Yanzhi River (Tianshengqiao River)

Overview

The Yanzhi River, also called the Tianshengqiao River, lies in Honglan Subdistrict, Lishui District. It is a canal cut after Zhu Yuanzhang made Nanjing his capital, to carry grain between the Nanjing region and the two Zhe. The channel runs north to the mouth of the Qinhuai and south to Honglan Wharf on Shijiu Lake, 7.5 km in all (Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, 24 July 2019). It takes its name from Yanzhi Hill (Lishui District People's Government website, district overview page). During the cutting a natural rock stayed spanning the cliffs on either side, and this is Tiansheng Bridge.

Basin: the channel crosses both the Qinhuai and the Shijiu Lake systems from north to south. The district government's geographical position page records that the divide between the two systems runs east to west across the middle of the district and that Tianshengqiao Sluice is the north-south marker of the divide; the same page gives the reach above the sluice as 6.3 km, in the Shijiu Lake system, and the reach below it as 8.7 km, in the Qinhuai system. The channel flows north into the Qinhuai overall, and this entry takes the Qinhuai for its basin; the Shijiu Lake attachment of the upper reach and the lengths of the two reaches are set out under Open questions.

Its subdistrict is Honglan: the provincial list of protected cultural sites records the Yanzhi River and Tiansheng Bridge as within the Tiansheng Bridge scenic area, Honglan Subdistrict, and the provincial culture and tourism department's article says Honglan Town, Lishui District, Nanjing, Honglan Town being the name in use at the time of writing and Honglan Subdistrict since 2018.

Formation and change

There are two accounts of when the cutting was done and how long it took. The Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism gives "cut in the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, 1393", with hundreds of thousands of labourers organised, over ten years of work and fifteen li of channel cut by fire and water; the Nanjing Municipal Water Bureau gives Li Xin, Marquis of Chongshan, in charge, with more than 750,000 labourers and over 1,400 officials at the peak, from the twenty-fourth year of Hongwu, 1391, taking nearly five years to complete. The two differ both on the year, 1393 against 1391, and on the time taken, over ten years against nearly five, and are shown side by side without a choice being made.

The gazetteer record: juan 1 of the Lishui County Gazetteer (Kangxi edition), in its county chronicle, records under the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu that "in the eighth month the Emperor ordered Li Xin, Marquis of Chongshan, to Lishui, to superintend the cutting of a channel through the district's western territory. The stone cut came away red in colour, and the channel was for the time called Yanzhi". This is the earliest account of the cutting known to this library, and its year agrees with the 1393 of the provincial department of culture and tourism, so the two corroborate each other. A later entry in the same juan, for the first year of Yongle, records the setting up of the Guangtou Town sluice and dam and notes that "the Yanzhi River and the waters of Shijiu Lake do not enter the Yangtze but race and pour away", which is a record that supporting sluices and dams were still being built after the channel was made, and may be read alongside the account of "over ten years". The gazetteer adds to the entry on the cutting the words "it is said that Li Xin took a woman of the people by force and the Emperor put him to death"; the book itself prefixes this with "it is said", so it is rumour, and this site records only that the words exist, not as fact.

Purpose: the channel links the Qinhuai with Shijiu Lake and was used to carry grain (Nanjing Municipal Water Bureau).

Modern improvement: on 29 December 2020 the Honglan lock and six bridges including the Maojiacun bridge, part of the Qinhuai River navigation improvement works between Shijiu Lake in Lishui and Pengfu in Jiangning, passed completion acceptance (Jiangsu Provincial Department of Transport, 7 January 2021). "Shijiu Lake in Lishui to Pengfu in Jiangning" is the name of a contract section and is repeated as it stands.

No first-tier source has been found for silting, dredging or realignment of the Yanzhi River, so nothing is written here.

Landscape and visiting

Tiansheng Bridge is the only surviving bridge in China formed by a natural rock spanning a man-made canal, and the only one in the country (Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism). In the Jiangsu provincial list of protected cultural sites the Yanzhi River and Tiansheng Bridge are one protected unit at two points, and this site does not split them into two units with separate levels; no batch or year of listing has been found, so only the status is recorded.

The scenic area: the Tiansheng Bridge scenic area is a 4A tourist attraction, a national water conservancy scenic area, part of the Grand Canal National Cultural Park and a Jiangsu provincial protected cultural site (Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, September 2026). The 4A rating was announced by the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, Su Wen Lü Fa [2019] No. 197, according to the Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism's list of A-rated scenic areas current to August 2026, and this entry's scenic grade rests on that. The Grand Canal National Cultural Park is a planning and construction designation, and this site does not write it into a statement about the fabric of the heritage itself.

Visiting information: tickets, opening times, boat sailings and transport change from season to season, and this site does not fix figures; before travelling, readers should go to the official notices of the scenic area and the district culture and tourism department. This entry was checked to September 2026.

Open questions

• Two accounts of the year and duration of the cutting: the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism gives 1393, the twenty-sixth year of Hongwu, and over ten years; the Nanjing Municipal Water Bureau gives 1391, the twenty-fourth year, and nearly five years. They may refer respectively to the main works and to the whole undertaking including its supporting works, but the sources available make no such distinction, and this site sets them side by side without drawing a conclusion on their behalf.
• Three figures for the length: the provincial culture and tourism department gives 7.5 km in all; the district government's geographical position page gives 6.3 km above Tianshengqiao Sluice and 8.7 km below it. The latter are lengths of reaches, not of the whole channel, and neither may stand in for the other.
• Basin: the channel crosses two systems, with Tianshengqiao Sluice as the divide. This entry takes the Qinhuai, since the channel flows north into it, while the upper reach belongs to the Shijiu Lake system; the two stand together and are not merged into a single statement that the river belongs to the Qinhuai.
• No batch or year has been found for the provincial protection: the provincial list gives no batch, the seventh batch of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Government does not include this site, and the documents for the other batches have not been read here, so neither batch nor year is given. Public descriptions state that the Yanzhi River and Tiansheng Bridge were listed as a provincially protected site in 1995; the year comes from a commercial travel platform and no provincial gazette has been traced, so it is noted here for reference only and is not written into the entry's fields.
• Two accounts of the name: the gazetteer ties it to the colour of the stone, "the stone cut came away red in colour, and the channel was for the time called Yanzhi", while the district overview ties it to the hill name, "it takes its name from lying at Yanzhi Hill". The two point to opposite orders of naming. This site records only the source of the second account and leaves the ordering open; a separate entry treats the question.
• No first-tier source has been found for the surviving length of the channel and its condition, for records of dredging through the dynasties, or for the relation between the upstream sluices and dams and the channel, so nothing is written about them.
• The figures for the scale of the works, hundreds of thousands of labourers, 750,000 at the peak and over 1,400 officials, come from the provincial culture and tourism department and the municipal water bureau respectively, and neither corroborates the other; they are cited with their sources.
• Honglan Town is the name used in the provincial culture and tourism department's article and is now Honglan Subdistrict; this entry's subdistrict follows the present division.
• This entry was formed by merging the Lishui History site entry "Yanzhi River" into it; that entry drew additionally on the Kangxi Lishui County Gazetteer, and carried an account of the cutting together with a report of the listing year from outside the provincial list. Both covered one and the same waterway, so under the one-place-one-entry principle it is now kept here and the history site entry is no longer published on its own. The title has been changed from "Yanzhi River" to "Yanzhi River (Tianshengqiao River)", an alternative name note kept when merging.