Ling Zhang. The River, the Plain, and the State: An Environmental Drama in Northern Song China, 1048– 1128. Studies in Environment and History Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. 328 pp. $99.99, cloth, ISBN 978-1-107-15598-5. Reviewed by Zhaoqing Han Published on H-Water (April, 2017) Commissioned by Yan Gao (Duke University) The lower reaches of the Yellow River, the river, this book provides a panoramic study on second largest river in China, are characterized the environmental, political, economic, and social by its easy siltation, overflow, and course shifts history of a chaotic period mainly triggered by a since the river’s frst written record in 602 BCE course change of the Yellow River. This is another until 1949 CE. Its courses swept over an area of well-researched regional environmental history 250,000 square kilometers from the east of the of China in recent years. The River, the Plain and Taihang Mountain in the north, entering the Bo‐ the State was recently awarded the George hai Sea with the Hai River, to the east of the Perkins Marsh Prize for the best environmental Yinghe River in the south, merging with the Huai history book of 2017 by the American Society for River before emptying into the Yellow Sea. The lo‐ Environmental History. cal communities of these densely populated areas In addition to the prologue and epilogue, the experienced enormous suffering whenever book consists of two parts. The frst part is com‐ breaches, overflows, and course shifts occurred. posed of four chapters, analyzing the characteris‐ Ling Zhang’s book, The River, the Plain and tics and history of the Yellow River and the Hebei the State: An Environmental Drama in Northern Plain, the Song state’s project to transform Hebei Song China, 1048-1128, tells a complicated story of from a semi-autonomous plain into a dependent the Yellow River, the Hebei Plain, and the North‐ periphery, a variety of crises the Song state was ern Song state, when the lower reaches of the Yel‐ faced with on the eve of the 1048 food, and the low River shifted to the Hebei Plain, a region ad‐ reasons why the Yellow River shifted toward the ministered under the name of “Hebei lu” during Hebei region. The second part also has four chap‐ the Northern Song dynasty and roughly the south‐ ters, dealing with the management of the courses ern half of the modern Hebei Province. Through of the Yellow River on the Hebei Plain, the disas‐ its exploration of the complex relationships with‐ trous impacts of the Yellow River on the life of lo‐ in state and the state’s strategy to tame the Yellow cal individuals and the entire society, agriculture River, the river’s unpredictable reactions to and cultivation, the river system, the soil and forests impacts on the local society and environment, in the area, and people’s adaptation to the disas‐ and the negotiations between regional societies trous situation. and different political factions in managing the H-Net Reviews Through its meticulous analysis, this beauti‐ to Zhang, the “hydraulic mode of production” did fully written book leads to many insights. First, it not function well in the Yellow River-Hebei envi‐ broadens the scope of the study of the history of ronmental complex and the Song state’s diligent the Yellow River. In fact, the historical literature commitments in hydraulics only deteriorated the on the Yellow River is voluminous and Chinese environment and the society. As she puts forth as‐ historical geographers have thoroughly studied sertively, “The state’s desire and efforts to tame the changes of the Yellow River. However, most the river and to create a benign environment for previous studies focus on the changes to the river both the state and the majority of the society led itself and the management of this unruly river.[1] to unexpected consequences, including the con‐ Each breach, overflow, or course shift caused tinuous degradation of environmental systems, huge suffering to the areas the river passed catastrophic experiences to the human society, through, but studies on the impacts of the Yellow and even the dissolution and depletion of state River on both the natural environment and soci‐ power” (p. 182). ety have lagged behind. Although a few recent Another fnding also supports her proposed studies have explored this perspective,[2] more “hydraulic mode of consumption.” Zhang argues work needs to be done to contextualize a Yellow that the shift of the river toward the Hebei Plain River catastrophe within the complexity of hu‐ was not a random and natural event; instead, “it man-environment interactions. Thus, it sets an ex‐ was the state orchestrated ‘slow violence’ through ample for further studies on the history of the Yel‐ a series of rationalization, policy-making, hy‐ low River and other rivers in China. draulic practices and appropriation of Hebei that Second, the