Changing with the Yellow River: An Environmental History of Hebei, 1048-1128

Ling Zhang explores the environmental consequences of a sequence of disastrous floods that started in 1048, when the lower reach of the Yellow River broke its northern bank, scouring a northward course throughout central Hebei. After examining the changing pattern of the Yellow River's floods during the Northern Song period, Zhang shows how these floods disrupted the local water systems of Hebei. The programs to repair the river ruptures consumed vast amounts of local materials, expediting deforestation; and the quality of Hebei's soil gravely deteriorated, becoming salinized and sandized. At once taking an environmental perspective and examining the efforts of hydraulic specialists, Ling Zhang illuminates Hebei's social and economic history during the Tang-Song transition, especially the degradation of population and agriculture in the eleventh century.