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127-605: This event marked the collapse of the Northern Song dynasty that originally controlled most of China proper . Many members of the Song imperial family, most notably Zhao Gou (later Emperor Gaozong), managed to escape to southern China, where they reestablished the Song dynasty (known in historiography as the Southern Song dynasty ) in the new capital, Lin'an (present-day Hangzhou ). This event also greatly contributed to

254-622: A watershed of 795,000 km (307,000 sq mi). Beginning in the Bayan Har Mountains , the river flows generally eastwards before entering the 1,500 km (930 mi) long Ordos Loop, which runs northeast at Gansu through the Ordos Plateau and turns east in Inner Mongolia . The river then turns sharply southwards to form the border between Shanxi and Shaanxi , turns eastwards at its confluence with

381-692: A custom which caused resentment by the Jurchens against the Khitan. Liao Khitan envoys among the Jurchens were treated to guest prostitutes by their Jurchen hosts. Unmarried Jurchen girls and their families hosted the Liao envoys who had sex with the girls. Song envoys among the Jin were similarly entertained by singing girls in Guide, Henan. Song princesses committed suicide to avoid rape or were killed for resisting rape by

508-669: A drastic eastward turn at its confluence with the Wei at Tongguan in Shaanxi . However, the official division for the middle reaches of the river run from Hekou in Togtoh County , Inner Mongolia , to Zhengzhou , Henan . The middle reaches are 1,206 km (749 mi) long, with a basin area of 344,000 square kilometers (133,000 sq mi), 45.7% of the total, with a total elevation drop of 890 m (2,920 ft), an average drop of 0.074%. There are 30 large tributaries along

635-668: A failed attempt to protect his realm's capital from the Later Tang . A similar proposal from the Song engineer Li Chun concerning flooding the lower reaches of the river to protect the central plains from the Khitai was overruled in 1020: the Chanyuan Treaty between the two states had expressly forbidden the Song from establishing new moats or changing river courses. Breaches occurred regardless: one at Henglong in 1034 divided

762-472: A major flood of the regional center Sizhou and Pan's dismissal from court. Subsequently, the river's 1680 flood entirely submerged Sizhou and the nearby Ming Zuling tombs beneath Hongze Lake for centuries until modern irrigation and flood control lowered the water level enough to permit their excavation and the tombs' restoration. Between 1851 and 1855 , the Yellow River returned to the north amid

889-641: A military alliance against the Liao dynasty and, if victorious, divide up the Liao territories. The Jin would get a large portion of the northern land and the Song would get a smaller portion in the southern region called the Sixteen Prefectures . Led by Tong Guan, the Song army marched to the Song-Liao border and was stopped by the defensive forest that the Song had maintained since the reign of Emperor Taizu. In order to pass through, Tong Guan ordered

1016-452: A new channel and inundating most farmland, cities or towns in its path. The traditional Chinese response of building higher and higher levees along the banks sometimes also contributed to the severity of the floods: When flood water did break through the levees, it could no longer drain back into the river bed as it would after a normal flood, as the river bed was sometimes now higher than the surrounding countryside. These changes could cause

1143-478: A north–south extent of about 1,100 km (680 mi). Its total drainage area is about 795,000 square kilometers (307,000 sq mi). According to the China Exploration and Research Society, the source of the Yellow River is at 34°29′31″N 96°20′25″E  /  34.49194°N 96.34028°E  / 34.49194; 96.34028 in the Bayan Har Mountains near the eastern edge of

1270-529: A result, the concept of China proper fell out of favour in China. The Eighteen Provinces of the Qing dynasty still largely exist, but their boundaries have changed. Beijing and Tianjin were eventually split from Hebei (renamed from Zhili), Shanghai from Jiangsu, Chongqing from Sichuan, Ningxia autonomous region from Gansu , and Hainan from Guangdong. Guangxi is now an autonomous region . The provinces that

1397-411: A single language if the criterion of mutual intelligibility is used to classify its subdivisions. In polls the majority of the people of Taiwan call themselves "Taiwanese" only with the rest identifying as "Taiwanese and Chinese" or "Chinese" only. 98% of the people of Taiwan are descendants of immigrants from mainland China since the 1600s, but the inclusion of Taiwan in the definition of China proper,

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1524-747: A standard military tactic during the Warring States period . As the Yellow River valley was the major entryway to the Guanzhong area and the state of Qin from the North China Plain , Qin heavily fortified the Hangu Pass ; it saw numerous battles and was also an important chokepoint protecting the Han capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang . Major flooding in AD 11 is credited with the downfall of

1651-471: Is based on the succession of states principle. According to sinologist Colin Mackerras , foreign governments have generally accepted Chinese claims over its ethnic minority areas, because to redefine a country's territory every time it underwent a change of regime would cause endless instability and warfare. Also, he asks, "if the boundaries of the Qing were considered illegitimate, why should it go back to

1778-401: Is continuously deposited along the bottom of its channel. The sedimentation causes natural dams to slowly accumulate. These subaqueous dams are unpredictable and generally undetectable. Eventually, the enormous amount of water needs to find a new way to the sea, forcing it to take the path of least resistance . When this happens, it bursts out across the flat North China Plain , sometimes taking

1905-568: Is running to the sea with sufficient volume, 1.4 billion tons are carried to the sea per year. One estimate gives 34 kilograms of silt per cubic meter, as opposed to 10 for the Colorado and 1 for the Nile . Its average discharge is said to be 2,110 cubic meters per second (32,000 for the Yangtze), with a maximum of 25,000 and minimum of 245. However, since 1972, it often runs dry before it reaches

2032-518: Is still a controversial subject. See History of Taiwan and Political status of Taiwan for more information. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Government . Yellow River The Yellow River is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi) and

2159-585: The 1332–33 flood or 1344 Yellow River flood during the Yuan dynasty , the 1887 flood during the Qing dynasty which killed anywhere from 900,000 to 2 million people, and a Republic of China era 1931 flood (part of a massive number of floods that year ) that killed 1–4 million people. The cause of the floods is the large amount of fine-grained loess carried by the river from the Loess Plateau , which