book brings up many new ideas caused harm to Hebei” (p. 134). Ironically, while based on the author’s extensive reading and care‐ the Song state painstakingly undertook a multidi‐ ful evaluation of original Chinese historical mensional project to downplay Hebei into a pe‐ sources, modern scientific reports, and secondary riphery area to serve the needs of the state, the in‐ scholarly works. One of the predominant contri‐ trusion of the Yellow River in 1048 turned this re‐ butions of this book is its new theoretical formula gion into a land of massive social destruction, of “hydraulic mode of consumption,” which “pos‐ heavy military burdens, and significant environ‐ tulates that while the state, the society, and the en‐ mental turbulence. To sustain the region’s exis‐ vironment intertwined to produce an eighty-year tence, the empire had no choice but to funnel environmental drama, they were simultaneously tremendous wealth and material resources from burdened, consumed, and even exhausted by other areas into Hebei, and Hebei thus became a their activities and interactions” (p. 181). It poses consumption center and a core area in a most un‐ a challenge to Karl Wittfogel’s theory of “hy‐ expected way. draulic mode of production,” in which the state Third, this book provides revisions to some takes on an ideal hydraulic leadership, diligently previous scholarship through synthetic analysis managing waters, thus providing welfare to its as well as case studies. For example, through an people and building its despotic power through analysis of the butterfly effect of the Yellow Riv‐ the process. It also criticizes the theorization of er’s shifting courses and frequent foods, Zhang two other notions—“hydraulic community” and questions the orderly structure of an autonomous “hydraulic cycle”—which are derived from the region/macroregion that G. William Skinner con‐ empirical critique of Wittfogel’s idea of hydraulic ceptualized for Chinese society.[3] Based on her societies, but have inherited Wittfogel’s logic of careful research of a massive number of histori‐ reasoning and do not deny the mutual constitu‐ cal sources, she also challenges Cheng Ming‐ tion of power and hydraulics (p. 179). According 2 H-Net Reviews sheng’s view of Hebei as one of the richest regions [1]. Cen Zhongmian, Huang He Bianqian Shi in the Song Empire, which was based on his re‐ [A history of changes of the Yellow River] (Beijing: search of tax quotas set up by the central govern‐ Renmin Publishing House, 1957); and Zou Yilin, ment shortly before 1080.[4] Zhang argues that Chunlu Shidi Lungao [Chunlu theses on historical such a view ignores the prevailing environmental geography] (Tianjin: Tianjin Classics Publishing challenges and socioeconomic problems that pre‐ House, 2005), 1-71. vented Hebei and its people from conducting nor‐ [2]. For example, Han Zhaoqing, Huanghai mal agricultural activities as well as the fact that Guanxi Jiqi Yanbian Guocheng Yanjiu [The rela‐ those fgures were only quotas not actual tax pay‐ tionship between the Yellow River and the Huai ments. River and its evolution] (Shanghai: Fudan Univer‐ In summary, with deep sympathies toward sity Press, 1999); and Micah S. Muscolino, The the Hebei people in the Song dynasty, Zhang tries Ecology of War in China: Henan Province, the Yel‐ to travel through space and time to disclose a low River, and Beyond, 1938-1950 (Cambridge: tragedy that occurred to the Yellow River-Hebei Cambridge University Press, 2015). Plain environmental complex and the Song. The [3]. G. William Skinner authored fve essays way she reconsiders the relationship between the in his 1977 edited book to discuss the concept of human and the Yellow River is thought provoking. “physiographic macroregions” and its significance Beginning with a long-term retrospect of the Yel‐ to China’s regionalization. In particular, in his es‐ low River history, everything in this book is inter‐ say “Regional Urbanization in Nineteenth-Century related and some of the effects still linger today. China,” Skinner identified nine macroregions of The last point I stress here is that Zhang’s nineteenth-century China based on watersheds work bridges the gap between Chinese and West‐ and mountain ranges, analyzed the urban cores ern scholarship. Unlike many previous English- and peripheries of each macroregion, and argued language works on China, which tend to neglect that natural resource fows and socioeconomic ex‐ studies by Chinese scholars, Zhang’s book not only changes exceeds the limit of provincial bound‐ refers to a wide range of frst-hand sources writ‐ aries. G. William Skinner, ed., The City in Late Im‐ ten in Chinese but also consults as many as possi‐ perial China (Stanford, CA: Stanford University ble published works by Chinese scholars. Press, 1977), esp. 211-252. However, as Zhang reiterates in the book, her [4].