The excavation and evolution of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal can be roughly divided into three stages:

First canal

The embryonic period of the canal

In the 10th year of the Spring and Autumn Period (486 BC), Fu Cha, the king of Wu, dug a ditch in Yangzhou to connect the Yangtze River and Huaihe River.

During the Warring States Period, Dagou (from then on, Yuanyang County, Henan Province diverted the Yellow River from north to south and injected it into Putianze, east of Zhengzhou) and the Great Watershed were dug one after another, thus connecting the Yangtze River, Huaihe River, Big River and Economic River.

The second tube

Mainly refers to the canal system of Sui Dynasty.

Taking Luoyang in the east as the center, Tongji Canal was dug in the first year of Daye (605) to directly communicate the traffic between the Yellow River and Huaihe River. And rebuild Yangou and Jiangnan Canal.

In three years, Yongji Canal was dug, leading to Zhuo Jun in the north. Coupled with the Guangtong Canal dug in 584 AD, a number of canal systems were formed.

When Emperor Yang Di (Yang Guang) arrived:

It is said that in order to visit the beautiful flowers in Yangzhou and transport the grain from the south to the north, Emperor Yang dug a canal from the Jinghuai section to the south of the Yangtze River, with a total length of more than 2,000 kilometers.

In the Yuan Dynasty:

The capital of the Yuan Dynasty was Dadu (now Beijing), and canals had to be dug to transport grain from the south to the north. For this reason, three sections of rivers have been dug successively, and the transverse canal of the Sui Dynasty with Luoyang as the center has been built into a longitudinal grand canal with Dadu as the center and Hangzhou as the south.

The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is divided into seven sections according to its geographical location:

Tongzhou District of Beijing is called Tonghui River, with a total length of 82 kilometers. Tongzhou District to Tianjin is called the North Canal, which is 186 km long. Tianjin Linqing is called the South Canal, with a total length of 400 kilometers. In the Qing Dynasty, the forest to Taierzhuang was called Lu Canal, which was about 500 kilometers long. From Taizhuang to Huaiyin, it is called Zhongqu, which is 186 km long. The canal from Huaiyin to Guazhou is about180km long; Zhenjiang to Hangzhou is called Jiangnan Canal, which is about 330 kilometers long. Yangzhou is a famous canal city. When Yang Di dug a canal in Yangzhou, Yangzhou became the hub of north-south traffic. Because of water transportation, it has become one of the most prosperous areas in China.

The Sui Dynasty was divided into four parts:

(1) Yongji Canal (2) Tongji Canal (3) Hangou (4) Jiangnan River Channel

The third tube.

Mainly refers to the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

The key areas excavated in the Yuan Dynasty were from Sishui to Weihe River in Shandong Province and mostly to Tongzhou.

In the 18th year (128 1), Jeju River was opened, with a total length of 75km from Rencheng (Jining) to procedural Anshan (Dongping). In 26 AD (1289), there was a Huitong River, which ran from the southwest of Anshi to Linqing, with a total length of 125 km.

In 29 AD (1292), Huihe River opened, leading Pingshui River in Xichang, Beijing into Dadoucheng, and east to Baihe River in Tongzhou, with a length of 25 kilometers. In the 30th year of Yuan Dynasty (1293), the Grand Canal was fully navigable, and the waterwheel could reach the metropolis from Hangzhou, which became the predecessor of the present Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.

The whole process of the Yuan Dynasty can be divided into seven parts:

(1) Tonghui River; (2) North Canal; (3) South Canal; (4) Lu Canal; (5) the middle canal; (6) Li Yunhe; (7) Jiangnan Canal.

The Foundation of Maintaining Yuan Canal in Ming and Qing Dynasties;

In the Ming Dynasty, Shandong silted up and dredged again at the end of Yuan Dynasty. From the mid-Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, from Xiazhen (now Weishan County) to Qingjiangpu (now Huaiyin) in Shandong Province, canal projects such as Kaimeikou Canal, Tongji New River and Zhonghe River were carried out to separate the Yellow River from the Yellow River, and the Moon River was excavated between the Yangtze River and Huaihe River to separate the lake from the water.

The above is for reference only.