2286-479: The 1494 flood . The river flooded many times in the 16th century, including in 1526, 1534, 1558, and 1587. Each flood affected the river's lower course. The 1642 flood was man-made, caused by the attempt of the Ming governor of Kaifeng to use the river to destroy the peasant rebels under Li Zicheng who had been besieging the city for the past six months. He directed his men to break the dikes in an attempt to flood

2413-560: The Bayan Har Mountains , and the Anemaqen ( Amne Machin ) Mountains in Qinghai. The river water is clear and flows steadily. Crystal clear lakes are characteristic of this section. The two main lakes along this section are Lake Gyaring (Zhaling) and Lake Ngoring (Eling), with capacities of 4.7 billion and 10.8 billion m (166 and 381 billion ft ), respectively. At elevations over 4,290 m (14,070 ft) above sea level they are

2540-691: The British Empire , which would encompass vast lands overseas. The same would apply to France proper in contrast to the First French Empire , which Napoleon managed to expand all the way to Moscow . According to Harry Harding , the concept can date back to 1827. But as early as in 1795, William Winterbotham adopted this concept in his book. When describing the Chinese Empire under the Qing dynasty, Winterbotham divided it into three parts: China proper, Chinese Tartary , and

2667-526: The Central Plain and did not administer as part of a regular province of China proper. On the other hand, Taiwan was a new acquisition of the Qing dynasty, and it was placed under the administration of Fujian , one of the provinces of China proper. Eastern Kham in Greater Tibet was added to Sichuan , while much of what now constitutes northern Burma was added to Yunnan . Near the end of

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2794-695: The Chanyuan Treaty of 1005. According to the Twenty-Four Histories , in 1123, three years after the fall of Liao, a Jin general Zhang Jue ( 張覺 ), defected to the Song dynasty. He was governor of the Jin-controlled Pingzhou Prefecture (present-day Zunhua ), which was within the Great Wall , but not counted among the Sixteen Prefectures. Nonetheless, the Song imperial court initially welcomed

2921-462: The Gulf of Bohai , draining a basin of 752,443 square kilometers (290,520 sq mi) which nourishes 140 million people with drinking water and irrigation. The Yellow River passes through seven present-day provinces and two autonomous regions , namely (from west to east) Qinghai , Sichuan , Gansu , Ningxia , Inner Mongolia , Shaanxi , Shanxi , Henan , and Shandong . Major cities along

3048-531: The Late Miocene , Pliocene or Pleistocene , as a result of the Tibetan Plateau being uplifted. The river has long been critical to the development of northern China, and is regarded by scholars as a cradle of civilization . Flooding of the river has also caused much destruction, including multiple floods that have resulted in the deaths of over one million people. Among the deadliest were

3175-840: The Liao dynasty palace by the Jin Jurchens, who had also defeated and conquered the Khitan of the Liao dynasty in Mongolia. The original Chinese wives of the Song princes were confiscated and replaced with Khitan ones. One of the Song Emperor Huizong's sons was given a Khitan consort from the Liao palace and another one of his sons was given a Khitan princess by the Jin at the Jin Supreme capital ( Shangjing , now in Acheng District , Harbin , Heilongjiang province). The Jin Jurchens continued to give new wives to

3302-719: The Second Sino-Japanese War , Nationalist troops under Chiang Kai-shek broke the levees holding back the river near the village of Huayuankou in Henan, causing what has been called by Canadian historian, Diana Lary, a "war-induced natural disaster". The goal of the operation was to stop the advancing Japanese troops by following a strategy of "using water as a substitute for soldiers". The 1938 flood of an area covering 54,000 km (20,800 sq mi) took some 500,000 to 900,000 Chinese lives, along with an unknown number of Japanese soldiers. The flood prevented

3429-705: The Shaanxi loess plateau, it is referred to as 'river, my lord' ( 老爺河 , [lo˦˩˨ i˧ xɤu̯˧] ) in the Jin language. In Mongolian , it is called Šar mörön ( Шар мөрөн 'yellow river') or Khatan gol ( Хатан гол 'queen river'). The river is mentioned in the Kul Tigin stele as the 'green river' ( Old Turkic : yašïl ügüz , 𐰖𐱁𐰞𐰽𐰺𐰍). The Tibetan name is "River of the Peacock" ( Tibetan : རྨ ་ ཆུ , Wylie : rma.chu , THL : Ma chu ; 玛曲 ; 瑪曲 ; Mǎ qǔ ). The Yellow River first formed sometime during

3556-513: The Wei River , and flows across the North China Plain before emptying into the Bohai Sea . The river is named for the yellow color of its water, which comes from the large amount of sediment discharged into the water as the river flows through the Loess Plateau . The Yellow River basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization . According to traditional Chinese historiography ,

3683-553: The Xia dynasty originated on its banks around 2100 BC; Sima Qian 's Shiji ( c.  91 BC ) record that the Xia were founded after the tribes around the Yellow River united to combat the frequent floods in the area. The river has provided fertile soil for agriculture, but since then has flooded and changed course frequently, with one estimate counting 1,593 floods in the 2,540 years between 595 BC and 1946 AD. As such,

3810-535: The Yangtze : one in the western headwaters of the rivers where they are closest to one another, another from the upper reaches of the Han River , and a third using the route of the old Grand Canal . Due to its heavy load of silt the Yellow River is a depositing stream – that is, it deposits part of its carried burden of soil in its bed in stretches where it is flowing slowly. These deposits elevate

3937-643: The Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture . The source tributaries drain into Gyaring Lake and Ngoring Lake on the western edge of Golog Prefecture high in the Bayan Har Mountains of Qinghai . In the Zoige Basin along the boundary with Gansu , the Yellow River loops northwest and then northeast before turning south, creating the " Ordos Loop ", and then flows generally eastward across the North China Plain to

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4064-610: The laundry hall ( 浣衣院 ) and others were taken as slaves by Jin princes and others. Some Song princesses became Jin princes' concubines. Someone bought an "ex-royal" for less than ten ounces of gold. In retaliation for Jurchen women being raped by Khitan men, Khitan women prisoners were given as wives to the Han Chinese Song princes when they were both taken into captivity by the Jurchen. The Song male Han Chinese princes who were captured were given Khitan women to marry from

