中国之忧 · CHINA'S SORROW
The River That Built and Drowned a People — China · The Yellow River
黄河曾每年挟带约 16 亿吨黄土泥沙，居世界河流之冠（现代筑坝后已大减）。这泥沙淤出了中华文明的摇篮，又把河床抬高到决堤——约两千五百年间，它改道二十六次，泛滥约一千五百回。
流经黄土高原时，黄河刮起风成的黄土——那是松软肥沃的土壤，粟作农业与最早的华夏王朝在此扎根。但泥沙沉积在下游河床，把河面抬到两岸平原之上；堤防越筑越高，一旦决口便是浩劫。「中华的骄傲」与「中华的忧患」，原是同一河水。
The Yellow River once carried about 1.6 billion tonnes of yellow loess silt a year — the most of any river on Earth, though modern dams have cut that sharply. That silt built the cradle of Chinese civilization, then raised the riverbed until it burst its banks: over roughly 2,500 years it changed course 26 times and flooded some 1,500.
Crossing the Loess Plateau, the river scours windblown yellow earth — the soft, fertile soil where millet farming and the first Chinese dynasties took root. But all that silt settles on the lower bed, lifting the river above the surrounding plain; behind ever-higher dikes, every breach was a catastrophe. China's Pride and China's Sorrow are the same water.