Popular Science / 8000 Years Ago Had 189 Granaries How Did Ancients Store Food? -2 EDIT by： www.immy.cn www.immyhitech.com

Popular Science / 8000 Years Ago Had 189 Granaries 

How Did Ancients Store Food? -2

EDIT by： www.immy.cn  www.immyhitech.com 

Near the Luohe River in Xitou Village, Xitou Township, Pucheng County, Shaanxi Province, the WATER TRANSPORT OF GRAIN TO CAPITAL- CAOYUN of Yi" tile was unearthed, revealing that an important granary once existed here. Archaeologists also found an artificial transport channel that has never been recorded in historical documents, from the east of Chengnan Village, Pucheng County, to the east of Chengnan Village, Pucheng County, to join the Wei River near Danjiaya in Weinan County, which is considered to be used to transport food and grain to the capital Chang'an, so "Yiyi WATER TRANSPORT OF GRAIN TO CAPITAL（CAOYUN)" is "the most important food granary of the Beijing Division".

Chang'an, the capital of the Sui Dynasty, was empty, and the grain depot in Gyeonggi was empty, and it was necessary to transport grain from the Kanto region to Chang'an. In the third year of the emperor's reign (583), Emperor Wen ordered Liyang Cang in Weizhou, Heyang Cang in Luozhou, Chang Ping in Shaanzhou, Guangtong Cang in Huazhou, Caoyun Guandong and Su of Fen and Jin, and enriched Chang'an Cangli. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, the warehousing related to Caoyun included Liyang Cang, Heyang Cang, Changping Cang, Guangtong Cang, Luokou Cang, Huiluocang, Hanjiacang, Wujiao Cang, Baiya Cang, Yongfeng Cang, Weinan Cang, etc., all of which were distributed at the intersection of the estuary with convenient transportation or places with convenient water and land transportation;

The Cangcheng ruins are all selected in places near mountains and rivers or with high terrain and convenient water and land transportation, forming a relationship between warehousing and the Grand Canal, Tongji Canal or Yongji Canal, and the water system of the Yellow River. During this period, the large granaries were mostly concentrated in Luoyang and its vicinity, such as Huiluocang, Heyangcang, Luokoucang and Hanjiacang, which shows the status and role of Luoyang as a transportation center.

The Sui Dynasty built the Grand Canal, especially during the period of Emperor Yang, which successively dug the Tongji Canal, Hangou, Yongji Canal and Jiangnan Canal, creating a WATER TRANSPORT OF GRAIN TO CAPITAL（CAOYUN) system centered on Luoyang, communicating the east-west and north-south transportation, thus setting up many Cao Cang along the canal, which can make up for the difference in the transport capacity of different river sections and improve the efficiency of WATER TRANSPORT OF GRAIN TO CAPITAL（CAOYUN). 

The setting of WATER TRANSPORT OF GRAIN TO CAPITAL（CAOYUN) is subordinated to the needs of reality and has the characteristics of the times.

01

In the Sui and Tang dynasties, there were obvious differences between the construction of WATER TRANSPORT OF GRAIN TO CAPITAL（CAOYUN), and most of the WATER TRANSPORT OF GRAIN TO CAPITAL（CAOYUN) in the Sui and early Tang dynasties were built in the city with a warehouse, located in the northern region, and a large amount of grain needed to be transported, so the grain was stored in the form of a large underground warehouse group.

02

After the Anshi Rebellion, the Tang Dynasty relied more deeply on the financial endowment of the southeast, and urgently needed to improve the speed of grain circulation.

03

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the construction of WATER TRANSPORT OF GRAIN TO CAPITAL（CAOYUN) and Cao Cang reached the peak of history, the most perfect, Cao Cang is divided into three categories: Jingtong Warehouse, Water Warehouse, and Small Cashing Warehouse, Jingtong Warehouse is the end point of Cao Grain Storage, and Water Warehouse is the intermediary of Cao Grain Transit, and Small Cao Warehouse is the starting point of Cao Grain payment.

Governance problems encountered in Baocao Transportation

In order to ensure the operation of the storage system, it is not only necessary to set up cao warehouses along the river, but also to ensure the smooth flow of water transportation and save transportation costs. Ancient Chinese governments spent a lot of manpower and material resources to build Caocang and control the river, just to ensure Cao transportation.

Water transport requires navigable rivers to transport grain. Most of China's rivers flow from west to east, with a large difference between the upstream and downstream, and the navigation conditions are not superior. Due to the lack of north-south rivers, it is necessary to build a Grand Canal to communicate the water system and realize the smooth transportation between the north and the south.

During the reign of Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty, the large-scale construction of the canal not only strengthened the east-west transportation, but also realized the north-south communication for the first time. The Yuan Dynasty opened the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal for the first time, laying an important foundation for the transportation of the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The cost of water transportation is lower than that of land transportation, but the excavation of canals and river treatment is not a one-time project, and it also requires long-term special maintenance, and the cost is still high, and there are many problems:

01 It is difficult to excavate

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty suggested that he wear a ramp, nearly 400 miles, and Emperor Wu sent people to make a ramp for more than 500 miles, but it could not be washed and was unsuccessful. Sanmenxia is the throat of the Yellow River, but because of the geographical environment constraints, the past dynasties have either dug the river, or dug the mountain to build bridges, or changed the water, or adopted a roundabout way to avoid the Sanmen natural hazards, etc., and tried their best to sort out and remediate the river, but the actual effect is unsatisfactory.

02  The flow of river water is uneven, and a lot of water is insufficient, shallow and astringent to hinder transportation

In the golden age of WATER TRANSPORT OF GRAIN TO CAPITAL（CAOYUN) in the Tang Dynasty, it was already felt that the water of the Bianhe River was insufficient, which was very unfavorable to shipping. During the Song Dynasty, the riverbed became higher and higher, and the water felt more shallow. In the second year of Jingde of Song Zhenzong (1005), the ships were transported to Kyoto one after another, but because of the shallow water, they had to be transported, resulting in the price of grain in the capital was quite expensive.

03 Sediment is seriously clogged and easy to discard

During the Northern Song Dynasty, the WATER TRANSPORT OF GRAIN TO CAPITAL（CAOYUN) waterway was centered on Kaifeng, including the Bianhe River, the Huainan Canal, the Jiangnan Canal, the Yellow River, the Cai River, the Guangji River and the Yuhe River. In order to ensure the operation of large-scale water transportation, the government invested a huge amount of money to control the various water transportation waterways, and achieved certain results, but after the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty, most of the waterways lost the necessary treatment, and the condition of the river deteriorated, leading to annihilation and abandonment.

04 Shipping contradicts irrigation