Abstract：The river control in the late Ming Dynasty was difficult in that it needed to take into account both dredging the Great Canal and protecting imperial tombs. Before Jiajing Reign, river control mainly focused on the Yellow River to protect the Great Canal, but the New Nanyang Canal represented a new idea that the Great Canal can be protected by avoiding the Yellow River. The proposal to dig the Jia Canal was another effort of the new idea, but the dispute over Jia Canal lasted from Longqing Reign to the late Wanli Reign. Reasons for the stagnation were that during Longqing Reign and early Wanli Reign, people insisted on the idea of “control Yellow River to protect Great Canal”and objected to dig the Jia Canal while in later Wanli Reign, river officials and local officials were afraid of taking responsibilities. Besides, the conflict between national and local interests intensified the complexity of the issue.

Keyword：late Ming Dynasty;dredging the Great Canal;river control;Jia Canal;