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91-547: The original meaning of jianghu comes from "river" ( 江 ) and "lake" ( 湖 ), which might have originally referred to the Yangtze River and Dongting Lake (or Lake Tai ), and in a wider sense refers to the wilderness and rural areas in general. These regions are usually overseen by local gentries (if there are any) at best, and are outside the direct administrative capacity of local magistrates and law enforcement , and thus are seen by many (particularly outlaws ) as

182-460: A "free world" where anyone can hide and anything can be done. In modern Chinese culture, jianghu is commonly accepted as an alternative universe coexisting with the actual historical one in which the context of the wuxia genre was set. Unlike the normal world, in the jianghu , the youxia (wanderers or knights-errant) are free to act on their own initiative, including with violence, to punish evil and foes, and to reward goodness and allies. While

273-845: A 50-foot granite pyramidal obelisk was erected in Xintan, on the site of Captain Plant's home, in a Chinese community of pilots and junk owners. One face of the monument is inscribed in Chinese and another in English. Though recently relocated to higher ground ahead of the Three Gorges Dam, the monument still stands overlooking the Upper Yangtze River near Yichang, a rare collective tribute to a westerner in China. Standard Oil ran

364-410: A common foe or organization. A leader, called the wulin mengzhu ( 武林盟主 ; 'master of the wulin alliance'), is elected from among the schools in order to lead them and ensure law and order within the jianghu . The leader is usually someone with a high level of mastery in martial arts and a great reputation for righteousness who is often involved in some conspiracy and/or killed. In some stories,

455-745: A large fleet of warships appeared on the China coast, and with the first cannonball fired at a British ship, the Royal Saxon , the British started the first of the Opium Wars . Royal Navy warships destroyed numerous shore batteries and Chinese warships, laying waste to several coastal forts along the way. Eventually, they pushed their way up north close enough to threaten the Imperial Palace in Beijing itself. The China Navigation Company

546-475: A swimming craze through party propaganda. In 2002, Danish adventurer and sailor Troels Kløvedal sailed up the Yangtze, from Shanghai to past the Three Gorges Dam, in the collectively owned "Nordkaperen" sailing ship . Kløvedal had spent 12 years preparing and gathering the required permissions, and with a crew of Danes, his family members, a Chinese interpreter and several local maritime pilots , he became

637-440: A world in its own right. The meaning of the term jianghu has evolved over the course of Chinese history, but usually refers to the martial arts world of ancient China. First coined by Zhuangzi in the late 4th century BC, it referred to a way of life different from that of being actively involved in politics. At the time, it referred to the way of life of underachieving or maligned scholar-officials who distanced themselves from

728-522: Is found at 33°25′44″N 91°10′57″E  /  33.42889°N 91.18250°E  / 33.42889; 91.18250 and while not the furthest source of the Yangtze, it is the highest source at 5,342 m (17,526 ft) above sea level. The true source of the Yangtze, hydrologically the longest river distance from the sea, is at Jari Hill at the head of the Dam Qu tributary, approximately 325 km (202 mi) southeast of Geladandong. This source

819-569: Is from the Sanskrit root gáṅgā . By the Han dynasty , Jiāng had come to mean any river in Chinese, and this river was distinguished as the "Great River" 大江 ( Dàjiāng ). The epithet 長 ( simplified version 长 ), meaning "long", was first formally applied to the river during the Six Dynasties period. Various sections of the Yangtze have local names. From Yibin to Yichang ,

910-433: Is symbolised by conflicts between different martial artists or martial arts schools and the ultimate triumph of good over evil. Martial arts became a tool used by characters in a jianghu story to enforce their moral beliefs. On the other hand, there are characters who become corrupted by power derived from their formidable prowess in martial arts and end up abandoning their morality in their pursuit of power. Around this time,

1001-443: Is that the courts of law are dysfunctional and that all disputes and differences (within the community) can only be resolved by members of the community, through the use of mediation, negotiation, or force, predicating the need for the code of xia and acts of chivalry. Law and order within the jianghu are maintained by the various orthodox and righteous schools and heroes. Sometimes these schools may gather to form an alliance against

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1092-585: Is the first city on the Yangtze Plain . After entering Hubei province, the Yangtze receives water from a number of lakes. The largest of these lakes is Dongting Lake , which is located on the border of Hunan and Hubei provinces, and is the outlet for most of the rivers in Hunan. At Wuhan , it receives its biggest tributary, the Han River , bringing water from its northern basin as far as Shaanxi . At

