Urban Water Supply in Ancient China

He Shouping

(Consultant of China Water Network)

Life on earth originated from water, and human beings cannot survive without water. Archaeology has proved that the birthplaces of the four great civilizations of mankind are located in the vast watersheds of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, and the Ganges and Nile Rivers. Recent population density distribution model has been produced to show that: point-shaped water resources (such as lakes, wells, etc.) density line is a concentric circle around the source of water, while in the vicinity of linear water resources (such as rivers, rivers, etc.) and its parallel distribution on both sides of the encircling band. And the drier the climatic conditions of the watershed, the closer the population density tends to be to the water source. "Choose water and live" is human survival, development **** the same point, which undoubtedly shows the important role of water on human survival. With the growth of the population, the development of productivity, people's demand for water from following nature to follow the laws of nature artificial development of water sources.

China's Neolithic Hemudu site found in the water supply facilities, is currently known to the Yangtze River Basin, the earliest form of artificial water structure.

For thousands of years, human settlements, the formation of municipal towns, ancient towns water supply and so on with the footsteps of history in the continuous progress, development.

I. Wells are an important source of water for our forefathers

Wells as a source of water have a greater degree of freedom of choice than rivers and lakes, you can take the water in close proximity, and wells are more widely distributed in the stars. For this reason, even in towns close to surface water sources, people still can't get away from "wells".

Since ancient times, wherever there are people living, there are wells. For thousands of years, wells have been an important source of water for our ancestors and even for modern people.

There are early records of well-digging and well-drilling techniques in China. The first reliable record of well-digging in the world is the Lüshi Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn Annals of the Lüshi Dynasty), which is about 2200 years ago. 1-2 centuries ago, the Western Han Dynasty saw the emergence of drilling machines for deep wells. These drilling machines were greatly improved in the Northern and Southern Song Dynasty, and were used until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and were introduced to the West around the 11th century.

The Tang Dynasty Xu Jian's "Record of Beginning Learning," Volume VII, reads, "Bo Yi made a well, and it was also said that the Yellow Emperor saw all things and began to pierce the well. East Han Xu Shen "Shuowen Jiezi" in the "eight for the well". China's wells for water since the Yellow Emperor has been 4,000 to 5,000 years of history, and more than 2,000 years ago in the Qin Dynasty, mastered the technology of deep wells. In terms of water-raising equipment, China's ancient creation of the wheel, simple car, orange pulley, in addition, there are also handed down to the present day, such as the keel car and dragon tail car.

Two, the ancient site of the well

Zhejiang Yuyao Hemudu Neolithic site of the second cultural layer, found the remains of primitive wooden wells. At the edge of an irregular circular pit with a diameter of about 600 centimeters, remnants of piles arranged around were found. Twenty-eight pilewood remnants were found, with varying spacing. The rotten logs were generally about 5 cm in diameter and were about 100 cm vertically into the ground, with the deepest being 142 cm. Two of the pillars are more unusual in that the rotten wood is about 8 centimeters in diameter each, facing each other north-south, slanting into the ground at an angle of 55° to the horizontal.

The pit is pot-bottomed, less than 100 centimeters deep, the pit is black silt. The bottom of the pit is slightly northwest of the center of a square pit, side length of about 200 centimeters, the bottom of the square pit is about 135 centimeters from the surface of the ground at that time. The wall of the square pit is surrounded by a dense row of circular piles or semi-circular piles, and is supported by a horizontal square box.

Judged according to the excavated remains and relics: pot-bottom shaped round pit deposited black silt, indicating that the pit was originally a reservoir. Ponds within the settlement, the natural formation of the residents of the time a convenient source of water for domestic use. The water level of the pond is variable, and when the water is dry, there is only a slight accumulation of water at the bottom of the pot-bottom shaped pit, so a small deep pit is hollowed out in the center of the bottom in order to maintain a certain amount of concentrated water. Hollowing out the pit in the silt requires first setting up a supporting structure with four walls. The large stones placed on the outside of the square pit with their planes facing upwards are obviously stepping stones, which proves that the people used these stepping stones to fetch water from the central square pit during the dry season. The excavation of a water-drawing pot with an ear that can be tied with a rope in the central square pit further proves that this is a source of water for living. This water source was used in the following ways: when the pond was full of water, water was collected at the pond edge; when the water was dry, water was collected by stepping on the stepping stones to the square pit at the bottom of the pond.

