The Yellow River or Huang He is the third-longest river in Asia, following the Yangtze River and

Yenisei River, and the sixth-longest in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi).[1]
Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of western China, it flows through
nine provinces, and it empties into the Bohai Sea near the city of Dongying in Shandong
province. The Yellow River basin has an eastwest extent of about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 mi)
and a northsouth extent of about 1,100 km (680 mi). Its total basin area is about 742,443 square
kilometers (286,659 sq mi).
The Yellow River is called "the cradle of Chinese civilization", because its basin was the
birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, and it was the most prosperous region in early Chinese
history. However, frequent devastating floods and course changes produced by the continual
elevation of the river bed (due in part to manmade erosion upstream), sometimes above the level
of its surrounding farm fields, has also earned it the unenviable names China's Sorrow and
Scourge of the Sons of Han.[2]

Early Chinese literature including the Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu dating to the Warring States period
(475 221 BC) refers to the Yellow River as simply (Old Chinese: *C.gaj[3]), a character
that has come to mean "river" in modern usage. The first appearance of the name
(Old Chinese: *N-ka C.gaj; Middle Chinese: Hwang Ha[3]) is in the Book of Han written
during the Western Han dynasty (206 BC AD 9). The adjective "yellow" describes the perennial
color of the muddy water in the lower course of the river, which arises from soil (loess) being
carried downstream.
One of its older Mongolian names was the "Black River",[4] because the river runs clear before it
enters the Loess Plateau, but the current name of the river among Inner Mongolians is atan Gol
( , "Queen River").[5] In Mongolia itself, it is simply called the ar Mrn ( ,
"Yellow River").
In Qinghai, the river's Tibetan name is "River of the Peacock" (Tibetan:
, t , p M Q).

, Ma Chu; Chinese: s

The name Hwang Ho in English is the Postal Map romanization of the river's Mandarin name.
Historical documents from the Spring and Autumn period[11] and Qin Dynasty[12] indicate that
the Yellow River at that time flowed considerably north of its present course. These accounts
show that after the river passed Luoyang, it flowed along the border between Shanxi and Henan
Provinces, then continued along the border between Hebei and Shandong before emptying into
Bohai Bay near present-day Tianjin. Another outlet followed essentially the present course.[9]
The river left these paths in 602 BC[11] and shifted completely south of the Shandong Peninsula.
[9] Sabotage of dikes, canals, and reservoirs and deliberate flooding of rival states became a
standard military tactic during the Warring States period.[13] Major flooding in AD 11 is credited
with the downfall of the short-lived Xin dynasty, and another flood in AD 70 returned the river
north of Shandong on essentially its present course.[9]
Medieval times[edit]
In 923 a desperate Later Liang general Duan Ning again broke the dikes, flooding 1,000 square
miles (2,600 km2) in a failed attempt to protect the Later Liang capital from the Later Tang. A
similar proposal from the Song engineer Li Chun concerning flooding the lower reaches of the
river to protect the central plains from the Khitai was overruled in 1020: the Treaty of Shanyuan

between the two states had expressly forbidden the Song from establishing new moats or
changing river courses.[14]
Breaches occurred regardless: one at Henglong in 1034 divided the course in three and
repeatedly flooded the northern regions of Dezhou and Bozhou.[14] The Song worked for five
years futilely attempting to restore the previous course using over 35,000 employees, 100,000
conscripts, and 220,000 tons of wood and bamboo in a single year[14] before abandoning the
project in 1041. The more sluggish river then occasioned a breach at Shanghu that sent the main
outlet north towards Tianjin in 1048[9] and by 1194 blocked the mouth of the Huai River.[15] The
buildup of silt deposits was such that even after the Yellow River later shifted its course, the Huai
was no longer able to flow along its historic one. Instead, its water pools into Hongze Lake and
then runs southward toward the Yangtze River.[citation needed]
A flood in 1344 returned the Yellow River south of Shandong. The Yuan dynasty was waning, and
the emperor forced enormous teams to build new embankments for the river. The terrible
conditions helped fuel rebellions that led to the founding of the Ming dynasty.[7] The course
changed again in 1391 when the river flooded from Kaifeng to Fengyang in Anhui. It was finally
stabilized by the eunuch Li Xing during the public works projects following the 1494 flood.[16]
The river flooded many times in the 16th century, including in 1526, 1534, 1558, and 1587. Each
flood affected the river's lower course.[16]
The 1642 flood was man-made, caused by the attempt of the Ming governor of Kaifeng to use the
river to destroy the peasant rebels under Li Zicheng who had been besieging the city for the past
six months.[17] He directed his men to break the dikes in an attempt to flood the rebels, but
destroyed his own city instead: the flood and the ensuing famine and plague are estimated to
have killed 300,000 of the city's previous population of 378,000.[18] The once-prosperous city
was nearly abandoned until its rebuilding under the Kangxi Emperor in the Qing Dynasty.
According to the China Exploration and Research Society, the source of the Yellow River is at 34
29' 31.1" N, 96 20' 24.6" E in the Bayan Har Mountains near the eastern edge of the Yushu
Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. The source tributuaries drain into Gyaring Lake and Ngoring
Lake on the western edge of Golog Prefecture high in the Bayan Har Mountains of Qinghai. In the
Zoige Basin along the boundary with Gansu, the Yellow River loops northwest and then northeast
before turning south, creating the "Ordos Loop", and then flows generally eastward across the
North China Plain to the Gulf of Bohai, draining a basin of 752,443 square kilometers (290,520 sq
mi) which nourishes 140 million people with drinking water and irrigation.[22]
The Yellow River passes through seven present-day provinces and two autonomous regions,
namely (from west to east) Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan,
and Shandong. Major cities along the present course of the Yellow River include (from west to
east) Lanzhou, Yinchuan, Wuhai, Baotou, Luoyang, Zhengzhou, Kaifeng, and Jinan. The current
mouth of the Yellow River is located at Kenli County, Shandong.
The river is commonly divided into three stages. These are roughly the northeast of the Tibetan
Plateau, the Ordos Loop and the North China Plain. However, different scholars have different
opinions on how the three stages are divided.[citation needed] This article adopts the division
used by the Yellow River Conservancy Commission.[