1034 Yellow River flood

The AD 1034 Yellow River flood was a natural disaster along China's Yellow River originating in a burst fascine at Henglong in the territory of the Northern Song dynasty. It divided the Yellow River from its previous course into three more northerly channels meeting the Chihe, the You, and the Jin.

As the new courses repeatedly flooded the rich northern regions of Dezhou and Bozhou, the Song worked for five years futilely attempting to restore the previous course – using over 35,000 employees, 100,000 conscripts, and 220,000 tons of wood and bamboo in a single year – before abandoning the project in 1041.

The flood was recorded as reducing the revenues of the northern provinces by half, damage that had not been repaired before the even-larger 1048 flood at Shanghu again devastated the area.

References

• Elvin, Mark & Liu Cuirong (eds.) Studies in Environment and History: Sediments of Time: Environment and Society in Chinese History, pp. 555 ff. Cambridge Uni. Press, 1998. ISBN 0-521-56381-X. Accessed 15 Oct. 2011.