4191-470: The states tributary to China . He adopted the opinions of Du Halde and Grosier and suspected that the name of "China" came from Qin dynasty . He then said: "China, properly so called,... comprehends from north to south eighteen degrees; its extent from east to west being somewhat less..." However, to introduce China proper, Winterbotham still used the outdated 15-province system of the Ming dynasty , which

4318-474: The "frontier" regions of China where more non-Han ethnic groups and new foreign immigrants (e.g. Russians ) reside, sometimes known as "Outer China". There is no fixed extent for China proper , as many administrative, cultural, and linguistic shifts have occurred in Chinese history . One definition refers to the original area of Chinese civilization, the Central Plain (in the North China Plain ); another to

4445-607: The "people of the Central Kingdom" (dulimba-i gurun; 中國 , Zhongguo) were like the Torghut Mongols, and the "people of the Central Kingdom" referred to the Manchus. While the Qing dynasty used "China" (Zhongguo) to describe non-Han areas, some Han scholar-officials opposed the Qing emperor's use of Zhongguo to refer to non-Han areas, using instead Zhongguo to mark a distinction between the culturally Han areas and

4572-421: The 'Earth Suspended River' . At Kaifeng , Henan, the Yellow River is 10 meters (33 ft) above the ground level. Tributaries of the Yellow River listed from its source to its mouth include: The lower reaches of the Yellow River have no tributaries. The Yellow River is notable for the large amount of silt it carries—1.6 billion tons annually at the point where it descends from the Loess Plateau . If it

4699-483: The 11th century reigns of the Renzong and Shenzong emperors, when the river repeatedly broke its levees and migrated north and west, officials battled over whether expensive measures should be taken to return the river to its former channels. The Shenzong emperor ultimately decreed that the river be allowed to remain in its new course. Traditional flood control techniques made use of levees , revetments to absorb

4826-631: The 18-province system between 1662 and 1667. Using the 15-province system and the name of Kiang-nan Province indicates that the concept of China proper probably had appeared between 1645 and 1662 and this concept may reflect the idea that identifies China as the territory of the former Ming dynasty after the Ming–Qing transition . The concept of "China proper" also appeared before this 1795 book. It can be found in The Gentleman's Magazine , published in 1790, and The Monthly Review , published in 1749. In

4953-530: The 1970s, and until recently, the river frequently did not reach the sea. Since 2003, China has been working on the South–North Water Transfer Project to alleviate the strain on the river's water supply. When the Yellow River was still somewhat clear, it was simply referred to as 'the river' ( 河 , Old Chinese : *gâi ). Observations made at the Yumenkou gorge, where the river leaves

5080-506: The Bayan Har Mountains and ending at Hekou Town ( Togtoh County ), Inner Mongolia just before it turns sharply to the south. This segment has a total length of 3,472 kilometers (2,157 mi) and total basin area of 386,000 square kilometers (149,000 sq mi), 51.4% of the total basin area. Along this length, the elevation of the Yellow River drops 3,496 meters (11,470 ft), with an average grade of 0.10%. The source section flows mainly through pastures, swamps, and knolls between

5207-492: The Eighteen Provinces of the Qing dynasty. There was no direct translation for "China proper " in the Chinese language at the time due to differences in terminology used by the Qing to refer to the regions. Even to today, the expression is controversial among scholars, particularly in mainland China , due to issues pertaining to contemporary territorial claim and ethnic politics. Outer China usually includes

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5334-527: The Han people, the majority ethnic group of China and with the extent of the Chinese languages, an important unifying element of the Han ethnicity. However, Han regions in the present day do not correspond well to the Eighteen Provinces of the Qing dynasty. Much of southwestern China, such as areas in the provinces of Yunnan , Guangxi , and Guizhou , was part of successive dynasties of ethnic Han origin, including

5461-498: The Han people. Chinese civilization developed from a core region in the North China Plain, and expanded outwards over several millennia, conquering and assimilating surrounding peoples, or being conquered and influenced in turn. Some dynasties, such as the Han and Tang dynasties, were particularly expansionist, extending far into Inner Asia , while others, such as the Jin and Song dynasties, were forced to relinquish

5588-663: The Japanese Army from taking Zhengzhou , on the southern bank of the Yellow River, but did not stop them from reaching their goal of capturing Wuhan , which was the temporary seat of the Chinese government and straddles the Yangtze River . In 1954, the People's Republic of China announced its General Plan to Fundamentally Control Yellow River Flood Disasters and Develop Yellow River Waterworks. It sought to address both flooding risks and to convert rainfall-fed fields of

5715-466: The Japanese invasion of Mongolia, Manchuria , and other parts of China. Gu's article sparked a heated debate on the definition and origin of " Zhonghua minzu " (Chinese nation), which contributed to unifying the Chinese people in the Second Sino-Japanese War , and to an extent shaped the later established concept of Zhonghua minzu. Today, China proper is a controversial concept in China itself, since

5842-470: The Jin army arrived. On the other hand, the Jin western army, commanded by Nianhan (Wanyan Zonghan) , was held up near the cities of Datong and Taiyuan from the very beginning and did not make much progress for the rest of the war. In February 1126, the Jin northern army crossed the Yellow River and began the siege of Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng ), the Song capital. Before the invaders surrounded

5969-412: The Jin capital along with the assets. Over 14,000 people, including the Song imperial family, went on this journey. Their entourage – almost all the ministers and generals of the Northern Song dynasty – suffered from illness, dehydration and exhaustion, and many never made it. Upon arrival, each person had to go through a ritual where the person has to be naked and wearing only sheep skins. Contrary to what

6096-615: The Jin demanded them. Gold and silver were given to the Jin in exchange for Jin soldiers sparing the Kaifeng's people from looting, as well as Buddhist and Daoist books, printing blocks, silk bolts, silk thread pharmacy pills, parasols, ox carts, old bronze vessels, Buddhist monks, professors, storytellers, painters, clerks, jade carvers, gardeners, masons, weapons makers, astronomers, musicians, physicians diagrams, maps, headgear worn by consorts, musical instruments, bells and shop, temple and palace lanterns. On 20 March 1127, Jin troops summoned

