Ximen Bao

Ximen Bao (西门豹) was a minister in ancient China and consultants of Wen of Wei ( s) (魏文侯) ( 445 BC -396 BC) during the time of the Warring States Period ( 481 BC - 221 BC). He is also known as an early rationalist, the inhumane punishment of sacrificing people to river deities in the state of Wei had by law to abolish. Although the earlier statesman Sunshu Ao is regarded as China's first hydraulic engineer (who had dammed a river to a large reservoir for irrigation), Ximen Bao is nonetheless the first engineer in China, has created a large irrigation canal system.

Hydraulic

Ximen Bao was at the time of his life, then famous for its great work in hydraulic engineering during the 5th century BC He organized an extensive diversion of the river Zhang He (漳河), which ended earlier in the Huang He at Anyang. The new course, which the river took after the diversion project, led the river further downstream at the bend near the present city of Tianjin in the Huang He. The Zhang River originates in the mountains of Shanxi, flows in a south-easterly direction, and then increased the risk of flooding on the Huang He. Ultimately, the main purpose of this major engineering project, a large agricultural region in Henei in the left lower basin of the Huang He was to irrigate by supplied it with a channel with a natural gradient.

The work on the canal system began sometime between 403 BC and 387 BC, when Marquis Wen and his successor Marquis Wu in the state of Wei ruled. Because many setbacks (including some temporary resistance to the forced labor service) it was not completed until a century later, during the time of Wen's grandson, King Xiang (襄王) ( 319 BC -296 BC). During this time the Wei engineer 's work led Shi Chi Ximen Bao end.

In honor of the diversion project of the river Zhang, the population made ​​a folk song about it, as recorded in the historical work of the historian Ban Gu in the later Han Dynasty.

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