The square pit with a supporting structure at the bottom of the large round pit seen in the excavation is the earliest known form of artificial water source in the Yangtze River Basin. It is the prototype of a wooden support well in high water areas, and its structure is exactly the image of "well" and "#" depicted in ancient hieroglyphics. Shiming - Shigong" said: "wells, also clear". Against this surface water source of the original well, it is because of the wooden frame support, to avoid the pit wall mud caused by the turbidity, thus maintaining the water quality of the clean.

In the Yellow River basin, in recent years in Henan Tangyin Baiying a Longshan culture late (and Hemudu second cultural layer of the age of similar) in the settlement found in a well, its depth has reached about 3 meters, the lower part of the remains of the stacked wooden well trunk.

Two Shang Dynasty water wells at the site of Taixi Village in Gaocheng, Hebei, were also supported by wooden well stems. Taixi Village water well, the diameter of the wellhead 295 centimeters, the depth of 590 centimeters. The diameter of the well is reduced from 450 centimeters below the wellhead to form a two-story platform. The bottom of the well is set up wooden well trunk, *** stacked four layers, 82 cm high, the node for the lap joints. There are still more than 30 piles of wood reinforced around the well stem. This well also survived in the complete or broken pots lost at that time to draw water, some of the neck is still tied with a rope.

The above examples show that China's "primitive wells" have a long history and have been gradually improved in terms of the structure of their trunks.

China's archaeological excavations of the various dynasties of wells are numerous, too numerous to mention. From the point of view of the materials used to build wells, there are earth wells, pottery wells, tile wells, stone wells, brick wells, wooden wells and so on.

There are three wells, all in the shape of a cylinder, found beside the house buildings in the Jiangou site (2000-2800 years ago) in the western suburbs of Handan City, Hebei Province. The upper part of the well has a gap with the ditch, from the mouth of the well down to a depth of 1 meter, the diameter length of 2.30 meters, down gradually narrowed to 5.50 meters, the diameter length of 1.15 meters, the lower part of the yellow sand accumulation. The Book of Zhou" although there are records: "Yellow Emperor through the well", "Yao people chiseled wells and drink", but did not see the physical information, and in the Jiangou site found in the ancient well building, for the "Book of Zhou" provides a physical basis.

Beijing had a large number of earth wells and tile wells during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and brick wells were built during the Han, Tang, Liao and Jin Dynasties. Historically, most of the residents in the urban areas of Beijing drilled their own earth wells and used shallow groundwater. During the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the wells throughout the city were also an important source of water supply, despite the fact that the city's water supply was never interrupted by the constant opening of canals to divert water. The countless hutongs in Beijing today are the geographical names of the residential areas. According to evidence, the word "hutong" comes from Mongolian, which means "well" in Mongolian. To the Qing dynasty Guangxu eleven years (1885) Beijing has been inside and outside the city of 1,245 earth wells. But most of the water is salty and bitter.

Nanjing is the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, although the Yangtze River, but the city's ancient wells are scattered, not only the well bar is strange, but also a lot of wells named, such as Jinsha well, Yang Gong well, copper hooks wells, plate wells, locks wells, double wells, wells, wells, inviting your wells, wells, rouge wells. There are historical statistics that by the Qing Dynasty (19th century), Nanjing had more than 5,000 wells. Until the 1980s, Nanjing still had more than 3,000 wells.

China's urban water supply system in many historical records, to Qiantang six wells in the most detailed. Su Shi's record mentioned: Tang Chancellor Li Gong Changyuan began to make six wells, the West Lake water to the civilian population, followed by the assassin Bai Gong Le Tian (around 810 years) to rule the lake dredging wells, engraved stone lake mountain. This was the official solution to the people's drinking water, water, urban public **** project.

Three, the ancient capital of the water

Water is the fundamental existence of the city. As a capital city, the country's political, cultural and economic center, a large population, the demand for water is more important.

China's ancient Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties, most of the capital city along the river. From the Qin Dynasty onwards, the capitals of the unified dynasties were, without exception, along the banks of large rivers. The capital is the political, economic and cultural center of the country or a region, with a large population, grandiose construction, picturesque gardens, water consumption is huge, if there is no ground water supply, relying only on groundwater is not a solution to the problem. Therefore, the capital city site must be selected along the river, it becomes almost irresistible law.

Ten dynasties built their capitals in present-day Xi'an. Four of them were located along rivers. As the city shifted, the closer it got to important tributaries of the Wei River, the more plentiful the city's water supply became.

Luoyang is known as the ancient capital of nine dynasties, and three of the city sites are inseparable from the Luo River.

There were eight dynasties that built their capitals in Nanjing, and all three sites are located in present-day Nanjing, along the banks of the Yangtze River, overlapping with each other or not far from each other. Ming Nanjing city is a large-scale, package the above city site in the city, not only across the Qinhuai River, but also closer to the Yangtze River.