1183-673: Is the longest river in Eurasia and the third-longest in the world. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains of the Tibetan Plateau and flows 6,300 km (3,915 mi) in a generally easterly direction to the East China Sea . It is the fifth-largest primary river by discharge volume in the world . Its drainage basin comprises one-fifth of the land area of China , and is home to nearly one-third of

1274-596: Is the presiding member of a supreme court in many countries with a justice system based on English common law , such as the High Court of Australia , the Supreme Court of Canada , the Supreme Court of Ghana , the Hong Kong Court of Final Appeal , the Supreme Court of India , the Supreme Court of Ireland , the Supreme Court of Japan , the Supreme Court of Nepal , the Supreme Court of New Zealand ,

1365-665: Is unable to perform the duties of the office, the Chief Justice of Canada performs the duties of the governor general. In India, in the event the President and the Vice- President are unable to discharge the functions due to death, resignation or removal, the Chief Justice of India acts as Officiating President of India. Apart from their intrinsic role in litigation, they may have additional responsibilities, such as swearing in high officers of state; for instance,

1456-507: The Beijing dialect instead of Nanjing's and first published in 1867. The spellings Yangtze and Yangtze Kiang was a compromise between the two methods adopted at the 1906 Imperial Postal Conference in Shanghai, which established postal romanization . Hanyu Pinyin was adopted by the PRC's First Congress in 1958, but it was not widely employed in English outside mainland China prior to

1547-467: The Chief Justice of the United States traditionally administers the oath of office at the inauguration ceremony of the President of the United States , as does the Chief Justice of South Africa at the inauguration of the President of South Africa . In some countries, such as the United States, the chief justice is also responsible for presiding over certain legislative matters, such as during

1638-523: The Chivalrous men of the Green Forests ( 绿林好汉 ; 綠林好漢 ; lǜlín hǎohàn ) and they then proceed to have various adventures, mixing heroism with more roguish activities. One of the earliest coinage of jianghu was by a dejected Song dynasty poet Fan Zhongyan (989—1052) in his poem Yueyang Lou Ji , in which the context of jianghu was set out as distant to the courts and temples, meaning

1729-603: The Han dynasty , the region of the Yangtze River grew ever more important to China's economy. The establishment of irrigation systems (the most famous one is Dujiangyan , northwest of Chengdu, built during the Warring States period) made agriculture very stable and productive, eventually exceeding even the Yellow River region. The Qin and Han empires were actively engaged in the agricultural colonization of

1820-728: The Jiangnan region south of the river ( Wuxi , Suzhou , Hangzhou ) and with northern China (all the way from Yangzhou to Beijing). The less well known ancient Lingqu Canal , connecting the upper Xiang River with the headwaters of the Guijiang , allowed a direct water connection from the Yangtze Basin to the Pearl River Delta . Historically, the Yangtze was the political boundary between north China and south China several times (see History of China ) because crossing

1911-566: The Longshan peoples of the North China Plain . What is now thought of as Chinese culture developed along the more fertile Yellow River basin; the " Yue " people of the lower Yangtze possessed very different traditions – blackening their teeth , cutting their hair short , tattooing their bodies, and living in small settlements among bamboo groves – and were considered barbarous by the northerners. The Central Yangtze valley

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2002-512: The Shandong peninsula within the historical record, the Yangtze has remained largely static. Based on studies of sedimentation rates , however, it is unlikely that the present discharge site predates the late Miocene ( c.  11 Ma ). Prior to this, its headwaters drained south into the Gulf of Tonkin along or near the course of the present Red River . The Yangtze River is important to

2093-551: The Spring and Autumn period 's Five Hegemons and one of the Warring States ' Four Lords . They fell in against themselves, however. Chu's growing power led its rival Jin to support Wu as a counter. Wu successfully sacked Chu's capital Ying in 506 BC, but Chu subsequently supported Yue in its attacks against Wu's southern flank. In 473 BC, King Goujian of Yue fully annexed Wu and moved his court to its eponymous capital at modern Suzhou. In 333 BC, Chu finally united

2184-717: The Supreme Court of Nigeria , the Supreme Court of Pakistan , the Supreme Court of the Philippines , the Supreme Court of Singapore , the Supreme Court of the United States , and provincial or state supreme courts/high courts. The situation is slightly different in the three legal jurisdictions within the United Kingdom . The courts of England and Wales are headed by the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales ; in Northern Ireland's courts ,

