Yellow River
 The Yellow River or Huang He / Hwang Ho is the second-longest river in China (after the Yangtze River) and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 kilometers (3,395 mi)
Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai Province in western China, it flows through nine provinces of China and empties into the Bohai Sea. The Yellow River basin has an east-west extent of 1900 km (1,180 mi) and a north-south extent of 1100 km (684 mi). Total basin area is 742,443 km² (290,520 mi²).
The Yellow River is called "the cradle of Chinese civilization", as its basin is the birthplace of the northern Chinese civilizations and was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. But frequent devastating flooding largely due to the elevated river bed in its lower course, has also earned it the unenviable name "China's Sorrow".
Early Chinese literature refers to the Yellow River simply as He, the word that has come to mean simply "river" in modern language. The first appearance of the name "Yellow River" is in the Book of Han written in the Western Han dynasty (206 BC–AD 9). The name "Yellow River" describes the perennial ochre-yellow colour of the muddy water in the lower course of the river. The yellow color comes from loess suspended in the water.
Sometimes the Yellow River is poetically called the "Muddy Flow". The Chinese idiom "when the Yellow River flows clear" is used to refer to an event that will never happen and is similar to the English expression "when pigs fly".
History
The river is extremely prone to flooding. It has flooded 1,593 times in the last 3,000–4,000 years, while its main course changed 12 times, with at least 5 large-scale changes from 602 BC to present. These course changes are due to the large amount of loess carried by the river and continuously deposited along the bottom of the river's canal. This sedimentation causes a natural dam to slowly accrue. Eventually, the enormous amount of waters have to find a new way to the sea, causing a flood in a new valley. Flooding was unpredictable, you never knew when your crops would be grown well with water.
Ancient times
Historical maps from the Qin Dynasty (221 BC;206 BC) indicate the Yellow River was then flowing considerably north of its present course. Those maps show that after the river passed Luoyang it flowed along the border between Shanxi and Henan provinces, continuing along the border between Hebei and Shandong before emptying into Bohai Bay near present-day Tianjin.
The Xin dynasty (9-23AD) is also said to have fallen after major floods, occurring in 11 AD, with the river changing its course from the north, near Tianjin, to the south of Shandong Peninsula.
Medieval times
A major course change in 1194 took over the Huai River drainage system throughout the next 700 years. The mud in the Yellow River literally blocked the mouth of the Huai River and left thousands homeless. The Yellow River adopted its present course in 1897 after the latest course change occurred in 1855. Currently, the Yellow River flows through Jinan, capital of the Shandong province, and ends in the Bohai Sea, yet the eastern terminus for the Yellow River has oscillated from points north and south of the Shandong Peninsula in its many dramatic shifts over time.
The course of the river has changed back and forth between the route of the Huai River and the original route of the Yellow River several times over the past 700 years. The consequent buildup of silt deposits was so heavy that the Huai River was unable to flow in its historic course after the Yellow River reverted to its northerly course for the last time in 1897. Instead, the water pools up into Hongze Lake and then runs southward toward the Yangtze River.
Floods on the river account for some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded. The flatness of North China Plain contributes to the deadliness of the floods. A slight rise in water level means a large portion of land is completely covered in water. When a flood occurs, a portion of the population initially dies from drowning, then by the spread of diseases and the ensuing famine.
Sources
- geonames.de: Huang He
- This is the name Inner Mongolians use. Outer Mongolians usually call the river Shar Mörön (Шар мөрөн), that is, Yellow River.
- Yellow River (Huang He) Delta, China, Asia
- Chinese history records that Yellow River has changed its course 17 times
- China's Sorrow." Times Past: Pausing to Remember
- See The rise and splendour of the Chinese Empire, René Grousset, University of California press, 1959, 3rd printing, page 303 (map) : the map show that the Yellow river used the Huai river course from 1194 to 1853.
- Needham, Joseph. (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 1, Introductory Orientations. Taipei: Caves Books. Ltd. Page 68.
- International Rivers Report, "Before the Deluge" 2007
- International Rivers Report, "Before the Deluge" 2007
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