Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.6, 2013

 

Research into the Issue of the Qing Urban Water Environment: Together with the Interpretation and Application of Relevant Historical Data

(Abstract)

 

Yu Xinzhong

 

Records on Qing urban water pollution are mainly concentrated in such materials as river-dredging literature, newspapers and magazines in modern time, and memoirs kept by foreigners. One type of data reflects Chinese urban water pollution issues; these already existed in the Qing, but worsened in the late Qing. Not only were large rivers turbid and muddy; the urban water environment also left much to be desired. From the 19th century on, water pollution became especially serious, and the problem even emerged in small and medium towns. Other data, however, indicate that the urban water environment was not too bad even in the late Qing; especially compared with modern times, it hardly seems polluted. These historical records cannot be read literally; rather, one needs to place them in their particular time and space and in context. Only in this way can the Qing urban water environment be represented comprehensively and, to the extent possible, "authentically."