6223-402: The Jin forces retreated. Lavish parties continued to be held daily at the imperial palace. Emperor Huizong returned to Bianjing from the countryside. Song generals suggested that large numbers of troops ought to be garrisoned along the border of the Yellow River . Emperor Qinzong rejected the proposal by citing that the Jin forces might never come back. Many experienced generals who defended

6350-463: The Jin ruler, Emperor Taizong . Emperor Qinzong sent a coded letter which was sealed in candle wax, inviting them to join Song to form an anti–Jin alliance. The two handed the letter to Emperor Taizong right away. Furious, Emperor Taizong ordered an even bigger army to attack Song. This second campaign would eventually topple the Northern Song dynasty. Since most of the Jin troops had just returned from their first expedition and had not even demobilized,

6477-519: The Jin. China proper China proper , also called Inner China , are terms used primarily in the West in reference to the traditional "core" regions of China centered in the southeast. The term was first used by Westerners during the Manchu -led Qing dynasty to describe the distinction between the historical "Han lands" ( 漢地 )—i.e. regions long dominated by the majority Han population—and

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6604-482: The Jinshan Valley. The abundant hydrodynamic resources stored in this section make it the second most suitable area to build hydroelectric power plants. The famous Hukou Waterfall is in the lower part of this valley on the border of Shanxi and Shaanxi . In the lower reaches, from Zhengzhou to its mouth, a distance of 786 km (488 mi), the river is confined to a levee -lined course as it flows to

6731-476: The Jurchens, many palace women committed suicide. Emperor Taizong feared that the remaining Song troops would launch a counter-offensive to reclaim the capital. Therefore, he set up in Bianjing a puppet government for the lands south of the Yellow River , called Chu ( 楚 ), and ordered all the assets and prisoners to be taken back to the Jin capital – Shangjing (in present-day Harbin ). The captives marched to

6858-511: The Khitan Liao Yelü royal family and Khitan Xiao family (the Liao dynasty consort clan) were also distributed to Jurchen Jin princes as concubines. Jurchen Prince Wanyan Liang married the Khitan women Lady Xiao ( 蕭氏 ), Consort Chen ( 宸妃 ) Lady Yelü ( 耶律氏 ), Consort Li ( 麗妃 ), Consort Rou ( 柔妃 ) and Zhaoyuan ( 昭媛 ). Before the Jurchens overthrew the Khitan, married Jurchen women and Jurchen girls were raped by Liao Khitan envoys as

6985-441: The Manchu language. The Qing emperors equated the lands of the Qing state (including both "China proper" and present day Manchuria, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Tibet and other areas) as "China" in both the Chinese and Manchu languages, defining China as a multiethnic state, rejecting the idea that China only meant Han-populated areas in "China proper", proclaiming that both Han and non-Han peoples were part of "China", using "China" to refer to

7112-423: The Ming dynasty and the Eighteen Provinces of the Qing dynasty. However, these areas were and continue to be populated by various non-Han minority groups, such as the Zhuang , the Miao people , and the Bouyei . Conversely, Han people form the majority in most of Manchuria, much of Inner Mongolia, many areas in Xinjiang and scattered parts of Tibet today, not least due to the expansion of Han settlement encouraged by

7239-447: The Ming dynasty in China proper, the Qing court decided to continue to use the Ming administrative system to rule over former Ming lands, without applying it to other domains under Qing rule, namely Manchuria , Mongolia , Xinjiang , Taiwan and Tibet . The 15 administrative units of the Ming dynasty underwent minor reforms to become the "Eighteen Provinces" ( 一十八行省 ; Yīshíbā Xíngshěng , or 十八省 ; Shíbā Shěng ) of China proper under

7366-423: The North China Plain itself to rivaling regimes founded by peoples from the north. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox Chinese dynasty of ethnic Han origin and the second-last imperial dynasty of China. It governed fifteen administrative entities, which included thirteen provinces ( Chinese : 布政使司 ; pinyin : Bùzhèngshǐ Sī ) and two "directly-governed" areas. After the Manchu-led Qing dynasty succeeded

7493-438: The North China Plain to irrigated agriculture. Construction began in earnest in 1957. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the dry-up trends accelerated, with the Yellow River failing to reach its mouth for an average of approximately 180 days per year in the 1990s. In 1997, the Yellow River did not reach the sea for 226 consecutive days. The Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 mi) and

7620-417: The Qing dynasty maintained until 1662. Although Ming dynasty also had 15 basic local divisions, Winterbotham uses the name of Kiang-nan ( 江南 , Jiāngnán) province, which had been called South Zhili ( 南直隶 , Nán-Zhílì) during the Ming dynasty and was renamed to Kiang-nan (i.e., Jiangnan ) in 1645, the second year after the Qing dynasty replaces the Ming dynasty. This 15-province system was gradually replaced by

7747-523: The Qing dynasty, there was an effort to extend the province system of China proper to the rest of the empire. Taiwan was converted into a separate province in 1885, but was ceded to Japan in 1895. Xinjiang was reorganized into a province in 1884. Manchuria was split into the three provinces of Fengtian , Jilin and Heilongjiang in 1907. There was discussion to do the same in Tibet, Qinghai (Kokonor), Inner Mongolia, and Outer Mongolia, but these proposals were not put to practice, and these areas were outside

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7874-432: The Qing dynasty. It was these eighteen provinces that early Western sources referred to as China proper. There are some minor differences between the extent of Ming China and the extent of the eighteen provinces of Qing China: for example, some parts of Manchuria were Ming possessions belonging to the province of Liaodong (now Liaoning ), which is inside the Ming Great Wall ; however, the Qing conquered it before entering

8001-410: The Qing in official documents, international treaties, and foreign affairs, and the "Chinese language" (Dulimbai gurun i bithe) referred to Chinese, Manchu, and Mongol languages, and the term "Chinese people" ( 中國人 , Zhongguo ren; Manchu: Dulimbai gurun i niyalma) referred to all Han, Manchu, and Mongol subjects of the Qing. When the Qing conquered Dzungaria in 1759 , they proclaimed that the new land

