History of Hangzhou
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Bai Juyi(772AD-846AD), the noted realistic poet in Tang Dynasty. His poems disclosed and satirized the guilt of vested interest to the masses; he was not satisfied with the dignitary, and then he was elbowed out from the super stratum society and demoted as an official far from capital. In year 882, he was appointed as cishi(governor)of Hangzhou. At that time he saw farmland in this area often threaten by drought while the official there were unwilling to use the water in west lake to irrigate the cropland. Then, after his great effort he successfully got rid of resistances and censures, he mobilized folk there to built high the bank of West Lake to increase the capacity to hold water and solved the irrigation problem of hundreds of acres farmland between Hangzhou and Haining. He also made the rule stipulating the floodgate for Westlake, big or small, should be never open unless the time for irrigation. Once somewhere making water, restoring needed urgently. He also organized the crowed to dredge six wells excavated by li Bi, a governor of Hangzhou during the reign of Emperor Tang daizong, distributing among Qiantangmen and Yongjinmen. This move great improved the water conditions for drinking. In year 824, Bai Juyi left Hangzhou for the order from the government, the local people voluntarily saw him off,moved by the action, he wrote in his poem Leave the people of Hangzhou: Heavy tax enabled many to poverty, glebe to famine; a lake of water remained, hopes to relieve the harsh situation you suffer. He felt sorry for the heavy tax imposed to people and was upset for his inability to do more for folks. In memory of Bai Juyi, local people changed the name of Baisha causeway which in the southwest of hangzhou city leading to the Gushan, to Baigong causeway, namely, today’s Bai causeway for short.
