>>46974644Well okay, but this is going to take a while.
So to get the full grasp of the etymology of gulette and rinenna, we need to discuss the Grand Canal.
So to start with, China's always had logistical problems with resources like food since most of the prosperous food providers were located in the south, where as political powers were located more to the north. Since China's navigable rivers flow west to east, so there's been a lot of attempts to link those waterways into useful networks to transport food more efficiently from the South to the North.
The earliest example of this is probably during the 5th century BC. King Fuchai of Wu used canals to link the Yellow River, the Ji River, and the Huchai River. King Hui of Wei continued this work years later, and then the Han dynasty focused even more attention on those efforts. Despite all their work, the canals were still insufficient to supplying China with necessary resources.
Now with the rise of the Sui dynasty, specifically in 584 CE with the first Sui Emperor, canals that had previously fallen into disrepair were worked on to allow transportation from the Yellow River to the capital. The second Sui emperor again continued this process, specifically focusing on a canal that linked Luoyang with the Hui River, and then Yangzhou. Other parts of this waterway extended to the coast of Hangzhou, Zhenjiang, and Beijing, and then connected with the Yellow River as well.
It ended up being 1,250 miles long and took around three million workers to complete this Grand Canal in 610 CE.
Sure as shit the Grand Canal did its job and bolstered the ability to distribute grain and rice across the country. Not only did this help distribute food to the countrymen, but it also help set up granaries to store resources in should a famine break out. In fact, a granary in Xingluo could hold more than 600 tons of grain.
You also had some military bonuses too, since the supply lines to China's northern borders were now bolstered by the effects of the Grand Canal. However, in spite of the prosperity of the Grand Canal, it would also spell the end of the Sui Dynasty.
Three million workers is a ton of manpower to request for any one project, even in China, and how the Sui Dynasty acquired these workers, how they treated them, and the excessive amount of luxury cruise vessels made by the Sui Dynasty for having wild drunken sex orgies while cruising the canals, only bolstered civil unrest toward the callous hubris of the Sui Dynasty.
Still, as the Sui Dynasty fell, the Tang Dynasty took great care of the canals, contributing 30 new canals themselves, though none as expansive and important as the Sui's Grand Canal. A simple disruption of the Grand Canal was enough to bring Northern China to its knees.
Turns out that having such an expansive canal system was a bitch to maintain, and many parts of the canal system fell into disuse and disrepair. Other dynasties continued to contribute to this system of canals, as despite the upkeep required to keep them operational, the benefits were too great to be ignored.
In fact, the Song Dynasty (specifically the Song Dynasty administrator named Qiao Qeiyue) would create the world's first pound lock system (Google it, I'm not explaining it here).
Various Yuan emperors would then take on the task to build the Huitong Canal, which linked the Yellow River with the Wei River at Linqing. However, they did not use this canal as much as they could/should. The Grand Canal was simply more efficient. As such, the Ming dynasty rebuilt the Grand Canal and the Qing dynasty regularly performed maintenance on it until 1855.
Alas, with various floods and the advent of trains, the Grand Canal was but a shadow of its former self. A specific 500 mile section of the Grand Canal was restored in the 20th century however, allowing for some renewed use of the canal.
This Grand Canal is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
That should tell you all there is to know about Chinese ships.