2275-632: The Yellow River 's principal ports between the floods of 1344 and the 1850s, during which time the Yellow River ran well south of Shandong and discharged into the ocean a mere few hundred kilometers from the mouth of the Yangtze. ) By 1800, English cartographers such as Aaron Arrowsmith had adopted the French style of the name as Yang-tse or Yang-tse Kiang . The British diplomat Thomas Wade emended this to Yang-tzu Chiang as part of his formerly popular romanization of Chinese , based on

2366-474: The country's population . The Yangtze has played a major role in the history , culture , and economy of China . For thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking, and war. The Yangtze Delta generates as much as 20% of China's GDP , and the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze is the largest hydro-electric power station in

2457-443: The entertainment industry to sports to even politics and the business circle. Colloquially, retirement is also referred to as "leaving the jianghu " ( 退出江湖 ). In wuxia stories, when reputable figures decide to retire from the jianghu , they will do so in a ceremony known as "washing hands in the golden basin" ( 金盆洗手 ): they wash their hands in a golden basin filled with water, signifying that they will no longer be involved in

2548-478: The jianghu are: The term jianghu is linked to cultures other than those pertaining to martial arts in wuxia stories. It is also applied to anarchic societies. For instance, the triads and other Chinese secret societies use the term jianghu to describe their world of organised crime . Sometimes, the term jianghu may be replaced by the term "underworld" à la "criminal underworld". In modern terminology, jianghu may mean any circle of interest, ranging from

2639-534: The jianghu in each work; Jin Yong 's Condor Trilogy has one continuity, whereas Gu Long 's jianghu would be distinct in every novel, for two examples. One of the most notable sources for helping define what would be thought of as the jianghu was the 14th-century novel Water Margin . In the novel, a band of noble outlaws, who mounted regular sorties in an attempt to right the wrongs of corrupt officials, have retreated to their hideout. These outlaws were called

2730-642: The "Yangzi River", from which the English name Yangtze is derived, is the local name for the Lower Yangtze in the region of Yangzhou . The name likely comes from an ancient ferry crossing called Yángzǐ or Yángzǐjīn ( 揚子 / 揚子津 ). Europeans who arrived in the Yangtze River Delta region applied this local name to the whole river. The dividing site between upstream and midstream is considered to be at Yichang and that between midstream and downstream at Hukou ( Jiujiang ). The river

2821-747: The 2,308 km (1,434 mi) of the Yangtze from Yibin upstream to the confluence with the Batang River near Yushu in Qinghai, while the Tongtian River ("River that leads to Heaven") describes the 813 km (505 mi) section from Yushu up to the confluence of the Tuotuo River and the Dangqu River . In Old Chinese , the Yangtze was simply called Jiang/Kiang 江 , a character of phono-semantic compound origin, combining

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2912-563: The 9th century BC. Traditional accounts credit these changes to northern refugees ( Taibo and Zhongyong in Wu and Wuyi in Yue) who assumed power over the local tribes, though these are generally assumed to be myths invented to legitimate them to other Zhou rulers. As the kingdoms of Wu and Yue , they were famed as fishers, shipwrights, and sword-smiths. Adopting Chinese characters , political institutions, and military technology, they were among

3003-607: The Chinese government to make the river safer in 1917 by removing some of the most difficult obstacles and threats with explosives. In August 1917, British Asiatic Petroleum became the first foreign merchant steamship on the Upper Yangtze. Commercial firms, Robert Dollar Company, Jardine Matheson , Butterfield and Swire and Standard Oil added their own steamers on the river between 1917 and 1919. Between 1918 and 1919, Sichuan warlord violence and escalating civil war put Sichuan Steam Navigational Company out of business. Shutung

3094-504: The Chinese term for the mouth of the Yangtze ( 江口 , p   Jiāngkǒu ) as the name of the river itself. The name Blue River began to be applied in the 18th century, apparently owing to a former name of the Dam Chu or Min and to analogy with the Yellow River , but it was frequently explained in early English references as a 'translation' of Jiang , Jiangkou , or Yangzijiang . Very common in 18th- and 19th-century sources,

3185-610: The Female Yak "; transliterated into Chinese : 直曲 ; pinyin : Zhíqū ). The river originates from several tributaries in the eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau , two of which are commonly referred to as the "source." Traditionally, the Chinese government has recognized the source as the Tuotuo tributary at the base of a glacier lying on the west of Geladandong Mountain in the Tanggula Mountains . This source

