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The Grand Canal

© John Walsh

It is not always appreciated that China is one of - if not the - most ethnically diverse countries in the world. As a result of the number and success of the ethnic majority Han peoples, it is easy to ignore the dozens of other ethnic groups that are scattered throughout the country. For years under the Communist system, ethnic differences were systematically downplayed so as to highlight a class-based analysis of Chinese society and also to emphasise the idea that all Chinese were working equally towards the same goals. However, most of the history of the Chinese state has been one of managing different peoples and trying to ensure order over a vast tract of land.

At the beginning of the C7th CE, Sui dynasty emperors presided over an empire that was divided between the fertile rice fields of the south and the arid grasslands of the north. The two portions of the empire appeared to be completely distinct entities and the people natural rivals for the same resources. Previous dynasties had foundered on the difficulties of trying to unite them. There was, therefore, a significant need for a gesture as much as a practical method for unification.

That gesture was provided by the Grand Canal. From about 605-609, a massive conscripted labour force hugely expanded existing canal works to link Luoyang, the eastern capital, to Yangzhou in the Yangzi valley. A second phase of construction extended the canal from Hangzhou in the south up to Beijing in the north. A road was built along the side of the canal and imperial relay stations were also established. The supply system greatly enhanced the power of the emperor and the administrative ability of the bureaucracy.

It became possible to transfer armies from the south to the north and vice versa much come rapidly than ever before, while trade also increased rapidly in volume and value. in the early years after the canal was opened, the main trade good carried along it was silk, with rice playing only a minor role. However, the building of large warehouses at Loyang meant that the rapidly increasing rice growing industry in the lower Yangzi could be stored and used to fuel the huge economic increases in the subsequent centuries.

The canal system played a major role in the development of the empire and parts are still important as waterways today. Marco Polo remarked upon the bridges at Hangzhou and there are various colourful accounts of the dragon boats used by the Chinese on the canals for centuries. Kubilai Khan and his successors as Mongol emperors of the Yuan dynasty recognized the value of the canals and tried to extend them further, although the Chinese considered these efforts to be needlessly extravagant excesses. This period is also notable for the canal system becoming a conduit for disease and the abuses of local officials imposing very high rates of taxation upon traders. Merchants, of course, were still a class of people mostly looked down upon by other classes, especially those who considered themselves to be scholars and government officials. This attitude has undergone something of a readjustment over the last decade or so.

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