8128-468: The Ryukyus and Japan , who paid tribute to Qing China or were vassal states of China but were not part of China. In the early 20th century, a series of Sino-Japanese conflicts had raised Chinese people's concern for national unity, and the concept of a unified, undivided Chinese nation became more popular among Chinese scholars. On Jan 1, 1939, Gu Jiegang published his article "The term 'China proper' should be abolished immediately", which argued that

8255-419: The Song imperial court. In the end, the Jin took control of all former Liao territories. After the fall of the Liao dynasty, the Song dynasty wanted the Sixteen Prefectures as promised. The Jin dynasty sold the land at a price of 300,000 bolts of silk and 200,000 ounces of silver. This price was considered to be extremely generous because it was the tribute that the Song had been paying to the Liao annually since

8382-408: The Yellow River Basin by the south dike of the Yellow River. The total drop in elevation of the lower reaches is 93.6 m (307 ft), with an average grade of 0.012%. The silts received from the middle reaches form sediments here, elevating the river bed. Excessive sediment deposits have raised the riverbed several meters above the surrounding ground. That is why this part of the river is called

8509-521: The Yellow River has been considered a blessing and a curse throughout history, and has been nicknamed both "China's Pride" and "China's Sorrow". The Yellow River's basin presently has a population of 120 million people, while over 420 million people live in the immediate provinces which rely on it as a water source. The basin comprises 13 percent of China's cultivated land area. The area receives very uneven rainfall, only 2 percent of China's water runoff —water and sediment flow has decreased five-fold since

8636-421: The Yellow River is 3.91 billion tons in 1933. The highest silt concentration level was recorded in 1977 at 920 kg/m (57.4 lb/ft ). These sediments later deposit in the slower lower reaches of the river, elevating the river bed and creating the famous "river above ground". From Hekou to Yumenkou, the river passes through the longest series of continuous valleys on its main course, collectively called

8763-434: The Yellow River shifted completely south of Shandong Peninsula and flowed into the Yellow Sea . By 1194, the mouth of the Huai had been blocked. The buildup of silt deposits was such that even after the Yellow River later shifted its course, the Huai could no longer flow along its historic course, but instead, its water pools into Hongze Lake and then runs southward toward the Yangtze River . A flood in 1344 returned

8890-431: The Yellow River south of Shandong. The Yuan dynasty was waning, and the emperor forced enormous teams to build new embankments for the river. The terrible conditions helped to fuel rebellions that led to the founding of the Ming dynasty . The course changed again in 1391 when the river flooded from Kaifeng to Fengyang in Anhui . It was finally stabilized by the eunuch Li Xing during the public works projects following

9017-465: The army was quickly remobilized. Following precedents set in the previous campaign, the Jin army divided into two groups, Wolibu 's northern army and Nianhan 's western army, even daring to take the same routes again. In September 1126, the two Jin army groups set foot in Song territory. Unlike the previous battle, however, the western army was able to sack Datong within only one month. Cities like Luoyang and Zhengzhou surrendered themselves, clearing

9144-538: The borders of Ming China, in effect refusing to acknowledge the legitimacy of the Qing dynasty. Han Chinese intellectuals gradually embraced the new meaning of "China" and began to recognize it as their homeland. The Qing dynasty referred to the Han-inhabited 18 provinces as "nèidì shíbā shěng" ( 內地十八省 ), which meant the "interior region eighteen provinces", or abbreviated it as "nèidì" ( 內地 ), "interior region" and also as "jùnxiàn" ( 郡县 ), while they referred to

9271-677: The captured Song royals, the grandsons and sons of Song Emperor Huizong after they took away their original Chinese wives. The Jin Jurchens told the Han Chinese Song royals that they were fortunate because the Liao Khitan royals were being treated much worse by the Jurchen than the Song Chinese royals, Jurchen soldiers were given the children of the Liao Khitan Tianzuo Emperor as gifts while the Song Emperor

9398-442: The city in the first siege of Bianjing were removed from the capital and posted elsewhere in the country. Many army groups were decommissioned or sent back to their prefectures of origin. Three months after the first siege of the city, the Jin imperial court sent two ambassadors to Song. The two ambassadors were nobles from the former Liao dynasty . Emperor Qinzong misjudged the situation and believed that they could be turned against

9525-501: The city, Emperor Huizong had abdicated in favor of his eldest son, Emperor Qinzong , and fled to the countryside with his entourage. The Jin northern army faced difficult siege fighting that was not well-suited for cavalry. At the same time, the Jin western army was still held up in the Datong area and could not come to the aid of the northern army. In an effort to end the battle sooner, Emperor Qinzong sent his ninth brother, Zhao Gou to

9652-420: The course in three and repeatedly flooded the northern regions of Dezhou and Bozhou . The Song worked for five years futilely attempting to restore the previous course – using over 35,000 employees, 100,000 conscripts, and 220,000 tons of wood and bamboo in a single year  – before abandoning the project in 1041. The more sluggish river then occasioned a breach at Shanghu that sent

9779-469: The current official paradigm does not contrast the core and the periphery of China. There is no single widely used term corresponding to it in the Chinese language . The separation of China into a "China proper" dominated by Han people and other states for ethnic minorities such as East Turkestan ( Chinese Turkestan ) for the Uyghurs impugns on the legitimacy of China's current territorial borders, which

9906-418: The defection and awarded Zhang Jue an honorific title and land. The Jin dynasty, on the other hand, sent a small army aiming to overturn the defection but was defeated by Zhang Jue's troops. In 1123 or 1124 (records differ), Jin sent diplomats for Zhang Jue and sacked three Song cities. Panicking, Wang Anzhong (a Song general) killed someone who looked like Zhang Jue and sent the head to Jin. The Jin realized it

10033-697: The different peoples. A Manchu language version of a treaty with the Russian Empire concerning criminal jurisdiction over bandits called people from the Qing as "people of the Central Kingdom (Dulimbai Gurun)". In the Manchu official Tulisen 's Manchu language account of his meeting with the Torghut Mongol leader Ayuki Khan , it was mentioned that while the Torghuts were unlike the Russians,