There were six dynasties that built their capitals in Kaifeng, and the city was located on the south of the Yellow River and on the bank of the Yangtze River.

There were two dynasties that built their capital in Hangzhou, and the site of the city was constantly exhibited to the east, near the Qiantang River.

Beijing's earliest city site was located on the bank of the Washimagou, north of the Yushui (present-day Yongding River). The Yuan Dynasty shifted the site of the city to the northeast of Jicheng and built another metropolis across the Gaoliang River. In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, when the outer city of Beijing was built, the site of the city was moved southward, not only across the Gaoliang River, but also nearer to the Whema Gorge and the water.

The sites of the six ancient capitals were typical, and the other ancient capitals were no exception, with their sites located on the banks of rivers. This was the case, for example, with the capitals of the Sixteen Kingdoms, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms periods.

China's historical capitals were all located along rivers without exception, and it is clear that China's capitals could not be separated from rivers, and the fundamental reason for this is to solve the problem of urban water supply and waterway transportation.

Four, ancient urban water supply project

China's ancient urban water supply project has a long history, in the water source, water transmission and distribution system, purification and treatment have remarkable achievements. This provides the most basic conditions for the survival and development of the city.

As early as 1600 B.C. Shangcheng (located in what is now Zhengzhou) was the capital of the Shang Dynasty before Pan Geng moved to Yin. Archaeology found that the northern and northeastern parts of the city were palace areas, and water storage facilities such as cisterns and aqueducts were built in the eastern part of the palace area to ensure water supply in the area.

Xi'an is the Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, Tang and other dynasties built the capital of the city, the city's ground water supply system is very complete, creating a Chinese capital city to the ground water supply based on the precedent, successfully solved the problem of water supply in large cities in ancient times, for the solution of the water supply of the Chinese capital city to set up a model.

Feng-ho in the Zhou Dynasty straddled the Fengshui River and naturally relied on the Feng River for water supply. Qin Xianyang straddled the Wei River and drew water from the Wei River to excavate Lanchi, an artificial water storage reservoir for the capital city of Xianyang, supplying water to the southeast of the city.

The city of Chang'an in the Western Han Dynasty was mainly supplied with water from bubble up water in the west of the city, while wells were drilled to invoke groundwater. In the middle of the Han Dynasty, the population increased greatly, and large-scale water sources were opened up, and channels were drilled to invoke surface water. This opened up a new pattern of surface water supply in Chinese capital cities.

Tang Chang'an city from the southeast, southwest two directions to draw water into the city, the channel is as dense as a spider web, so that the Xi'an area of the rivers are mostly utilized for the solution of Xi'an's urban development in the water supply problem, laying down a pattern of the east and west of the two directions of water supply. Chang'an is surrounded by rivers such as Jing, Wei, Ba, Feng and Flood. Due to the large size of the city and its population, in terms of urban water supply, in the early Tang Dynasty, channels such as the Longshou Canal, Yong'an Canal, and Qingming Canal were renovated to bring water from outside Chang'an into the city. These channels passed through the city of Chang'an and formed a complete water supply network, 18 miles and 115 paces (about 10.6 km) long from east to west and 15 miles and 175 paces (about 8.9 km) long from north to south, with a circumference of 67 miles (about 38.6 km), which properly solved the problem of water supply for the millions of people in the city of Chang'an.

In ancient times, Guangzhou was affected by the sea tide, and the well spring water was salty. To the Song Dynasty, the rapid development of the city, the population has increased dramatically, the contradiction of water supply is prominent, was relegated to Huizhou through Guangzhou Su Shi to Guangzhou governor put forward the proposal to introduce water into the city, he suggested using bamboo tubes to lead the Pujian water into the city, is the earliest "tap water" planning blueprints in Guangzhou. Su Shi was personally involved in the master plan, which solved the drinking water sanitation problem of Guangzhou residents, and Guangzhou became the first city in the country to have "running water".

Archaeological experts concluded that Changsha City, Pozijie now unearthed 3,000 square meters of underground "roof" shaped wooden structure, the Southern Song Dynasty, a large-scale urban water supply system. Its east-west direction, all built by the black and brown thick wooden planks, each plank length and width of about 1 meter. With the wooden groove vertically connected to the wooden "ridge" is about 30 meters long, west high east low, has been extended to the excavation pit outside. This is a kind of covered water channel. More than 20 ancient wells were also found at the archaeological site.

