fie;lds of ginger just planted ; ridged and furrowed for drainage 



Showing the amount of hand labor performed to secure the winter crop, following two 



of rice 



measured their strength against such a 

 Titan racing past their homes above the 

 level of their fields, confined only be- 

 tween walls of their own construction? 

 While they have not always succeeded in 

 controlling the river, they have never 

 failed to try again. In 1877 this river 

 broke its banks, inundating a vast area, 

 bringing death to a million people. 

 Again, as late as 1898, 1,500 villages to 

 the northeast of Tsinan and a much 



larger area to the southwest of the same 

 city were devastated by it, and it is such 

 events as these which have won for the 

 river the names "China's Sorrow," "The 

 Ungovernable," and "The Scourge of the 

 Sons of Han." 



The building of the Grand Canal ap- 

 pears to have been a comparatively re- 

 cent event in Chinese history. The mid- 

 dle section is said to have been con- 

 structed about the sixth century B. C. ; 



940 