3276-661: The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom . The chief justice can be selected in many ways, but, in many nations, the position is given to the most senior justice of the court, while, in the United States, the chief justice is appointed by the President, subject to approval by the United States Senate . Although the title of this top American jurist is, by statute, Chief Justice of the United States ,

3367-529: The US state of West Virginia ). The chief justice's personal ruling is equal in weight to the rulings of any associate judges on the court. In several countries, the chief justice is second in line to the office of president or governor general (or third in line, if there is a vice president or lieutenant governor general), should the incumbent die or resign. For example, if the Governor General of Canada

3458-551: The Upper Yangtze on Leechuan at the end of 1898. With Plant's design input, Little had SS Pioneer built with Plant in command. In June 1900, Plant was the first to successfully pilot a merchant steamer on the Upper Yangtze from Yichang to Chongqing. Pioneer was sold to Royal Navy after its first run due to threat from the Boxer Rebellion and renamed HMS Kinsha . Germany's steamship effort that same year on SS Suixing ended in catastrophe. On Suixing's maiden voyage,

3549-510: The Yangtze River refers to the section from Yibin to Yichang; the middle part refers to the section from Yichang to Hukou County , where Lake Poyang meets the river; the downstream part is from Hukou to Shanghai. The origin of the Yangtze River has been dated by some geologists to about 45 million years ago in the Eocene , but this dating has been disputed. Although the mouth of the Yellow River has fluctuated widely north and south of

3640-517: The Yangtze lowlands, maintaining a system of dikes to protect farmland from seasonal floods. By the Song dynasty, the area along the Yangtze had become among the wealthiest and most developed parts of the country, especially in the lower reaches of the river. Early in the Qing dynasty, the region called Jiangnan (that includes the southern part of Jiangsu , the northern part of Zhejiang and Jiangxi , and

3731-651: The affairs of the jianghu . When reclusive figures retired from the jianghu reappear, their return is described as "re-entering the jianghu " ( 重出江湖 ). Another common expression to describe the disappointment, frustration and involuntariness one might have experienced during everyday work goes as "[when] one is in the jianghu , his body (i.e. action) is not up to himself (人在江湖，身不由己)". Yangtze River Yangtze or Yangzi ( English: / ˈ j æ ŋ t s i / or / ˈ j ɑː ŋ t s i / simplified Chinese : 长江 ; traditional Chinese : 長江 ; pinyin : Cháng Jiāng ; lit. 'long river')

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3822-736: The aftermath of the disaster. The 1998 Yangtze River floods were a series of major floods that lasted from middle of June to the beginning of September 1998 along the Yangtze. In the summer of 1998, China experienced massive flooding of parts of the Yangtze River , resulting in 3,704 dead, 15 million homeless and $ 26 billion in economic loss. Other sources report a total loss of 4150 people, and 180 million people were affected. A staggering 25 million acres (100,000 km ) were evacuated, 13.3 million houses were damaged or destroyed. The floods caused $ 26 billion in damages. The 2016 China floods caused US$ 22 billion in damages. Chief justice The chief justice

3913-463: The circles of political power. In this sense, jianghu could be loosely interpreted as the way of life of a hermit. Over the centuries, jianghu gained greater acceptance among the common people and gradually became a term for a sub-society parallel to, and sometimes orthogonal to, mainstream society. This sub-society initially included merchants, craftsmen, beggars and vagabonds, but over time it assimilated bandits, outlaws and gangs who lived "outside

4004-450: The community and prevented any major disturbance, thus saving a lot of work for their associates in the yamen . In return, the runners turn a blind eye to certain jianghu activities that are officially disapproved, the jailers ensure incarcerated jianghu members are not mistreated, and the clerks pass on useful tips to the jianghu community. This reciprocal arrangement allowed their superiors to maintain order in their jurisdiction with

4095-535: The cultural origins of southern China and Japan. Human activity has been verified in the Three Gorges area as far back as 27,000 years ago, and by the 5th millennium BC, the lower Yangtze was a major population center occupied by the Hemudu and Majiabang cultures , both among the earliest cultivators of rice. By the 3rd millennium BC, the successor Liangzhu culture showed evidence of influence from

4186-684: The deadliest natural disasters ever recorded, and almost certainly the deadliest of the 20th century (when pandemics and famines are discounted). Estimates of the total death toll range from 145,000 to between 3.7 million and 4 million. The Yangtze flooded again in 1935 , causing great loss of life. From June to September 1954, the Yangtze River Floods were a series of catastrophic floodings that occurred mostly in Hubei Province. Due to unusually high volume of precipitation as well as an extraordinarily long rainy season in

