OF all the natural elements - defined by the ancient Chinese as gold, wood, water, fire and soil - water is the most important in Chinese philosophy and literature and it has always been vital to the national economy.

　　For example, when Chinese people talk about the unsuitability of a new environment, they would say they "feel uneasy about the water... " When they talk about a "nice woman", they would praise her as being "as tender as water" or as a "woman made of water". Countless poets and writers have also exclaimed that "time flows away like water".

　　Water has had high status in the minds of the Chinese people for a long time.

　　Mental inspiration

　　The most famous Chinese philosopher, Confucius, has many descriptions of water in his writings. To him, water seemed like a fountain of knowledge and a symbol of life.

　　His saying: "The kind people love mountains while the intelligent ones love rivers" has been handed down from generation to generation.

　　A mountain, which is fixed and permanent, is thought to be like rock-firm people who never bend. Water is more flexible and like intelligent people who know how to adapt in the best way to a changing environment.

　　Confucius also compared time to water as when he stood on the banks of a roaring river and said: "Time flows just like that!" He compared intangible time to visible water. He also meant to convey a regret that life can so easily flow away.

　　Water in the eyes of Lao Zi (the founder of Taoism) was even more anthropomorphic. He used to exclaim with admiration: "The most moral article in the world is water. Water moistens everything but is never over-bearing - it always finds its own level."

　　So he concluded that while the most "tender" element was water, it was also the strongest.

　　Lao Zi's comment on "tender" water provided inspiration to strategists in later periods.

　　In Chinese literature, water is used as a romantic metaphor and is always related to beautiful women. In the "Shi Jing" (the Book of Songs - a collection of 305 songs from the 11th century BC to the 5th century BC), there are many poems about rivers which also refer to love affairs.

　　Ancient poets sang of the beauty of standing in a river surrounded by countryside covered with grass and frost. They compared the birds flying over the river to young lovers.

　　Economic blood

　　But in the economic development of the nation, water has meant both disaster and prosperity to the Chinese people. Across the broad mass of China are several big rivers and the Chinese have always had to fight floods.

　　For example, the stories of Da Yu's struggle against floods in ancient times is still widely known in China. More than 4,000 years ago, the Yellow River broke its banks in a series of huge floods which damaged crops and killed many people. Da Yu, a leader of the Xia nationality, spent about 15 years fighting the floods.

　　He won high praise for his unremitting efforts and one story tells how he refused even to visit his home during his 15 years of flood-fighting work even though his job took him near it on three occasions.

　　Unlike his father, Da Yu didn't try to block the flood-waters. His strategy was to lead the water away in different directions and he won in the end.

　　If people want to think further, they will see that Da Yu's flood mitigation work also reflects a common philosophy of the Chinese people: that it is better to take advantage of the trend of a situation and lead it away rather than try to block it. This idea is followed by many Chinese in their daily lives.

　　When not causing a disaster, water can also mean prosperity. The Chinese believe that those living by a river will be the first to get rich.

　　The people realized very early that water was closely related to the country's economic development.

　　Da Yu's solution to recurrent flooding meant that formerly useless land was turned into fertile agricultural fields. According to the songs in the "Shi Jing", people with their cattle then moved onto the reclaimed land and prospered.

　　Later, the building of the Grand Canal) also brought another opportunity for the rapid development of China.

　　The canal, first built in the Sui Dynasty (581-618), is the longest canal in the world, with a total length of 2,700 kilometres. The emperor of the time had first needed the canal for military use.

　　This canal, with its centre at Luoyang - the capital at the time - stretched north to Zhuojun in Hebei Province and south to Hangzhou in Shanghai's neighbouring Zhejiang Province.

　　Most of China's rivers flow from west to east and the north-south canal was able to connect the Qiantangjiang, Yangtze, Huaihe, Yellow and Haihe rivers to make a vast water network. This was to have a great beneficial effect on the dynasty's economic power and also its political and military domination.

　　Succeeding dynasties kept improving the canal and it became the main waterway for north-south commerce.

　　For example, in the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the total tonnage of goods sent by the south to the northern capital was enormous. Each year, food supplies sent along the canal amounted to 400 million kilograms. And the canal was also used to transport gold, silver, silk, tea and military forces.

　　The canal also ensured the prosperity of towns and cities along its banks such as Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, Jinan, Dezhou and Hangzhou which remain famous cities today.