10160-400: The enemy camp for peace talks. The Jin emperor, Emperor Taizong , ordered Zhao Gou taken hostage until the Song imperial court came up with a ransom. Eventually, the Song imperial court came forth with the ransom and the city of Taiyuan was also given to Jin as a gift in good faith. Zhao Gou was released and the Jin northern army started to withdraw. Everything went back to normal as soon as

10287-535: The energy of the water, overflow basins, drainage canals and polders . Treatises on traditional flood control techniques were written by officials such as Pan Jixun , who argued that joining branches of the river increased the water's power and this in turn increased its ability to flush sediment. The difficult situation around the confluence of the Yellow River, the Huai, and the Grand Canal, however, still led to

10414-541: The floods that provoked the Nien and Taiping Rebellions . The 1887 flood has been estimated to have killed between 900,000 and 2 million people, and is the second-worst natural disaster in history (excluding famines and epidemics). The Yellow River more or less adopted its present course during the 1897 flood . The 1931 flood killed an estimated 1,000,000 to 4,000,000, and is the worst natural disaster recorded (excluding famines and epidemics). On 9 June 1938, during

10541-576: The former Emperor Qinzong of Song and the former Khitan Emperor Tianzuo of Liao were forced by the Jin Emperor to play a match of polo against each other. Qinzong was weak and frail, and so fell off his horse, while the Khitan Liao Emperor Tianzuo, even though he was quite old himself, was more familiar with horse-riding and tried to escape on his horse, but was shot and killed by Jurchen archers. Khitan Liao royal princesses from

10668-547: The geographical regions of Dzungaria , Tarim Basin , Gobi Desert , Tibetan Plateau , Yunnan–Guizhou Plateau , and Manchuria . It is not clear when the concept of "China proper" in the Western world appeared. However, it is plausible that historians during the age of empires and the fast-changing borders in the eighteenth century, applied it to distinguish the 18 provinces in China's interior from its frontier territories. This would also apply to Great Britain proper versus

10795-456: The ice dams before they become dangerous. Before modern dams appeared in China, the Yellow River used to be extremely prone to flooding. In the 2,540 years from 595 BC to 1946 AD, the Yellow River has been reckoned to have flooded 1,593 times, shifting its course 26 times noticeably and nine times severely. These floods include some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded. Before modern disaster management, when floods occurred, some of

10922-681: The late Qing dynasty set up have also been kept: Xinjiang became an autonomous region under the People's Republic of China, while the three provinces of Manchuria now have somewhat different borders, with Fengtian renamed as Liaoning. When the Qing dynasty fell, Republican Chinese control of Qing territories, including of those generally considered to be in "China proper", was tenuous, and non-existent in Tibet and Mongolian People's Republic (former Outer Mongolia ) since 1922, which were controlled by governments that declared independence from China. The Republic of China subdivided Inner Mongolia in its time on

11049-522: The late Qing dynasty, the Republic of China, and the People's Republic of China. Ethnic Han is not synonymous with speakers of the Chinese language. Many non-Han ethnicities, such as the Hui and Manchu, are essentially monolingual in the Chinese language, but do not identify as ethnic Han. The Chinese language itself is also a complex entity, and should be described as a family of related languages rather than

11176-623: The main outlet north towards Tianjin in 1048. In 1128, Song troops under the Kaifeng governor Du Chong ( 杜 充 , Dù Chōng , d.   1141) breached the southern dikes of the Yellow River in an effort to stop the advancing Jin army. The resulting major river avulsion allowed the Yellow to capture the Si and other tributaries of the Huai River . For the first time in recorded history,

11303-646: The mainland, although the People's Republic of China later joined Mongol-inhabited territories into a single autonomous region. The PRC joined the Qamdo area into the Tibet area (later the Tibet Autonomous Region ). The Republic of China officially recognized the independence of Mongolia in 1946, which was also acknowledged by the PRC government since its founding in 1949. China proper is often associated with

11430-433: The middle reaches, and the water flow is increased by 43.5% on this stage. The middle reaches contribute 92% of the river's silts. The middle stream of the Yellow River passes through the Loess Plateau , where substantial erosion takes place. The large amount of mud and sand discharged into the river makes the Yellow River the most sediment -laden river in the world. The highest recorded annual level of silts discharged into

11557-426: The modern Loess Plateau , indicated the river changed to muddy sometime between 367 BC and 165 AD, according to chronicles' records. The alternative names 'murky river' ( 濁河 , *drôk-gâi ) and '(muddy) yellow river' ( 黃河 , *gwâŋ-gâi ) were attested in 145 BC and in 429 AD respectively. The name Yellow River fully replaces Murky River by the end of Tang dynasty , for unclear reasons. In

11684-438: The much smaller Ming in preference to the quite extensive Tang dynasty boundaries?" There is no fixed geographical extent for China proper, as it is used to express the contrast between the core and frontier regions of China from multiple perspectives: historical, administrative, cultural, and linguistic. One way of thinking about China proper is to refer to the long-standing territories held by dynasties of China founded by

11811-532: The nineteenth century, the term "China proper" was sometimes used by Chinese officials when they were communicating in foreign languages. For instance, the Qing ambassador to Britain Zeng Jize used it in an English language article, which he published in 1887. "Dulimbai Gurun" is the Manchu name for China ( 中國 , Zhongguo; "Middle Kingdom"). After conquering the Ming, the Qing identified their state as "China" (Zhongguo), and referred to it as "Dulimbai Gurun" in

11938-461: The non-Han areas of China such as the Northeast , Outer Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet as "wàifān" ( 外藩 ) which means "outer feudatories" or "outer vassals", or as "fānbù" ( 藩部 , "feudatory region"). These wàifān were fully subject to and governed by the Qing government and were considered part of China (Zhongguo), unlike wàiguó ( 外國 , "outer/foreign countries") like Korea, Vietnam,

12065-472: The northeast across the North China Plain before emptying into the Bohai Sea . The basin area in this stage is only 23,000 square kilometers (8,900 sq mi), a mere 3% of the total, because few tributaries add to the flow in this stage; nearly all rivers to the south drain into the Huai River , whereas those to the north drain into the Hai River . The Huai River Basin, for example, is separated from

