冯屈 / Feng Qu (Western Han)

Overview

冯屈 / Feng Qu enters the wiki through Hanji 507 as the Qinghe commandery commandant who warns before a major Yellow River breach that the lower river is exposed if the Tunshi River remains blocked. His recommendation to dredge the river is rejected after court review on cost grounds.

Current Profile

Feng Qu’s current significance is preventive. He reads hydrological risk before the disaster is visible: Qinghe sits downstream, the soil is fragile, and a blocked distributary leaves the Yellow River with less room to release floodwater. The episode says the court sends the matter onward, but the final advice accepts non-dredging because state funds are insufficient.

When the Yellow River later breaches, Feng Qu becomes the source’s counterfactual warning figure. The episode does not prove that dredging would have fully prevented the disaster, but it uses his memorial to show how ignored maintenance and short-term savings can create much larger later costs.

Key Characteristics

• Qinghe commandery commandant in the Hanji 507 flood-prevention branch.
• Warns that a blocked Tunshi River increases lower Yellow River flood risk.
• Recommends dredging before the breach.
• Functions as a preventive-governance signal whose advice is not adopted.

Evidence

• Warning: Hanji 507 says Feng Qu reports Qinghe’s downstream exposure and fragile soil.
• Dredging proposal: Hanji 507 says Feng Qu proposes reopening the Tunshi River so Yellow River water can be distributed.
• Later breach: Hanji 507 says the Yellow River later breaches at Guantao and Dongjun Jindi after the proposal is not adopted.

Qualifications

This page is source-scoped to Hanji 507. It does not reconstruct Feng Qu’s full office record, the exact hydrology of the Tunshi River, or whether his proposal would have prevented every later flood effect.

What Changed

• Created Feng Qu from Hanji 507’s ignored flood-prevention memorial.

Relationships

• 黄河 - river system whose lower-reach risk Feng Qu diagnoses.
• 徐商 - reviewing official whose cost-based conclusion helps reject the dredging.
• 预防性水患治理 - concept grounded by Feng Qu’s warning and the later breach.
• Disaster Response State Capacity - broader capacity frame for turning warning into action.