4277-524: The equivalent position is the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland , and in the courts of Scotland the head of the judiciary of Scotland is the Lord President of the Court of Session , who is also Lord Justice General of Scotland . These three judges are not, though, part of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom , which operates across all three jurisdictions and is headed by the President of

4368-730: The existing law". During the Song and Yuan dynasties, bards and novelists began using the term jianghu in the process of creating literature covering a fictional society of adventurers and rebels who lived not by existing societal laws, but by their own moral principles or extralegal code of conduct. The core of these moral principles encompassed xia ( 俠 ; 侠 ; xiá ; 'chivalry'), yi ( 義 ; 义 ; yì ; 'righteousness'), li ( 禮 ; 礼 ; lǐ ; 'virtue'), zhong ( 忠 ; zhōng ; 'loyalty') and chou ( 仇 ; chóu ; 'vengeance/revenge'). Stories in this genre bloomed and enriched various interpretations of jianghu . At

4459-534: The first 2,600 km (1,600 mi) of its length, the river has fallen more than 5,200 m (17,100 ft). It enters the basin of Sichuan at Yibin . While in the Sichuan basin, it receives several large tributaries, increasing its water volume significantly. It then cuts through Mount Wushan bordering Chongqing and Hubei to create the famous Three Gorges . Eastward of the Three Gorges, Yichang

4550-478: The first foreigner since 1949 to navigate the Yangtze. His months-long journey was documented both in his 2004 book "Kineserne syr med lang tråd" and the TV show "Kløvedal i Kina" by DR . In August 2019, Welsh adventurer Ash Dykes became the first person to complete the 4,000-mile (6,400 km) trek along the course of the river, walking for 352 days from its source to its mouth. Tens of millions of people live in

4641-496: The floodplain of the Yangtze valley, an area that naturally floods every summer and is habitable only because it is protected by river dikes. The floods large enough to overflow the dikes have caused great distress to those who live and farm there. Floods of note include those of 1931, 1954, and 1998. The 1931 Central China floods or the Central China floods of 1931 were a series of floods that are generally considered among

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4732-443: The leader may not be the greatest martial artist in the jianghu ; in other stories, the position of the leader is hereditary. The leader is an arbiter who presides and adjudicates over all inequities and disputes. The leader is a de jure chief justice of the affairs of the jianghu . Members of the jianghu are also expected to keep their distance from any government offices or officials, without necessarily being antagonistic. It

4823-415: The limited resources available and jianghu members greater freedom. Although many jianghu members were Confucian -educated, their attitudes towards the way of life in the jianghu are largely overshadowed by pragmatism. In other words, they feel that Confucian values are to be respected and upheld if they are useful, and to be discarded if they are a hindrance. The basic (spoken and unspoken) norms of

4914-527: The lower Yangtze by annexing Yue, whose royal family was said to have fled south and established the Minyue kingdom in Fujian . Qin was able to unite China by first subduing Ba and Shu on the upper Yangtze in modern Sichuan , giving them a strong base to attack Chu's settlements along the river. The state of Qin conquered the central Yangtze region, the previous heartland of Chu, in 278 BC, and incorporated

5005-558: The middle stretch of the Yangtze River late in the spring of 1954, the river started to rise above its usual level in around late June. Despite efforts to open three important flood gates to alleviate the rising water by diverting it, the flood level continued to rise until it hit the historic high of 44.67 m in Jingzhou, Hubei and 29.73 m in Wuhan. The number of dead from this flood was estimated at 33,000, including those who died of plague in

5096-442: The most powerful states during the later Zhou . In the middle Yangtze, the state of Jing seems to have begun in the upper Han River valley a minor Zhou polity, but it adapted to native culture as it expanded south and east into the Yangtze valley. In the process, it changed its name to Chu . Whether native or nativizing, the Yangtze states held their own against the northern Chinese homeland: some lists credit them with three of

5187-583: The most risky and deadly sections of the three gorges. Archibald John Little took an interest in Upper Yangtze navigation when in 1876, the Chefoo Convention opened Chongqing to consular residence but stipulated that foreign trade might only commence once steamships had succeeded in ascending the river to that point. Little formed the Upper Yangtze Steam Navigation Co., Ltd. and built Kuling but his attempts to take

