[VOL IV] JUNKS PASSING AN INCLINED PLANE, ON THE IMPERIAL CANAL

JUNKS PASSING AN INCLINED PLANE,ON THE IMPERIAL CANAL

Cover Image: Junks Passing an Inclined Plane on the Imperial Canal The Grand Canal / China / Drawn by T. Allom Engraved by W.Floyd – ALAMY Image ID:2X55NB3

*The Grand Canal is the longest canal or artificial river in the world, Its main artery, known to the Chinese as the Jing–Hang or Beijing–Hangzhou Grand Canal, is reckoned to extend for 1,776 km and is divided into 6 main sections.

Mechanic arts promote the power
Of man, in his bright, inventive hour;
Yet, the greatest works the world has known,
Were th’ offspring of manual labour alone.

R. W.

HOWEVER men of science, or lettered travellers, may depreciate the merit of the Imperial Canal, it is one of the most conspicuous monuments of manual labour in existence. It does not penetrate mountains by means of tunnels, or cross vast vales by aqueducts, but, preferring the level which nature presents, it traverses half the length of the empire, having a breadth and depth that have not been attempted in any other still-water navigation in the world. In some places, its width, at the surface, is a thousand feet, in none is it less than two hundred; and, when a low level is to be crossed, this is effected by embankments, lined with stone walls of mud or granite, enclosing a volume of water that flows with a velocity of about three miles an hour, and always amply supplied. When the canal has to accomplish an ascent of any great length, the projectors appear to have commenced their labours in the middle of the slope, and, by cutting down the higher part, and elevating the lower, reduced the whole admeasurement to the required, or chosen level. These cuttings, however, never exceed fifty feet in depth, nor do the elevations in any instance surpass that height. The control of despot power could alone have compressed so great a quantity of human labour within any reasonable space of time, even in a country where the physical power of millions can be put in operation with considerable facility. But in China, it is found that the greatest works are still executed by the concentration of manual labour, unaided by machinery, except when mechanical power is absolutely necessary to be combined in its operation with human strength.

The descent of the Imperial Canal from the highlands to the low-country, is not effected by locks, but by lengthened stages, or levels, falling like steps, from station to station, the height of the falls ranging from six to ten feet. At these floodgates the water is maintained at the upper level by plants let down upon another, in grooves cut in the side-posts; and two solid abutments, or jetties, enclose the inclined plane, up or down which the junk is to pass. On the jetties are constructed powerful capstans, worked by levers, to which a number of hands can be conveniently applied, and, by these combinations of animal and mechanical power, the largest junks that navigate the canal, with their full cargoes, are raised or lowered. Dexterity is required in guiding the junk through the floodgate, and while passing the plane, an inclination of forty-five degrees: to accomplish these objects, a helmsman, with one ponderous oar, is stationed at the prow, while barge-men, standing on the jetties, let down fenders of skin stuffed with hair, to save the junk from injury, should she touch the side-walls in her rapid transit. As the loss of water is considerable, and the means of checking the discharge both tedious and clumsy, the floodgates are opened at stated hours only; then all the vessels to be passed are ranged in order, and raised or lowered with astonishing rapidity. A toll paid by each laden barge is tributary to the repairs of the moveable dams, and to the compensation of the keepers.

Civilized Europe may smile at this awkward contrivance, and at that obstinate attachment to ancient usages, which influences the government in retaining so laborious a process, rather than substitute our simple locks. But, the innovation would prevent thousands, possibly millions, from earning a scanty subsistence by their attendance at the capstans; and, in the present state of China, the introduction of mechanism, or machinery, would be attended with most distressing results to its crowded population. Between the Yellow River and the Eu-ho, the canal, during ninety miles’ length, is carried across a marshy district, at an elevation above it of about twenty feet. To maintain this level without the aid of locks, or interruption of floodgates, incalculable labour must have been exerted, and immense risks have been encountered—the latter, less successfully than the energy of the projectors deserved. On more than one occasion, the waters burst their enclosure, and inundated the country; on another, an emperor caused a rupture to be made in the banks, that the release might overwhelm a rebel multitude; but, observing no distinction, they flowed over his own army, and over half a million of his most loyal subjects.

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