Why is the Yellow River named Huang? A brief discussion on the origin of the name "Yellow River"

The Yellow River, which has been surging for thousands of years, has nurtured the Chinese nation together with the Yangtze River and has given birth to the ancient and great Chinese civilization. However, the "Yellow River" praised by the descendants of the Chinese nation is not its real name.

1. “He” is the special name for the Yellow River

Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, "He" was the exclusive name for the current Yellow River. Sometimes, in order to indicate its supreme status, it is also called "Dahe" or "Taihe". Other rivers are called "Chuan" or "Shui".

The Book of Songs is a collection of poems that reflects the social life of fifteen states from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the middle of the Spring and Autumn Period (11th to 6th century BC), and most of these fifteen states are located in the middle reaches of the Yellow River today. Among them, "The orioles are singing on the island of the river", "There is a new platform with a river, and the river water is flowing", "The kudzu vines are growing on the bank of the river", etc., present us with a scene of a river with abundant flow, majestic momentum, and lush forests and grass on both sides. The Zuo Zhuan of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Er Ya of the Warring States Period or the Han Dynasty also called the Yellow River "He", and the Shanhai Jing from the Warring States Period to the early Han Dynasty called the Yellow River "Heshui". The Records of the Grand Historian during the reign of Emperor Wu of the Western Han Dynasty did not call it "Yellow River", but called it "Dahe".

The Hukou Waterfall of the Yellow River photographed in Yan'an City, Shaanxi Province (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)

2. The name “Yellow River” appears for the first time

The "yellow" in the Yellow River actually refers to mud and sand. Ancient books record that "70% of the water in the Yellow River is mud", and 90% of the mud and sand comes from the Loess Plateau. Its turbidity first appeared in the Zhou Dynasty, which was closely related to the large-scale agricultural development carried out by the Zhou people in the Jing River Basin.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, with the development of productivity, iron farm tools gradually became dominant in agricultural production, which accelerated the development of the Loess Plateau and had a huge impact on the natural ecological environment. Therefore, there was a saying in Zuo Zhuan: "How long can people live if they wait for the river to become clear?" This means that people's life span is very short and it is impossible to wait for the Yellow River to become clear, indicating that the Yellow River had begun to become turbid during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. By the Han Dynasty, the Yellow River had become very turbid, and people called it the "turbid river." In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Ban Gu's "Book of Han·Geography" described the turbidity of the Yellow River and the word "Yellow River" appeared for the first time. The explanation of "Changshan County·Yuanshi County" reads: "Yuanshi, the Ju River first receives the Qiongquan Valley of the West Mountain in Zhongqiu, and flows east to Tangyang into the Yellow River." The "Book of Han" says that Emperor Gaozu of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, conferred titles on his meritorious officials: "The 'Oath of Conferring Titles' says 'Let the Yellow River be like a belt, and Mount Tai be like a sharp (grindstone), so that the country will last forever, and the Miao descendants will also be included'."

The Yellow River photographed in Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)

Since the "Book of Han", from the Tang Dynasty in the sixth century AD to the Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, the word "Yellow River" has appeared in a large number of works by poets of various dynasties, such as "The sun sets behind the mountains, the Yellow River flows into the sea." "The water of the Yellow River comes from the sky, rushing to the sea and never returns." "The nine-bend Yellow River has thousands of miles of sand, and the waves are washed and blown by the wind from the end of the world." Li Bai alone has dozens of poems with the word "Yellow River", and Su Shi and others have even written poems specifically about the Yellow River.

3. The earliest location where the Yellow River turned yellow

Historically, it may have started from the Loess Plateau where Qin and Jin were located. As Qin and Jin fought for supremacy during the Spring and Autumn Period, Hedong and Hexi developed northward along the Yellow River, and the population gradually increased, and the scope of activities became larger. After the Qin and Han Dynasties, the Hetao was incorporated into the territory, and the Yellow River section between the Longdong Plateau and the Longxi Plateau may have become turbid.

According to the "Book of Han·Geography", the earliest Yellow River appeared in "Changshan County·Yuanshi County", Changshan is Hengshan, and Changshan County is Hengshan County. This Hengshan is the "Former Northern Mountain" and "Ancient Hengshan" located in Quyang, Hebei (Ancient Hengshan is today's Damao Mountain in Baoding City, Hebei Province). Today, the Yellow River bids farewell to its old course and no longer flows to the sea (Bohai Sea) in Hebei Province to the north of the river, but splits the entire Henan Province to the south of the river and flows into the Yellow Sea from the top of Kunlun.

The Yellow River photographed in Jiyuan City, Henan Province (Photo source: Xinhua News Agency)

4. Factors causing the Yellow River to turn yellow

4.1 Natural factors

Soil erosion on the Loess Plateau and silt accumulation in the lower reaches of the Yellow River have been occurring since prehistoric geological periods, and have been increasingly affected by human activities since posthistoric times.

4.2 Human Factors

Building palaces. From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Tang Dynasty, the capitals of the dynasties were almost all located in the lower reaches of the middle reaches of the Yellow River today. The rulers at that time built grand buildings to establish their prestige and pursued a scale that would surpass that of later generations. Those who wanted to replace the previous dynasty often burned them down and rebuilt palaces, repeating the cycle. Therefore, wood, which was the main building material in ancient times, was consumed in great quantities and concentrated in the upper and middle sections of the middle reaches of the river for water transportation. This section is today's "Loess Plateau". With the disappearance of a large number of forests, the loose plateau soil eventually lost a large amount of water into the river. Agricultural development.

As the population grew rapidly, the original arable land could not meet the demand. People destroyed forests and reclaimed wasteland without restraint. The primitive development methods of slash-and-burn farming and hunting caused large-scale destruction of the original forests. A large amount of loess flowed into the Yellow River, causing the Yellow River to turn yellow. In addition, the large-scale immigration and garrisoning of the border to defend against the Xiongnu during the Qin and Han dynasties also exacerbated the destruction of vegetation on the Loess Plateau. Frequent wars. For thousands of years, countless wars have caused great damage to the forest resources in the Yellow River Basin, leaving large areas of land exposed, and the soil flowing into the river under the erosion of wind and rain. Forest fires. Fires caused by natural or human factors are a huge threat to forests. In ancient times, once a forest fire started, it could only wait for nature to extinguish it. A large number of trees were burned, resulting in soil erosion.

5. The Yellow River became clear in history

The Yellow River has been documented to have become clear 43 times in history, an average of once every 40 years. The earliest clearing of the Yellow River occurred in the ninth year of Emperor Guangwu of the Eastern Han Dynasty (33 AD), when the "river water in the plains was clear" (present-day Dezhou, Shandong). This was closely related to the shift of the political and economic center of the Central Plains Dynasty from the Guanzhong region to the Luoyang Basin, and the restoration of the environment in the northwest region. During the reign of Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty, the Yellow River actually "cleared" three times in a row, which can be called an eternal wonder. The reason is that during this period, the Central Plains Dynasty, which had always been an agricultural country, lost control of the northwest region, and the ecology of the northwest region was restored. The longest clearing of the Yellow River was in 1727, which lasted for more than 2,000 miles and more than 20 days.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Party and the State took the management of the Yellow River as a major task in governing the country and prospering the nation. After several generations of hard work, great achievements have been made in the management of the Yellow River. Especially in recent years, "the Yellow River is clear" has become a common phenomenon, and the duration is far longer than recorded, which is rare in history. The river has returned to "clear flow" from top to bottom.