Hóng Lake

Hong Lake occupies a low-lying part of the Jianghan plain between the Yangtze and Han river systems. Its early modern waters did not have a fixed shoreline matching the later lake. The Mianyang gazetteer of the Jiajing reign distinguished Upper and Lower Hong lakes and described their connections with several streams. During summer floods, the distinction between lakes, rivers and embanked farmland could disappear as water spread across the countryside.

The growth of the lake was closely linked to human alterations of drainage. Geographical research identifies the Ming closure of the Maojiang outlet near Xindi as one important change. Blocked drainage, low ground and embankments separating reclaimed fields from river-borne sediment increased the tendency for those fields to become waterlogged. Floods in the Qing period breached embankments and connected previously separate waters. Hong Lake's history therefore includes the changing balance between cultivation and inundation, as river management helped transform a landscape of channels, small lakes and reclaimed land into a broader expanse of water.