The Relationship between
the Puyang River in China
and the Kashio River
There are a large number of similarities between the Kashio River and
the
Puyang River (浦陽江) in Zhejiang Province of China.
The Japanese version of the Enoshima
Engi
mentions the Puyang River in the passage 浦陽洞底の湄，馬頭龍目の阪，常山の路似たり。
([Enoshima and its environs] "resembled the embankments/dikes
of the Puyang River and Dongting Lake, the dams/dikes of Matou
and Longmu, and the road to Changshan").(1, 1b)
The Puyang River has its headwaters in Pujiang County (浦江县), a
mountainous, scenic area in central Zhejiang. The river runs
south to north partially along the border of Xiaoshan county (蕭山縣)
south
of Hangzhou. Currently, it runs into the Qiantang River (錢塘江) via the
West River.
However, before the mid-15th century, the river flowed to the east,
emptying into an estuary and then into Hangzhou
Bay.(2)
Like the Kashio River, the Puyang is a meandering river
that
often
overflowed. Dikes along the river often broke, flooding the
countryside. "The frequent flooding of the Puyang River has led people
to call it
the
Little Yellow River, a reference to the north China river denoted
'China's sorrow'." (3)
Here is a description of the Puyang River from the Xiaoshan County
Gazette.
《蕭
山縣誌》p284) 集雨面積大，河道迂迴曲折，河床坡降小，又受錢江潮頂托，洪水時極易氾濫。("The Puyang River has
a large catchment area, the course of the river is
winding, the descent of the river bed slopes in narrow channels, and
its flow runs up against the incoming tide
of the Qiantang Estuary. Thus the river overflows easily when it is
swollen with water.")
This passage could describe the Kashio as well as the Puyang. It thus
provides a hint of what may have happened in the lower reaches
of the Kashio River at times.
Picture the scene: heavy rains in the
Kashio River's hilly catchment area at a time when the tide was coming
into
the former estuary (now silted up, the former estuary is the
residential area currently
known as Kugenuma 鵠沼). The flood waters coming down from the river
would have rushed up against the incoming tide in the estuary. This is
a situation that
may have caused some of the frequent flooding and drownings mentioned
in the Enoshima Engi.
Note also the parallel with the ancient Sarasvati River. SM Ramasamy
writes: "The river Sarasvati originally flowed southwest and met the
Arabian Sea or the Great Rann of Kutch. The Great Rann of Kutch, the
Little Rann of Kutch and also the Cambay region are know for their
aggressive tidal activities and storm surges (Hashimi et al. 1978; Nair
et al. 1982). The Great Rann of Kutch is a narrow fault-bounded, 100 to
120 km long graben (Figs. 2 and 3) and hence accelerated tidal
activities can be anticipated" (4).
Lastly, let us take a bird's-eye view of the current and former courses
of the Puyang River.
As can be seen, the Puyang River used to run through a large floodplain
to the north of Shaoxing.
Now let us take a closer look.
Again, the parallels are clear. As can be seen from the vestiges of the
course that remain, the Puyang
River used to snake through its floodplain much like its counterpart in
Japan, the Kashio River (and like the Sarasvati). Note the terminal
lakes in the area. The
presence of terminal lakes in the Puyang River also is consistent with
Kokei's description of the large, swampy terminal lake in the (Kashio)
river in
Japan.
1. 洞底 in the passage may be a
copyist's mistake for 洞庭, both of which are read the same
in Japanese.
1b. Matou (馬頭; 马头山) and Changshan (常山) are place-names associated with
the Puyang River. Both Matoushan (Horsehead Hill) and Nanshan (南山;
South Hill) are still known as scenic sites along the river. Matoushan
is thought to resemble a horse's head. Nanshan boasts unusual rock
formations. Changshan is located in Quzhou
(衢
州) in the west of Zhejiang. There is a Longmushan (龙目山) in Changxing
County (长兴县).
2. See "The Setting" (page 141) of Local Elites in Transition, R.
Keith Schoppa. Map
5.1 on page 142 shows the course of the Puyang River before the
mid-15th century.
3. Pg. 216, Song Full of Tears: Nine
Centuries of Chinese Life Around Xiang Lake, R. Keith Schoppa,
Westview Press, 2002, ISBN: 0813340209
4. SM Ramasamy, Neotectonic Controls on the Migration of River
Sarasvati, Memoir Geological
Society of India, No. 42, Vedic
Sarasvati, 1999, pg. 160.
Return to The
Setting
