Bai Ying Revives the Spring

# Introduction to Bai Ying Diverts the Springs

Bai Ying Diverts the Springs is a million-character historical novel about the life of Bai Ying, a waterworks genius among the common people in the early Ming dynasty. Spanning the years 1363 to 1419, it offers a panoramic view of the political upheavals and canal civilization of the Hongwu and Yongle eras.

Born into a poor family of stonemasons in Wenshang, Bai Ying lost his father in a flood as a child and vowed to tame the waters. He studied waterworks under a reclusive jinshi scholar from the previous dynasty, then surveyed the entire course of the Wen River on foot, uncovering the key secret of the Nanwang watershed along the Huitong Canal. During his twenty-one years as a canal “veteran,” he traveled across the mountains of central and southern Shandong and surveyed all seventy-two springs, gradually developing a complete plan to divert the Wen River to supply the canal and draw on the springs to replenish its source.

During the Yongle era, Song Li, Minister of Works, failed to control the waters using Yuan methods. Traveling incognito to seek advice, he encountered Bai Ying. Overcoming objections, Bai Ying came out of seclusion to lead the project. He surmounted technical challenges, official obstruction, and resistance from local gentry, completing the Daicun Dam, the Little Wen River, and the Nanwang water-diversion hub. This achieved the hydraulic miracle of “six parts flowing north to the Son of Heaven, four parts south to carry imperial grain,” finally solving the Grand Canal's grain-transport problems.

After the project was completed, Bai Ying politely declined the court's rewards. Worn out by years of labor, he fell ill and died on his way back to the capital. Later generations honored him as the “God of Eternal Relief.” His expertise in water management influenced grain transport on the canals for five centuries under the Ming and Qing dynasties, and his spirit lives on in modern waterworks. Blending rigorous hydraulic engineering with human warmth, the novel celebrates the national spirit of “staying true to one's purpose, shouldering responsibility, and seeking no glory after success.”