The answer is yes. After Emperor Zhu Di who came into power by force moved to Beijing, he found out that the Grand Canal had already dried out many times. The dried-out site of the Grand Canal was located in Tai'an, China. As the lifeblood of the empire, if the Grand Canal were to dry out, Emperor Zhu Di's plan to establish Beijing as the capital would be bound to fail.

Therefore, Emperor Zhu Di decided to send Minister Song Li to restore the canal in Tai'an. As expected, Song Li led nearly 170,000 workers and together, they dredged the dried out canal without a hitch.

However, even though Song Li repaired the canal, there was no water. No, you are not mistaken - there was no water, not enough water to flow in the canal. Since this section of the canal was located on the highest point of the entire Grand Canal,which was a full 3 meters above average, it was in fact, an "empty canal."

Song Li

Looking at this "empty canal", it seemed as if the hard work of 170,000 people had all gone down the drain. The dream of connecting the Grand Canal to all parts of China also seemed to be shattered. Song Li was not only facing the demise of a ten-thousand-man project, but also Emperor Zhu Di's knife.

In desperation, Song Li laid down his identity and visited the boatmen of the Grand Canal to seek their advice. A local head boatman, Bai Ying, told Song Li about his plan that he had spent ten years devising.

Bai Ying's plan was very clear: The canal has no water? Then pour water into the canal. Where can we get the water? There is the choppy Wen River not far away. If we bring the water from the river to the top of the Grand Canal, then the problem will be solved.

But, Song Li may go on and ask: how can we bring the water in the Wen River to the Grand Canal?

Bai Ying continued to introduce his plan: we have to build a dam on the Wen River. When the water of the Wen River rushes to the dam, it will be diverted to the newly dug canal, which leads to the top of the Grand Canal. This can divert the water in the Wen River to the Grand Canal, allowing traffic on the canal.

Bai Ying

In short, as long as we build an invincible dam and change the flow of the Wen River, we will succeed in diverting the water of the Wen River to the Grand Canal.

However, it was not so easy to change the flow of the water in the Wen River. At that time, the flow of the Wen River was very large, and the river was extremely wide. Changing the flow of the river would be as difficult as building a dam on the sea and stopping the tides from reaching the shore.

Song Li also clearly knew that it was almost impossible to build a dam to change the flow of the Wen River. But since there was no other way, Song Li and Bai Ying decided to take a chance. They led countless skilled craftsmen, overcame many difficulties, and finally built the dam that changed the direction of the flow.

With the completion of the dam, the Wen River flowed to the highest point of the Grand Canal, known as the canal ridge. Think about the canal ridge as your spine. When the bath water rushes to your spine, it splits the water into two parts.

"This was a remarkable project." -- Inscription from Mao Zedong

Similarly, the ridge of the Grand Canal divides the diverted water into two parts -  70% of it flows to the Grand Canal in the Beijing direction, and 30% flows to the Grand Canal in the Yangzhou direction. As a result, there was a saying "70 percent towards the emperor, and 30 percent down to Jiangnan" . The Grand Canal has since then unimpeded, with its capacity increasing by 10 times.

I have just shared the Grand Canal water plan 600 years ago in the most simple and common way. However, this practical project was far more complicated than what I have described. It can be written as a doctoral dissertation, or even as a book.

Back then, Song Li and Bai Ying did not have excavators or mapping instruments, but only very simple wisdom, basic tools and diligent hands. Therefore, more than 500 years later, Mao Zedong, China's chairman, commented on Dai Village Dam saying, "This was a remarkable project," and called Bai Ying a "hydraulic engineer and farmer".

View of Dai Village Dam

Perhaps words still fail to make you realize how great the Dai Village dam is. Then please come to Tai'an City, stand on the Dai Village dam observatory and overlook the Dai Village Dam. you will marvel at the raging water of the Wen River falling from the 400-meter-high dam, forming three waterfalls. The three waterfalls with irresistible force go into the dam's stilling basin, arousing countless waves and creating loud sounds.

After you have read the story of Song Li and Bai Ying restoring the canal and enjoyed the grand scenery of the Tai'an Dai Village Dam, I think I can quote this to comment on the Grand Canal, "it is a river of transport, a river of culture, a river of ecology, and above all, a river of science and technology."

Lastly, I would also like to say that China's Tai'an City is a member city of the World Historic and Cultural Canal Cities Cooperation Organization (WCCO). In recent years, the organization has been devoted to protecting and inheriting the canal culture that Dai Village Dam has left us. If you have a chance, I would love to visit Dai Village Dam with you!