5278-461: The name fell out of favor due to growing awareness of its lack of any connection to the river's Chinese names and to the irony of its application to such a muddy waterway. Matteo Ricci 's 1615 Latin account included descriptions of the "Ianſu" and "Ianſuchian." The posthumous account's translation of the name as Fils de la Mer ("Son of the Ocean") shows that Ricci, who by the end of his life

5369-540: The normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and the PRC in 1979; since that time, the spelling Yangzi has also been used. The source and upper reaches of the Yangtze are located in ethnic Tibetan areas of Qinghai . In Tibetan, the Tuotuo headwaters are the Machu ( Tibetan : རྨ་ཆུ་ , Wylie : rma-chu , lit. "Red Water"). The Tongtian is the Drichu ( འབྲི་ཆུ་ , ‘Bri Chu’), literally "Water of

5460-409: The northern tip of Jiangxi province, Lake Poyang , the biggest freshwater lake in China, merges into the river. The river then runs through Anhui and Jiangsu , receiving more water from innumerable smaller lakes and rivers, and finally reaches the East China Sea at Shanghai. Four of China's five main freshwater lakes contribute their waters to the Yangtze River. Traditionally, the upstream part of

5551-512: The periods 1911–12, 1927–37, and 1945–49. The Jardine , the first steamship to sail the river, was built for Jardine, Matheson & Co. in 1835. This small vessel was to carry passengers and mail between Lintin Island , Macao , and Huangpu . However, the Chinese, draconian in their application of the rules relating to foreign vessels, were unhappy about a "fire-ship" steaming up the Canton River. The acting Viceroy of Liangguang issued an edict warning that she would be fired on if she attempted

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5642-409: The region into its expanding empire. Qin then used its connections along the Xiang River to expand into Hunan , Jiangxi and Guangdong , setting up military commanderies along the main lines of communication. At the collapse of the Qin Dynasty , these southern commanderies became the independent Nanyue Empire under Zhao Tuo while Chu and Han vied with each other for control of the north. Since

5733-422: The river through Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality is also known as the Chuān Jiāng ( 川江 ) or " Sichuan River ". In Hubei , the river is also called the Jīng Jiāng ( 荆江 ; 荊江 ) or the "Jing River" after Jingzhou , one of the Nine Provinces of ancient China. In Anhui , the river takes on the local name Wǎn Jiāng after the shorthand name for Anhui, wǎn (皖). Yángzǐ Jiāng ( 揚子江 ; 扬子江 ) or

5824-407: The river was difficult. This occurred notably during the Southern and Northern Dynasties , and the Southern Song . Many battles took place along the river, the most famous being the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD during the Three Kingdoms period. The Yangtze was the site of naval battles between the Song dynasty and Jurchen Jin during the Jin–Song wars . In the Battle of Caishi of 1161,

5915-573: The run and by 1915, foreign ships expressed their interest too. Plant was appointed by Chinese Maritime Customs Service as First Senior River Inspector in 1915. In this role, Plant installed navigational marks and established signaling systems. He also wrote Handbook for the Guidance of Shipmasters on the Ichang-Chungking Section of the Yangtze River , a detailed and illustrated account of the Upper Yangtze's currents, rocks, and other hazards with navigational instruction. Plant trained hundreds of Chinese and foreign pilots and issued licenses and worked with

6006-423: The same time, the term jianghu also developed intricate interconnections with gang culture because of outlaws' mutually shared distaste towards governments. The inclusion of martial arts as a feature of jianghu was a recent development in the early 20th century. Novelists started creating a fantasy world of jianghu in which characters are martial artists and in which the characters' enforcement of righteousness

6097-406: The ships of the Jin emperor Wanyan Liang clashed with the Song fleet on the Yangtze. Song soldiers fired bombs of lime and sulfur using trebuchets at the Jurchen warships. The battle was a Song victory that halted the invasion by the Jin. The Battle of Tangdao was another Yangtze naval battle in the same year. Politically, Nanjing was the capital of China several times, although most of

6188-418: The source of the Yangtze since the discovery of the Jari Hill source. These tributaries join and the river then runs eastward through Qinghai (Tsinghai), turning southward down a deep valley at the border of Sichuan (Szechwan) and Tibet to reach Yunnan . In the course of this valley, the river's elevation drops from above 5,000 m (16,000 ft) to less than 1,000 m (3,300 ft). Thus, over

6279-408: The southeastern part of Anhui ) provided 1 ⁄ 3 – 1 ⁄ 2 of the nation's revenues. The Yangtze has long been the backbone of China's inland water transportation system, which remained particularly important for almost two thousand years, until the construction of the national railway network during the 20th century. The Grand Canal connects the lower Yangtze with the major cities of

