NAVIGATIONAL FLUCTUATIONS OF THE TONGHUI CANAL DURING THE MING DYNASTY

Abstract

The Tonghui Canal served as an essential route for grain transportation between Beijing and Tongzhou, undergoing significant fluctuations in navigability influenced by the dynamics of grain transportation and state governance during the Ming dynasty. This study aims to investigate the reasons behind the recurrent cycles of navigational disruption and restoration of the Tonghui Canal throughout the Ming dynasty. It analyses the fluctuating navigation of the Tonghui Canal within a historical framework, employing a qualitative methodology. It combines historical approaches, including historical-analytical, inductive analysis, and dialectical examination of historical records, thereby illustrating the navigational fluctuations of the Tonghui Canal. While previous scholarship has largely offered descriptive accounts of canal construction and maintenance, this study explicitly addresses the research gap by examining the Tonghui Canal as a dynamic site where political authority, economic interests, and hydraulic technology intersected. The main findings identify three principal elements that contribute to this instability. Initially, fluctuations in Beijing’s political status and economic issues directly influenced the demand for the Tonghui Canal’s grain navigability. Secondly, economic concerns related to the Tonghui Canal generated competition and conflict among diverse stakeholder groups, thus intensifying the instability of its transportation operations. Thirdly, fluctuations in water resources and constraints in hydraulic engineering technology significantly impacted the Tonghui Canal’s navigability and sustainability. By moving beyond narrative exposition, the originality of this study lies in demonstrating how the Tonghui Canal not only reflected technical and environmental challenges but also functioned as a lens to analyse broader questions of Ming state governance, centre–periphery relations, and institutional resilience. This study reconstructs the development trajectory of the Tonghui Canal’s navigation history and analyses sample cases, providing new insights into the interaction between state governance and waterway networks throughout the Ming dynasty.