Few rivers in human history have been so closely tied to a nation’s destiny as the Yellow River—Huang He, the “Mother of China.” Rising in the Tibetan Plateau and meandering nearly 5,500 kilometers to the Bohai Sea, it has nourished farmlands and given rise to early Chinese civilization. Yet the same river has been a source of immense suffering, earning the grim title “China’s Sorrow.” Its floods, often caused by the accumulation of fine loess silt that raises the riverbed above the surrounding plains, have repeatedly transformed prosperity into ruin.
The Yellow River’s flooding history reads like a recurring national tragedy. Ancient Chinese records detail countless inundations and course changes that wiped out towns and dynasties alike. The flood of 1887, near Zhengzhou in Henan Province, was among the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history. The river broke through its embankments, drowning more than 900,000 people and devastating the heart of northern China.
Soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army wade through flooded area of the Yellow River in 1938. Credit: Wikimedia Commons
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