Chinese：

大家好~我在之前的文章中多次谈到：京杭大运河是世界上最长、最古老的运河，全长1797公里。但是我们有没有思考过：这条流淌了1400年的最长的运河会不会断流呢？

答案是肯定的。凭武力当上皇帝的朱棣迁都北京后，发现京杭大运河早已多次断流。这个大运河断流的地点就在中国泰安。大运河作为帝国命脉，一旦断流，那朱棣以北京为国都的计划必然会破灭。

于是朱棣决定派大臣宋礼去泰安修运河。意料之中的是，宋礼带领近17万工人顺利地疏通了这段断流的运河。

但是，宋礼把运河修好了，却没有水。你没有看错，就是没有水，没有足够的运河水在运河上流动。因为这段运河的地势，是整个京杭大运河最高地方，足足高出3米。所以，宋礼修好的这段运河其实是段“空河”。

看着眼前这段“空河”，仿佛17万人的辛勤努力毫无意义；用京杭大运河连接北京与中国各地的梦想也似乎要破灭。而宋礼面临的不仅是万人工程的破灭，更是皇帝朱棣的屠刀。

无奈之下，宋礼放下身份，拜访大运河的船夫们，求取他们的建议。当地有一个船夫领班叫白英，向宋礼讲出自己思考了十年的方案。

白英的方案思路很清晰：运河没水？那就往河里倒水。水从哪儿来？刚好离不远处有条波涛汹涌的汶河。我们把汶河里的水引到大运河的地势最高处，不就成功了吗。

但是，宋礼可能会继续问：究竟怎么才能把汶河里的水，引到大运河呢？

白英继续他的方案介绍：咱们得在汶河上修一个堤坝。汶河水冲到堤坝上，会把汶河水引到新开凿的河里。而这条新开凿的河，正好通向大运河的地势最高处。这就可以把汶河里的水引到京杭大运河里，大运河即可通航。

简单来说，只要我们能修建一个无坚不摧的堤坝，改变汶河水的流向，引导汶河水到大运河里就成功了。

但是，改变汶河水的流向，没有那么容易的。当时的汶河水流非常大，河面极其宽广。要想改变汶河的流向，就好比在大海上建一个堤坝，阻挡涨潮的海水扑向海岸一样困难。

宋礼也清楚地知道：要修建一个改变汶河水流向的堤坝，是几乎不可能的事情。但没办法，宋礼和石英他们还是放手拼搏了一把。宋礼、石英带领无数的能工巧匠，克服了重重难关，终于建成了能改变水流方向的堤坝。

随着堤坝的建成，汶河水流向了京杭大运河的地势最高处。这个地势最高处，被称为河脊。关于河脊，你想想自己的脊梁。当浴水冲向你的脊梁，你的脊梁会将浴水一分为二地分流开。

同样的，京杭大运河的河脊，将导入进来的汶河水划分为：70%流向大运河的北京方向，30%流向大运河的扬州方向。于是，便有了“七分朝天子，三分下江南”的说法。而京杭大运河从此畅行无阻，运力提升了10倍以上。

我刚刚是用最简洁通俗的方法，把600年前的大运河治水方案分享出来。但是这实际工程远比我讲述的复杂，复杂到几乎可以写成一份博士论文、甚至是一本书。

在那个年代，宋礼和石英没有挖掘机、没有测绘仪，有的只是朴素的智慧、简单的工具和勤奋的双手。以至于，500多年后，中国的国家主席毛泽东曾评价戴村坝“这是一个了不起的工程。”，称白英为“农民水利家”。

也许，光凭文字还不能让你认识到戴村坝的伟大。那就请你走进泰安市，站在戴村坝观景台上远望戴村坝，你一定会惊叹万分：汹涌的汶河水在400米的水坝上奔腾而下，形成三道瀑布。三道瀑布带着不可阻挡的力量闯入大坝的消力池，激起无数浪花，发出洪亮声响。

看完宋礼、白英修运河的故事，欣赏完泰安戴村坝的宏大景象。我觉得可以引用这句话，来评价京杭大运河：它是一条运输的河，文化的河，生态的河，更是一条科技的河。

最后，我还想说中国的泰安市也是世界运河历史文化城市合作组织（WCCO）的会员城市，近年来一直致力于保护、传承戴村坝留给我们的运河文化。若有机会，我也愿与你们一同前往戴村坝！