Bai Ying

Also known as Shuishen Laoren

Bai Ying was a villager of Wenshang in Shandong who knew the local rivers and terrain well; the History of Ming calls him 'the old man of Wenshang'. In 1411 the minister of works Song Li was ordered to reopen the Yuan-era Huitong Canal to restore grain shipments to the north, but the channel lacked water. According to Song Li's biography, Song adopted Bai Ying's plan: dams at Gangcheng and Daicun blocked the Wen River and sent its water southwest into the canal, where it divided at Nanwang, the highest point, into northward and southward flows, a split that a local saying put at seven parts to the capital and three to the south. The reopened canal remained a vital section of the Grand Canal for centuries, until grain shipments moved to the sea route in the late Qing. Local records say he died at Dezhou while traveling to the capital with Song Li, and a shrine at the Nanwang dividing works honored him together with Song.