Jin Fu

Also known as Zi Ziyuan · Han Jun Xiang Huang Qi · Hedao Zongdu

Jin Fu, courtesy name Ziyuan, of the Chinese-martial Bordered Yellow Banner, rose from the banner school to the Grand Secretariat and in 1671 became governor of Anhui. With the Yellow and Huai rivers breaking their banks year after year and grain transport blocked, he was made director-general of river conservancy in 1677, took Chen Huang onto his staff, and in a single day sent up eight memorials proposing dikes that would narrow the river so the current scoured its bed. Over the next decade he closed the breach at Yangjiazhuang and others, strengthened the Gaojia embankment, and dug the Middle Canal so that grain boats could avoid a dangerous 180-li stretch of the Yellow River. In 1688, after disputes with Yu Chenglong over his methods and charges that his land reclamation burdened the people, he was dismissed; reappointed in 1692, he died the same year and received the posthumous name Wenxiang. His memorials were later published as Methods of River Control (Zhihe fanglue).