The Cradle of Chinese Civilization-the Yellow River and the Yangtze River中國文明的搖籃——黃河與長江

The Cradle of Chinese Civilization-the Yellow River and the Yangtze River中國文明的搖籃——黃河與長江

The Cradle of Chinese Civilization-the Yellow River and the Yangtze River

中國文明的搖籃——黃河與長江

Source: https://chiculture.org.hk/sc/china-five-thousand-years/1919

Upload date / 上载日期: 2019年11月04日

Translated to English by: Mandarinwow

早期的人类文明都诞生于大河流域，尤其是大河带来的冲积平原上。两河（底格里斯河、幼发拉底河）流域、尼罗河流域、印度河流域，以及中国的黄河、长江流域，孕育了人类历史早期的四大文明。

Early human civilizations were born in large river basins, especially on alluvial plains brought by large rivers. The basins of the two rivers (Tigris and Euphrates), the Nile basin, the Indus basin, and the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins in China gave birth to the four major civilizations of the early human history.

河流流经的地域，土壤肥沃、疏松，适于耕种；河流又可以为农田提供灌溉。为了抵御洪灾、兴修水利，人类必须形成某种社会组织，并逐渐出现分工。由此，文明也就迈开了步伐。此外，河流还为文明的传播提供了便利。黄河和长江这两条中国的母亲河，孕育了几千年的中华文明。

In the area where the river flows, the soil is fertile and loose, suitable for cultivation; the river can also provide irrigation for farmland. In order to resist floods and build water conservancy projects, mankind must form a certain social organization and gradually divide labor. As a result, civilization has taken a step forward. In addition, the river also facilitated the spread of civilization. The Yellow River and the Yangtze River, the two mother rivers of China, have nurtured Chinese civilization for thousands of years.

黄河是中国北部的大河，全长5494公里，发源于青海省，干流流经青海、四川、甘肃、宁夏、内蒙古、陕西、山西、河南、山东9个省区，注入渤海。它流经黄土高原地区，因此夹带了大量的泥沙。

The Yellow River is a large river in northern China with a total length of 5,494 kilometers. It originated in Qinghai Province. Its main stream flows through 9 provinces including Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong, and flows into the Bohai Sea. It flows through the Loess Plateau region, so it entrains a large amount of sediment.

唐代著名诗人李白有一句诗这样写：“君不见黄河之水天上来，奔流到海不复回。”黄河的中上游以山地为主，中下游以平原、丘陵为主。因此在中间形成了峡谷、瀑布等。李白的诗句说的就是黄河上游海拔高，好像水是从天上来的一样。而黄河的下游流经平原地带，水流舒缓，河水中夹带的泥沙淤积下来，使河床高于河岸平地。这就是人们所说的“悬河”或者“地上河”。

The famous poet Li Bai of the Tang Dynasty wrote in a poem like this: “You don’t see the water of the Yellow River coming from the sky, rushing to the sea and never returning.” The middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River are dominated by mountains, and the middle and lower reaches are dominated by plains and hills. Therefore, canyons, waterfalls, etc. are formed in the middle. Li Bai’s poem says that the upper reaches of the Yellow River are high above sea level, as if the water came from the sky. The lower reaches of the Yellow River flows through the plains, the water flow is relaxed, and the sediment entrained in the river water is deposited, making the river bed higher than the flat land on the river bank. This is what people call “hanging river” or “overground river”.

黄河自古以“善淤、善决、善徙”著称于世。在1949年前约3300年的时间里，黄河下游的决堤泛滥近1600次，其中较大的改道有26次。在陕西大荔县东边，曾经有个大庆关。它濒临黄河，由于黄河经常改道，它时而在黄河东边，时而在黄河西边。民间俗语“三十年河东，三十年河西”说的就是这个现象。黄河经常决口、改道，给人民生活带来极大不便，在历史上治理黄河是每个朝代都必须面对的难题。

The Yellow River has been known throughout the world for its “good silt, good decision, and good migration” since ancient times. In about 3300 years before 1949, there were nearly 1,600 floods in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, including 26 major diversions. In the east of Dali County, Shaanxi, there used to be Daqing Pass. It is close to the Yellow River. Because the Yellow River is often diverted, it is sometimes east of the Yellow River and sometimes west of the Yellow River. The folk saying “Hedong for thirty years, Hexi for thirty years” refers to this phenomenon. The Yellow River often breached and changed its course, causing great inconvenience to people’s lives. In history, governing the Yellow River was a difficult problem that every dynasty had to face.

黄河在北，长江在南。位于中国南部的长江是亚洲第一大河，全长6397公里，位居世界第三。长江发源于“世界屋脊”——青藏高原上的通天河，流经青海、四川、西藏、云南、重庆、湖北、湖南、江西、安徽、江苏、上海等11个省区、直辖市。

The Yellow River is in the north and the Yangtze River is in the south. The Yangtze River in southern China is the largest river in Asia with a total length of 6,397 kilometers, ranking third in the world. The Yangtze River originates from the “Roof of the World”—Tongtian River on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. It flows through 11 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities including Qinghai, Sichuan, Tibet, Yunnan, Chongqing, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, and Shanghai.

长江流域孕育了与黄河流域不同的文化。春秋以前，长江流域流行的语言都与中原很不一样。长江流域的荆楚文化信巫尚鬼，富于想象，与北方朴实粗犷的文化很不一样。秦汉以后，南北交流逐渐增加，特别是隋代开凿贯穿黄河、长江的大运河以后，南北经济、文化加速融合。

The Yangtze River Basin has nurtured a different culture from the Yellow River Basin. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, the languages popular in the Yangtze River Basin were very different from those in the Central Plains. The Jingchu culture in the Yangtze River Basin believes in witchcraft and ghosts, and is full of imagination. It is very different from the simple and rough culture in the north. After the Qin and Han dynasties, the North-South exchanges gradually increased, especially after the Sui Dynasty dug the Grand Canal that runs through the Yellow River and the Yangtze River, the economic and cultural integration of the North and the South accelerated.

长江流域也曾发生过许多干旱和洪涝灾害。1990年代以来，长江中下游每年都面临严重的洪水威胁。1990年代开建的三峡工程是中国有史以来最大型的工程项目，功能不仅是防洪、利用长江水力发电，还可以改善长江重庆至宜昌段的航道条件。

Many droughts and floods have also occurred in the Yangtze River Basin. Since the 1990s, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River have been facing serious flood threats every year. The Three Gorges Project, which was built in the 1990s, is the largest engineering project in China’s history. Its function is not only to prevent floods and utilize hydroelectric power generation from the Yangtze River, but also to improve the channel conditions of the Yangtze River from Chongqing to Yichang.