12192-575: The population might initially die from drowning and many more would suffer later from the ensuing famine and spread of diseases. In Chinese mythology , the giant Kua Fu drained the Yellow River and the Wei River to quench his burning thirst as he pursued the Sun. Historical documents from the Spring and Autumn period and Qin dynasty indicate that the Yellow River at that time flowed considerably north of its present course. These accounts show that after

12319-540: The present course of the Yellow River include (from west to east) Lanzhou , Yinchuan , Wuhai , Baotou , Luoyang , Zhengzhou , Kaifeng , and Jinan . The current mouth of the Yellow River is located at Kenli County , Shandong. The river is commonly divided into three stages. These are roughly the northeast of the mountainous Tibetan Plateau , the Ordos Loop and Loess Plateau , and the North China Plain . However, different scholars have different opinions on how

12446-552: The provincial system of China proper when the Qing dynasty fell in 1912. The Provinces of the Qing Dynasty were: Some of the revolutionaries who sought to overthrow Qing rule desired to establish a state independent of the Qing dynasty within the bounds of the Eighteen Provinces, as evinced by their Eighteen-Star Flag . Others favoured the replacement of the entire Qing dynasty by a new republic, as evinced by their Five-Striped Flag. Some revolutionaries, such as Zou Rong , used

12573-441: The rainy season from July to October, when 60% of the annual volume of the river flows. Maximum demand for irrigation is needed between March and June. In order to capture excess water for use when needed and for flood control and electricity generation, several dams have been built, but their expected life is limited due to the high silt load. A proposed South–North Water Transfer Project involves several schemes to divert water from

12700-502: The rebels, but destroyed his own city instead: the flood and the ensuing famine and plague are estimated to have killed 300,000 of the city's previous population of 378,000. The once-prosperous city was nearly abandoned until its rebuilding under the Kangxi Emperor in the Qing dynasty . The question of how aggressively flooding should be controlled, and whether it should be steered back to its original channels when it migrated,

12827-477: The regions along the river are mostly deserts and grasslands, with very few tributaries. The flow is slow. The Hetao Plain has a length of 900 km (560 mi) and width of 30 to 50 km (19 to 31 mi). It is historically the most important irrigation plain along the Yellow River. The Ordos Loop formed by an enormous twist of the Yellow River, beginning at Zhongning County in Ningxia and ending with

12954-534: The return of the descendants of Emperor Taizu to the line of succession, as most of Emperor Taizong's descendants were abducted; Emperor Gaozong himself failed to produce an heir as well. This event is known as the "Jingkang Incident" because it took place during the Jingkang era of the reign of Emperor Qinzong. In 1120, under the Alliance Conducted at Sea , the Jin and Song dynasties agreed to form

13081-455: The river passed Luoyang , it flowed along the border between Shanxi and Henan Provinces, then continued along the border between Hebei and Shandong before emptying into Bohai Bay near present-day Tianjin . Another outlet followed essentially the present course. The river left these paths in 602 BC and shifted several hundred kilometers to the east. Sabotage of dikes, canals, and reservoirs and deliberate flooding of rival states became

13208-693: The river skirts through the high-altitude peat bog known as the Zoigê Wetlands and makes a sharp turn towards the northwest forming the border between Maqu and Zoigê County in Sichuan . Flowing now along the northern edge of Amne Machin, the river reenters Qinghai and gradually curves north towards the Longyang Gorge at Xinghai . The valley section stretches from Longyang Gorge in Qinghai to Qingtong Gorge in Gansu. Steep cliffs line both sides of

13335-585: The river's mouth to shift as much as 480 km (300 mi), sometimes reaching the ocean to the north of the Shandong Peninsula and sometimes to the south. Another historical source of devastating floods is the collapse of upstream ice dams in Inner Mongolia with an accompanying sudden release of vast quantities of impounded water. There have been 11 such major floods in the past century, each causing tremendous loss of life and property. Nowadays, explosives dropped from aircraft are used to break

13462-501: The river. The water bed is narrow and the average drop is large, so the flow in this section is extremely turbulent and fast. There are 20 gorges in this section, the most famous of these being the Longyang , Jishi, Liujia , Bapan, and Qingtong gorges. The flow conditions in this section makes it the best location for hydroelectric plants. The Yellow River exits Qinghai for the second and final time in these gorges and enters Gansu for

13589-423: The riverbed which flows between natural levees in its lower reaches. Should a flood occur, the river may break out of the levees into the surrounding lower flood plain and take a new channel. Historically this has occurred about once every hundred years. In modern times, considerable effort has been made to strengthen levees and control floods. Below is an incomplete list of hydroelectric power stations built on

13716-491: The sea. The low volume is due to increased agricultural irrigation, increased by a factor of five since 1950. Water diverted from the river as of 1999 served 140 million people and irrigated 74,000 km (29,000 sq mi) of land. The Yellow River delta totals 8,000 square kilometers (3,100 square miles). However, with the decrease in silt reaching the sea, it has been reported to be shrinking slightly each year since 1996 through erosion. The highest volume occurs during

13843-471: The second siege had some fatal flaws: On 9 January 1127, Bianjing fell to Jin forces. Emperor Qinzong and his father, Emperor Huizong, were captured by the Jin army. Thus, the Northern Song dynasty came to an end. In exchange for the Jin soldiers sparing Kaifeng's ordinary civilian population, the people of Kaifeng gave them wine, meat, silk and gold. Song officials turned over wine, wine makers, painters, weapons, horses, gold, silver and plain silk bolts after

13970-592: The second time just before Liujia Gorge. Downstream from the Yanguo Gorge, the provincial capital of Lanzhou is built upon the Yellow River's banks. The Yellow River flows northeasterly out of Gansu and into Ningxia before the Qingtong Gorge. After emerging from the Qingtong Gorge, the river comes into a section of vast alluvial plains , the Yinchuan Plain and Hetao Plain . In this section,

14097-434: The short-lived Xin dynasty , and another flood in AD 70 returned the river north of Shandong on essentially its present course. From around the beginning of the 3rd century, the importance of the Hangu Pass was reduced, with the major fortifications and military bases moved upriver to Tongguan . In AD 923, the desperate Later Liang general Duan Ning again broke the dikes, flooding 1,000 square miles (2,600 km ) in

