Bie Gong Weir

Bie Gong Weir

Bie Gong Weir is a cultural relic protection unit of Henan Province.

The former site of Bie Gong Weir is located six kilometers north of Xixia County in Shimudi Village, Shuanglong Town.

Bie Gong Weir was originally built by Bie Tingfang, a leader of the local self-governance movement in southern Henan. In 1928, during the Republic of China era, Bie Tingfang adopted the ideas of the village governance faction and shifted from solely operating a militia to comprehensively implementing local self-governance centered on “self-defense, self-governance, and self-sufficiency.” As one of the fruitful outcomes of Bie Tingfang’s local self-governance efforts, Bie Gong Weir, also known as Shilong Weir, was initially called Qiao Family Weir (also referred to as Sanhe Weir). It is said that during the Song Dynasty, Fan Zhongyan, while serving as an official in Dengzhou, once conducted a survey here and attempted to dig a canal but was unsuccessful. There was also a Shaanxi merchant who made his fortune in trade at Xixia Pass and wanted to invest in digging a canal to divert water from the Guan River to irrigate the lands around Beitang and Wuliqiao. However, due to construction difficulties and other factors, this too was not successful. Nevertheless, the local people never gave up on the desire to improve their production conditions. Unable to dig a major canal, they built a series of small weirs along the edges of the irrigation area, from Shimen to Chengguan.

In 1929, Bie Tingfang, commander of the local militia, after multiple on-site inspections, decided to build a large stone dam at Yanggoukou and dig a canal to divert water for irrigation. At the time, many senior figures within the self-governance movement and members of society held opposing views, and many advised him to abandon the idea of building the weir. However, Bie Tingfang had his own unique perspective. He believed that the failures of Fan Zhongyan in the Song Dynasty and the Shaanxi merchant were mainly due to the canal route being too long, the river being too rapid, the rocks being too hard and the slopes too steep, making construction difficult, coupled with a lack of understanding of water conservancy and no experience in river management. Going against popular opinion, he made the bold decision to proceed with building the weir and digging the canal.

The construction of Shilong Weir did not involve formal surveying or design by professional hydraulic engineers. All arrangements were personally overseen by Bie Tingfang. Drawing on the dam-building experience of the local people, he personally determined the dam line and identified the locations for the water inlet, drainage channel, and spillway. The canal started construction at the Shimen headworks. Bie Tingfang personally directed operations on-site. After taking the advice of Li Jingzhi, then secretary of the Nanyang Special Administrative Region, he arranged for Gao Fuwu, director of the Henan Provincial Water Resources Bureau, to send personnel for surveying and design. Construction followed the design plans, bringing water up to Lianhuasi Ridge, where a small hydroelectric power station was built, making Xixia Pass one of the first places in Henan Province to generate electricity using water power. The dam stretches 300 meters from the Shimen inlet gate, is entirely built of stone, and is slightly curved, sloping diagonally to the opposite bank. Its winding form resembles a giant dragon, hence the name “Shilong Weir” (Stone Dragon Weir). After the completion of Shilong Weir and its irrigation channels, the irrigated area reached over 7,000 mu, including 3,000 mu of paddy fields. The Guan River has high-quality water, and the basin soil is fertile. The rice grown here, known as “Jiuyuehan” (September Cold), is soft, sweet, and fragrant, and was honored as tribute rice, sold far and wide across the Central Plains.

Between 1937 and 1938, after the full connection of Shilong Weir, Bie Tingfang built three new cement-brick-style ancient buildings along the weir, as well as hillside pavilions and gardens. At the same time, he implemented very standardized maintenance and management of Shilong Weir, issuing weir regulations, promoting new rice-growing methods, and having various clauses engraved on stone slabs and inlaid on the walls of the Shimen Flower Hall. Though the wording was crude, the meaning was clear and easy to understand, and most of these regulations are still in use today. In 1938, Zhu Jiuying, the commissioner of Nanyang’s Sixth District, visited the site and, seeing the 100-zhang-long dam that had transformed dozens of hectares of land and irrigated 7,000 mu, personally inscribed the three characters “Bie Gong Weir” on a stele to commemorate its achievements.

After the liberation, the weir was renovated, with the stone water-retaining dam replaced by a concrete dam 520 meters long. In 1954, a new main canal and the Lianhua-Tumen branch canal were dug. The total length of the east-west main canals was 30 kilometers, with 23 branch canals and over 300 structures such as aqueducts and sluice gates, irrigating 29,000 mu of land. The irrigation area covered four towns: Chengguan, Wuliqiao, Huiche, and Shuanglong. Bie Gong Weir and its architectural complex represent the largest local water conservancy project in Henan Province and hold significant preservation value. They provide valuable reference and scientific basis for contemporary water conservancy projects, the rational and efficient use of water resources, scientific farming, and the management and maintenance of water conservancy infrastructure.

Shimudi Village: Shimudi Village…… More details about Shimudi Village++

Further Reading:

· Third Batch of Cultural Relic Protection Units of Henan Province