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Dongting Lake () is a large, shallow lake in northeastern Hunan, China. It is a flood basin of the Yangtze River, so its volume depends on the season. The provinces of Hubei and Hunan are named after their location relative to the lake: Hubei means "North of the Lake" and Hunan, "South of the Lake".
Dongting Lake is famous in Chinese culture as the place of origin of dragon boat racing and is home to the critically endangered Yangtze finless porpoise.
There are five main rivers in the catchment (excluding the area whose water flows directly into the Yangtze River, the same hereafter):
The catchment has highly complex flow regimes featuring strong river-lake interactions. Dongting Lake receives water from the upper Jingjiang reach of the Yangtze River. The water in Dongting Lake finally flows into the lower Jingjiang reach of the Yangtze River at the Chenglingji Station and discharges downstream. The water in Dongting Lake mainly comes from surface runoff and direct rainfall on the lake surface. The Dongting Lake catchment begins to enter the rainy season in April and the rainfall reaches its maximum in June. Then, the rainy area moves to the upper part of the Yangtze River Basin in July and flood water flowing into the lake from upstream increases significantly. The rainy season may continue until the end of September. The flow regime of Dongting Lake maintains the same temporal pattern as the rainfall regime.
The flood season is from April to September. In general, flood water comes mainly from the catchment from April to June and from water diversion of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River from July to September.
The annual runoff from Dongting Lake to the Yangtze River is , of which to is received from the Yangtze River through the inlets. Influenced by the monsoon, the lake shows a significant seasonal change in its flow regime. The lake water level fluctuates dramatically throughout a year, up to . The water surface area also varies with the fluctuation of the water level from thousands of square kilometers in the flood season to only a few hundred square kilometers in the dry season.
At that time, Dongting Lake was China's largest freshwater lake. Because of its size, it gained the name Eight-hundred-li-Dongting (). Nowadays, it is the second-largest, after Poyang Lake, as much of the lake has been land reclamation.Peter Perdue, Exhausting the Earth: State and Peasant in Hunan 1500–1850 (Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Council on East Asian Studies, 1987).
The scenery of the Jiuyi Mountains and of the Xiao and Xiang rivers below is often mentioned in Chinese poetry. The late Tang dynasty poet Yu Wuling is supposed to have been fond of the scenery of Dongting Lake. During the Song dynasty, it became the fashion to paint this region's scenery in a set of eight scenes, usually entitled Eight Views of Xiaoxiang. It is also said that Han Shizhong settled in the region after retiring from military service. The fashion spread to Japan, where eventually other famous places were substituted for the Xiao and Xiang rivers. One of the famous ponds based on the geography of the lake is at the Daikaku-ji in Kyoto.
Qu Yuan traveled by boat from Dongting Lake to Nanhu Lake and the Canglong River (also known as the Wangjia River), journeying through the heartland of Baling. When his boat reached Jiazi Mountain, he saw the mountain covered in bright yellow oranges. He joyfully climbed the mountain and wrote the famous poem "Ode to the Orange" (橘颂). Later generations built the Orange Ode Pavilion on Jiazi Mountain in Yueyang City to commemorate Qu Yuan.
Junshan Island was also named after the goddess-wives of Shun, who lived there after his death by drowning, while they mourned him and sought for his body all the way from the source of the Xiang River, in which he drowned, and then on down to where it could have drifted, into the lake. Junshan Island, a former Taoist retreat, is a famous -wide island with 72 peaks in the middle of the lake. The island is also famous for its Junshan Yinzhen tea. The basin of Dongting Lake and its surrounding area is famous for its scenic beauty.
During Emperor Shun's southern tour, he sought to bring enlightenment through music. He is credited with composing the renowned Shao Music (韶乐), a series of ceremonial compositions believed to elevate the spirit and harmonize the natural world. During one journey, Shun arrived at Phoenix Mountain (鳳凰山), located along the shores of Dongting Lake in present-day Hunan Province.
Moved by the natural beauty of the landscape, Shun ascended the mountain and gazed out over the vast lake. There, he personally performed the Shao Music. As he reached the ninth movement, an extraordinary phenomenon occurred: a dragon emerged from the depths of Dongting Lake and began to soar among the clouds, while a phoenix appeared gracefully gliding over the lake's surface. The two mythical creatures—symbols of cosmic balance and imperial authority—danced in harmony to the rhythm of Shun's music.
Witnessing this scene, Shun’s loyal minister Cangshu (倉舒) exclaimed:
The spectacle was interpreted as a divine omen, symbolizing unity between Heaven and Earth. Since then, the phrase "dragon and phoenix bringing prosperity" (龍鳳呈祥) has been used in Chinese culture as a traditional expression of good fortune, national peace, and bountiful harvests.
Among them was a large red carp, residing more than a mile away. Upon hearing of the challenge, it swam swiftly toward the site. Summoning all its strength, the carp launched itself like an arrow shot from a bow. Amidst swirling wind and rain, it soared high into the air above Dongting Lake, successfully clearing the Dragon Gate before plunging back into the water. In the blink of an eye, the carp transformed into a majestic dragon.
The monster reacted to the Pearl Maiden's polite but firm rejection with violent fury. It created a massive storm on the lake and began to consume both the local fauna and human populations. In response to this crisis, the Dragon King orchestrated a two-part solution: he instructed his son and the Pearl Maiden to hide near the Wangjia River while simultaneously summoning the mythological hero Hou Yi to subdue the monster. Hou Yi successfully neutralized the threat, first by striking Bashe with an arrow and then slaying it. The creature's remains are said to have formed a hill that is now known as Baling. The Ninth Dragon Son and the Pearl Maiden ultimately chose to remain by the Wangjia River, where they fell in love and raised a child, preferring a peaceful life over a return to the Dongting Dragon Palace. Over time, the Pearl Maiden transformed into Pearl Mountain, while the Ninth Dragon Son became the Canglong River (also known as the Wangjia River), and they remain together, watching over one another for all time.
In 2007, fears were expressed that China's finless porpoise, a native of the lake, might follow the baiji, the Yangtze river dolphin, into extinction. There have been calls for action to save the finless porpoise, of which there are about 1400 left living, with approximately 700 to 900 in the Yangtze, and approximately another 500 in Lake Poyang and Dongting Lakes. The 2007 population levels were less than half the 1997 levels, and the population continues to drop at a rate of 7.3 per cent per year. Pressure on the finless porpoise population on Poyang Lake comes from the high numbers of ships passing through, as well as sand mining. www.chinadialogue.net - Poyang Lake saving the finless porpoise
After flooding of the Yangtze River in late June 2007, approximately 2 billion Reed vole were displaced from the islands of the lake when water was released from the Three Gorges Dam to control the excess. The rodents invaded surrounding communities, damaging crops and dikes and forcing the government to construct walls and ditches to control the population. www.physorg.com - 2 Billion Chinese Mice Overrun Lake Area Villagers killed an estimated 2 million mice by beating them to death or using poisons, which also had an adverse effect on their predators.
A restoration project, the Sino-Norwegian Project of Biodiversity Protection Management, began in 2005. According to a 2007 article in the China Daily, "The will be restored to a sustainable biodiversity environment within five to 10 years". "Lake back to health in 5 to 10 years" (on the website of the Ministry of Water Resources of the People's Republic of China.)
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