14224-410: The soldiers to clear the forest and continued the expedition into the Liao. The Jin army sacked the Liao capital of Shangjing and ended the Liao dynasty. The Song army in the south, however, could not even penetrate the Liao's defensive positions and the army was defeated by the remaining Liao troops afterwards. This exposed the limitations of the Song army as well as the corruption and inefficiency in

14351-543: The term Zhongguo Benbu ( 中国本部 ) which roughly identifies the Eighteen Provinces. When the Qing dynasty fell, the abdication decree of the Xuantong Emperor bequeathed all the territories of the Qing dynasty to the new Republic of China , and the latter idea was therefore adopted by the new republic as the principle of Five Races Under One Union , with Five Races referring to the Han, Manchus, Mongols, Muslims (Uyghurs, Hui etc.) and Tibetans. The Five-Striped Flag

14478-539: The territories newly acquired by the Qing empire. In the early 19th century, Wei Yuan 's Shengwuji (Military History of the Qing Dynasty) calls the Inner Asian polities guo , while the seventeen provinces of the traditional heartland, that is, "China proper", and three eastern provinces of Manchuria are called " Zhongguo ". Some Ming loyalists of Han ethnicity refused to use Zhongguo to refer to areas outside

14605-693: The three stages are divided. This article mainly adopts the division used by the Yellow River Conservancy Commission . The Yellow River derived sediments have been transported out of the Bohai Sea, all way to the North Yellow Sea and South Yellow Sea, and formed a Distal Depocenter around the Shandong Peninsula. The upper reaches of the Yellow River constitute a segment starting from its source in

14732-445: The two captured emperors to their camps. Awaiting them was a directive from Emperor Taizong that they were to be demoted to commoners, stripped of their ceremonial trappings and Jin troops would compound the imperial palace. According to The Accounts of Jingkang , Jin troops looted the entire imperial library and the decorations in the palace. Jin troops also abducted all the female servants and imperial musicians. The imperial family

14859-649: The two largest plateau freshwater lakes nationwide. A significant amount of land in the Yellow River's source area has been designated as the Sanjiangyuan ("'Three Rivers' Sources") National Nature Reserve , to protect the source region of the Yellow River, the Yangtze , and the Mekong . Flowing east at the eastern edge of the Amne Machin Mountains, the Yellow River enters Maqu County in Gansu . Here,

14986-585: The way to Bianjing. The northern army, having sacked Baoding, Dingzhou and Zhengding in September, regrouped and crossed the Yellow River in November. It then went on a rampage and sacked Qingfeng , Puyang and other satellite cities around Bianjing in December. By the middle of December, the two forces regrouped at Bianjing and the capital was finally besieged. Unlike the first siege, Bianjing's defenses in

15113-424: The widely accepted area covered by "China proper" is not the actual territory of any of the Chinese dynasties . Gu further theorized that " 中国本部 ", the Chinese and Japanese term equal to "China proper" at the time, actually originated from Japan and was translated into "China proper", hence the concept of "China proper" was developed by Japanese people, and it had become a tool to divide Chinese people, making way for

15240-476: Was a ruse and attacked Song again. Zhang Jue was eventually executed in the winter of the same year. This came too late: in the fall of 1125, Emperor Taizong of the Jin dynasty issued an order to launch a full-scale attack on Song territories. The Jin armies invaded Song territory from the west and from the north. When the Jin troops reached the former Song-Liao border in Heibei, since the original defensive forest

15367-559: Was a topic of controversy in the imperial court. Rival cliques made arguments based on budgetary, technical and strategic criteria. Geographer Charles Greer identifies two competing schools of thought on how to control the Yellow River. One, which he identifies as Confucian , advocated containing the river between higher levees, thus maximizing the amount of river basin land that could be cultivated. The other, which he associates with Taoism , favored lower levees separated by as much as 5-10 kilometers. In one particular long-running debate during

15494-413: Was abducted and their residences were looted. All the female prisoners were ordered, on pain of death, to serve the Jin aristocrats no matter what rank in society they had previously held. A Jin prince wanted to marry Emperor Huizong's daughter, Zhao Fujin, who had been another man's wife. Later on, the emperor's concubines were also given to the prince by Emperor Taizong. To avoid captivity and slavery under

15621-546: Was absorbed into "China" (Dulimbai Gurun) in a Manchu language memorial. The Qing expounded on their ideology that they were bringing together the "outer" non-Han peoples like the Manchus, Mongols, Uighurs and Tibetans together with the "inner" Han people, into "one family" united under the Qing state, showing that the diverse subjects of the Qing were all part of one family, the Qing used the phrase "Zhong Wai Yi Jia" ( 中外一家 ) or "Nei Wai Yi Jia" ( 內外一家 , "interior and exterior as one family"), to convey this idea of "unification" of

15748-418: Was adopted as the national flag, and the Republic of China viewed itself as a single unified state encompassing all five regions handed down by the Qing dynasty. The People's Republic of China, which was founded in 1949 and replaced the Republic of China on the Chinese mainland, has continued to claim essentially the same borders, with the only major exception being the recognition of an independent Mongolia . As

15875-531: Was allowed to keep his children while he was in captivity. The Jurchens had sacked and destroyed the Khitan Liao supreme capital in Inner Mongolia and burned the ancestral tombs of the Liao Emperors. Emperor Qinzong of Song would spend the rest of his life in Jin captivity, although his status was eventually raised to nobility and he began to receive a stipend. In 1156, as a humiliation for both men,

16002-532: Was cleared during 1122 expedition, the Jin troops marched through a defenseless border without impediment. The Jin northern army advanced quickly, sacking Qinhuangdao in October 1125, followed Baoding , Dingzhou , Zhengding and Xingtai in January 1126. This army, commanded by Wolibu (Wanyan Zongwang) , did not meet much resistance as most of the Song generals surrendered themselves and their cities as soon as

16129-408: Was previously thought, the ceremony was drawn from ancient Han Chinese customs, drawn together by Jin experts on Han rather than a Jurchen ritual. Empress Zhu committed suicide because she could not bear the humiliation. Men were sold into slavery in exchange for horses with a ratio of ten men for one horse. Women, especially former Song princesses, became palace slaves in a part of the Jin palace called

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