6370-427: The tankers Mei Ping, Mei An and Mei Hsia, which were collectively destroyed on December 12, 1937, when Japanese warplanes bombed and sank the U.S.S. Panay. One of the Standard Oil captains who survived this attack had served on the Upper River for 14 years. Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong took staged swims in the river in 1956 and 1966 at Wuhan in publicity stunts to demonstrate his health, also starting

6461-401: The term jianghu became closely related to a similar term, wulin ( 武林 ; wǔlín ; moulam ; 'martial forest'), which referred exclusively to a community of martial artists. This fantasy world of jianghu remains as the mainstream definition of jianghu in modern Chinese popular culture, particularly wuxia culture. In more martial arts-centered stories, a common aspect of jianghu

6552-506: The term "Chief Justice of the Supreme Court" is often used unofficially. In some courts, the chief justice has a different title, e.g. President of the supreme court. In other courts, the title of chief justice is used, but the court has a different name, e.g. the Supreme Court of Judicature in colonial (British) Ceylon , the Constitutional Court of South Africa , and the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia (in

6643-486: The term literally means "rivers and lakes", it is broader than that: roads, inns, bandit lairs, deserted temples, and the wilderness are all classic places associated with the jianghu , places far from government interference. Vigilantism is normal and accepted in a way that would be impermissible in a more realistic setting. Different wuxia novels have their own versions of the jianghu and its implications. Authors vary on whether they have one consistent setting or reinvent

6734-755: The time its territory only covered the southeastern part of China, such as the Wu kingdom in the Three Kingdoms period, the Eastern Jin Dynasty , and during the Southern and Northern Dynasties and Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms periods. Only the Ming occupied most parts of China from their capital at Nanjing , though it later moved the capital to Beijing. The ROC capital was located in Nanjing in

6825-693: The trip. On the Jardine's first trial run from Lintin Island the forts on both sides of the Bogue opened fire and she was forced to turn back. The Chinese authorities issued a further warning insisting that the ship leave Chinese waters. The Jardine in any case needed repairs and was sent to Singapore . Subsequently, Lord Palmerston , the Foreign Secretary decided mainly on the "suggestions" of William Jardine to declare war on China. In mid-1840,

6916-669: The upstream Yangtze flowing through deep gorges in western Yunnan is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas , a UNESCO World Heritage Site . Cháng Jiāng ( 长江 ; 長江 ) or " Long River " is the official name for the Yangtze in Mandarin Chinese . However, the Chinese have given different names to the upstream sections of the river up to its confluence with the Min River at Yibin , Sichuan. Jinsha River ("Gold Sands River") refers to

7007-420: The vessel further upriver than Yichang were thwarted by the Chinese authorities who were concerned about the potential loss of transit duties, competition to their native junk trade and physical damage to their crafts caused by steamship wakes. Kuling was sold to China Merchants Steam Navigation Company for lower river service. In 1890, the Chinese government agreed to open Chongqing to foreign trade as long as it

7098-445: The vessel hit a rock and sunk, killing its captain and ending realistic hopes of regular commercial steam service on the Upper Yangtze. In 1908, local Sichuan merchants and their government partnered with Captain Plant to form Sichuan Steam Navigation Company becoming the first successful service between Yichang and Chongqing. Captain Plant designed and commanded its two ships, SS Shutung and SS Shuhun . Other Chinese vessels came onto

7189-733: The water radical 氵 with the homophone 工 (now pronounced gōng , but *kˤoŋ in Old Chinese ). Kong was probably a word in the Austroasiatic language of local peoples such as the Yue . Similar to *krong in Proto-Vietnamese and krung in Mon , all meaning "river", it is related to modern Vietnamese sông (river) and Khmer krung (city on riverside), whence Thai krung (กรุง capital city), not kôngkea (water) which

7280-467: The world that is in use . In mid-2014, the Chinese government announced it was building a multi-tier transport network , comprising railways, roads and airports to create a new economic belt alongside the river. The Yangtze flows through a wide array of ecosystems and is habitat to several endemic and threatened species, including the Chinese alligator , the narrow-ridged finless porpoise , and also

7371-416: The worst and most notorious criminals. If the crimes also violated some of the moral tenets of jianghu , jianghu members may assist the government officials. An interesting aspect is that while senior officials are kept at a distance, jianghu members may freely associate with low-ranking staff such as runners, jailers, or clerks of the magistrates. The jianghu members maintained order among their own in

