland Silk Road, connecting China's coastal trade to its continental networks.

The literary imagination followed the water. The classic Dream of the Red Chamber opens in the canal city of Suzhou. Lin Daiyu, the heroine, travels the canal from Yangzhou to Beijing, a journey that sets the story in motion. Kunqu Opera began in Suzhou and Yangzhou, then spread north along the canal. Peking Opera traveled the same route, carried by troupes from the south. Food traveled too. Dumplings met wontons. Along the canal, these traditions met and became something new.

Back to the bridge

As dusk falls, Ke and Hayaty return to Gongchen Bridge. The early summer light has softened.

Hayaty is silent for a moment. Then he says: "Before today, I thought I understood what a waterway could be. Now I see it differently. This is a canal of civilization. It carried more than boats. It carried a civilization over the course of centuries."

He looks down at the water. "And it belongs to ordinary people. It was built for them to use and live beside. The craftsmen, the merchants, the families who washed clothes on these stone steps kept it alive. They still do."

Ke nods. "The builders were not thinking about creating a landmark. They had practical problems to solve, keeping the capital fed and moving goods across the country. But they built something that outlasted them."

Behind them, the canal flows on. A boat moves slowly past. Living heritage is not a label. It is the way this canal has always been.

Source: Science and Technology Daily