The Middle Capital City of the Jin Dynasty was located in the area of Guang'anmen in the southwest of present-day Beijing, and the city's water supply mainly utilized the water system of Washimagou. When the Jin people expanded the city, they systematically circled a small river that originated in a natural lake west of the city (i.e., today's Lotus Pond) into the city. At the same time excavated moat: the introduction of the palace, to solve the problem of urban water supply. The metropolis of the Yuan Dynasty made full use of the Gaoliang River system. The urns in the Gaoliang River system, the predecessor of today's Kunming Lake in the Summer Palace, laid the foundation for the water supply for the city of Beijing in the Ming and Qing dynasties. In the early Ming Dynasty, the Imperial City was enlarged, and the water supply mainly depended on the water supply of the Jingshan Pool, which gathered all the springs in the Yuquan Mountain. Jishuitan is the main water storage reservoir, and with the West Garden Taiyi Pond (i.e., today's Beihai, Zhonghai and Nanhai), for the Imperial City, the Palace City (Forbidden City) to provide water. Qing dynasty Qianlong sixteen years (1751), in order to increase the amount of canal water, open up the urn hill moorings, the West Mountain Biyun Temple, Wolverine Temple spring water through the foot of the Yuquan Mountain also guide into the moorings, built the largest artificial water storage reservoir in Northwest Beijing, which is today's Kunming Lake. The water source of the city of Beijing has changed dramatically, providing a rich water source for the city of Beijing.

Just to cite a few examples of urban water supply projects, visible in our country in ancient times attached great importance to the role of water in the city, and invested enormous human and material resources.

Fifth, the ancient water purification technology

China's Tang Dynasty Lu Yu's "tea - four of the apparatus" in a paragraph on the treatment of water for tea drinking: "Lu Shui capsule: Lu Shui capsule if commonly used, the frame to raw copper casting, in order to prepare for the water wet, no moss and foul astringent. Intended to cook the copper moss dirty, iron astringent also. Forests and valleys hidden or with the bamboo, wood and bamboo are not long-lasting wading far away from the equipment, so the use of raw copper. The capsule weave green bamboo to roll, cut thick waterproof silk to sew, new cui tin to decorate, and make green oil bag to store, round diameter of five inches, the handle of one inch and five minutes." This percolating capsule, is used as a water filter for clean and purified water.

China is the first to use alum to reduce the turbidity of the water, the earliest formal written records of the Ming Song Yingxing in the Ming Chongzhen ten years (1637) engraved and printed in the "Tiangongkaiwu" book. In 1744-1746 published by the Spanish clergyman Navarrete wrote the "Chinese Empire Travels", a detailed account of what was seen at the time, the universal application of alum to make the Yellow River water into clear water, and said that this is the secret of nature, for the West at the time do not know.

An archaeological discovery of a well-preserved ancient water purification system from the late Ming Dynasty more than 400 years ago was made in 2004 in the village of Xi'er, Xikou Township, Yongjia, Zhejiang Province. It consists of five pools of different sizes and arranged in an orderly manner. The large pool is 8.00 square meters and the small one is only 1.56 square meters. Archaeologists rushed to the scene of the excavation found that the entire pool of the four walls are made of large cobblestones, five pools of varying depths, the deepest 0.75 meters, the shallowest 0.58 meters. Raw water is introduced into the No. 1 pool from the foothills of a mountain 700 to 800 meters away from the village using a ceramic water pipe. This is a pool covered with sand, gravel and rubble, more than 1 meter long and about 50 centimeters wide. The water is filtered and then flows into Pool #2. This pool was made entirely of bricks and lined with charcoal. Whether this is the earliest process of "filtration-activated charcoal" treatment is yet to be proved. However, the discovery of this prototype of the modern water purification process is amazing. After flowing through these two pools, the water flows through a pipe at the bottom of the pool into Pool No. 3, which is the largest of the five pools. It is a square pool with a side length of about 2 meters and a depth of about 1 meter. It may be a "fresh water pool" for water storage, or it may be used as a "fire fighting pool". The water from this pool overflowed into a fourth pool. The pool is "concave" in shape. The pool is surrounded by brick inlay, the bottom with three round stone paving, stored water for drinking, it is the most exquisite shape. 5 pool is used to wash things, the bottom of the pool has a small drainage holes dedicated to the discharge of sewage. 400 years ago in the mountainous areas of the traffic is closed, the local villagers designed and built a full-featured "water purification system", which shows that the ancient working people of China in the water treatment process is a very important part of the "water purification system". China's ancient working people in the water treatment process has a very high level.

The development of human beings, the development of human settlements can not be separated from the water, let us cherish water resources, for the survival of mankind and the development of the city and the harmony of nature **** survival!