7462-561: Was acceptable for jianghu members who were respectable members of society (usually gentries owning properties or big businesses) to maintain respectful but formal and passive relationships with the officials, such as paying due taxes and attending local community events. Even then, they are expected to shield any fugitives from the law, or at the least not to turn over fugitives to the officials. Local officials who are savvier would know better than to expect co-operation from jianghu members and would refrain from seeking help except to apprehend

7553-479: Was an early shipping company founded in 1876 in London, initially to trade up the Yangtze River from their Shanghai base with passengers and cargo. Chinese coastal trade started shortly after, and in 1883 a regular service to Australia was initiated. Steamers came late to the upper river, the section stretching from Yichang to Chongqing. Freshets from Himalayan snowmelt created treacherous seasonal currents. But summer

7644-509: Was better navigationally and the three gorges , described as a "150-mile passage which is like the narrow throat of an hourglass," posed hazardous threats of crosscurrents, whirlpools and eddies, creating significant challenges to steamship efforts. Furthermore, Chongqing is 700 – 800 feet above sea level, requiring powerful engines to make the upriver climb. Junk travel accomplished the upriver feat by employing 70–80 trackers, men hitched to hawsers who physically pulled ships upriver through some of

7735-501: Was called Quian ( 江 ) and Quianshui ( 江水 ) by Marco Polo and appeared on the earliest English maps as Kian or Kiam , all recording dialects which preserved forms of the Middle Chinese pronunciation of 江 as Kæwng . By the mid-19th century, these romanizations had standardized as Kiang ; Dajiang , e.g., was rendered as "Ta-Kiang." "Keeang-Koo," "Kyang Kew," "Kian-ku," and related names derived from mistaking

7826-568: Was commandeered by warlords and Shuhun was brought down river to Shanghai for safekeeping. In 1921, when Captain Plant died at sea while returning home to England, a Plant Memorial Fund was established to perpetuate Plant's name and contributions to Upper Yangtze navigation. The largest shipping companies in service, Butterfield & Swire, Jardine Matheson, Standard Oil, Mackenzie & Co., Asiatic Petroleum, Robert Dollar, China Merchants S.N. Co. and British-American Tobacco Co., contributed alongside international friends and Chinese pilots. In 1924,

7917-603: Was fluent in literary Chinese, was introduced to it as the homophonic 洋子江 rather than the usual 揚子江 . Further, although railroads and the Shanghai concessions subsequently turned it into a backwater, Yangzhou was the lower river's principal port for much of the Qing dynasty , directing Liangjiang 's important salt monopoly and connecting the Yangtze with the Grand Canal to Beijing. (That connection also made it one of

8008-632: Was home to sophisticated Neolithic cultures. Later it became the earliest part of the Yangtze valley to be integrated into the North Chinese cultural sphere. (Northern Chinese were active there since the Bronze Age ). In the lower Yangtze, two Yue tribes, the Gouwu in southern Jiangsu and the Yuyue in northern Zhejiang , display increasing Zhou (i.e., North Chinese) influence starting in

8099-541: Was only discovered in the late 20th century and lies in wetlands at 32°36′14″N 94°30′44″E  /  32.60389°N 94.51222°E  / 32.60389; 94.51222 and 5,170 m (16,960 ft) above sea level just southeast of Chadan Township in Zadoi County , Yushu Prefecture , Qinghai. As the historical spiritual source of the Yangtze, the Geladandong source is still commonly referred to as

8190-874: Was restricted to native crafts. In 1895, the Treaty of Shimonoseki provided a provision which opened Chongqing fully to foreign trade. Little took up residence in Chongqing and built Leechuan , to tackle the gorges in 1898. In March Leechuan completed the upriver journey to Chongqing but not without the assistance of trackers. Leechuan was not designed for cargo or passengers and if Little wanted to take his vision one step further, he required an expert pilot. In 1898, Little persuaded Captain Samuel Cornell Plant to come out to China to lend his expertise. Captain Plant had just completed navigation of Persia 's Upper Karun River and took up Little's offer to assess

8281-488: Was the home of the now extinct Yangtze river dolphin (or baiji ) and Chinese paddlefish , as well as the Yangtze sturgeon , which is extinct in the wild . In recent years, the river has suffered from industrial pollution, plastic pollution , agricultural runoff , siltation , and loss of wetland and lakes, which exacerbates seasonal flooding. Some sections of the river are now protected as nature reserves . A stretch of

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