THE GROWTH OF THE YANGTZE DELTA ;;| 



It is commonly supposed to have been built first in the 

 a T ZT ty ' but accordin g to the Eecords of Sungkiang 

 m which the question was fully discussed, the age of the 

 dykes is different in the different parts. Those in Chekiang 

 are the oldest, as some of them certainly date back to the 

 Tang dynasty. The dykes in Kiangsu, on the other hand 

 are much more modern. 



In fact, even in Chekiang, the dykes are not of the 

 same age. The oldest part is that of Haining which was 

 built before A.D. 713 when it was repaired. Next come the 

 Hangchow dykes which were built with difficulty by the 

 famous Price Ch'ienliu (i£ H) in A.D. 910. 



The present dykes at Haiyen and part of P'inghu are 

 comparatively modern, but other and more ancient dykes 

 existed there. It is known that before the 11th century 

 the sea was 95 li from the city of Haiyen, and there were 

 eighteen parallel dykes to protect it. In spite of them the 

 sea advanced steadily so that by the end of 13th century, 

 the coast was only two li from the city. The distance was 

 decreased to half a li in 1370. This rapid advance was only 

 partially stopped by the repeated building of more massive 

 stone dykes, the site of which probably coincides with that 

 of 1381. 



Although the sea dykes in Kiangsu are supposed by 

 some writers to be originated from the T'ang dynasty, the 

 existing dykes date only from A.D. 1472, the site of the old 

 dyke being lost. These in Ch'angshu form an exception, 

 for they were first built in 1754. There has been far less 

 trouble and repair than in Chekiang. 



The dvkes at the Yangtze Cape in the district of Nanhui 

 deserve special mention. See Plates 9 and 10. The inner- 

 most dyke known as Laot'ang was probably built in 1472. 

 Constant addition of sand banks so increased the area 

 under cultivation, that about A.D. 1590 the second dyke was 

 erected to protect the newly established district city, which 

 is situated on the very edge of the first dyke. The distance 

 between the two dvkes is about a mile which roughly re- 

 presents the net gain from 1472 to 1590. The area outside 

 the second dvke has increased very rapidly since, and m 1884 a 

 third dvke was built to enclose 300,000 mou of reclaimed land. 

 Another dvke was built soon afterwards to strengthen the 

 protection.' The average distance between the second and 

 the third dyke is about 5 miles, an enormous mere ase m 

 300 years ! If we divide the distance between the first and 

 the third dvke (i.e. 6 miles) by the number of years from 

 1472 to 1884 it. would give a rate of a mile in 69 years, 



