The increased sediment and flow combined to greatly expand the lake, swallowing the previous regional center of Sizhou and the Ming Zuling tombs.

[1] The area that now forms Hongze Lake was an inlet of the East China Sea about 2 million year ago before being closed in by sediment from the Huai and other nearby rivers.

[2] The hegemon Fuchai of Wu constructed the Han or Hangou Canal (t 邗溝, s 邗沟, Hángōu), connecting the lake system with Yangzhou and the Yangtze Delta in 486 BC to improve the supply lines of his army in conflicts with Qi.

During an inspection tour in 616, Emperor Yang renamed Pofu Hongze in his delight at the rain that greeted his arrival there, the rest of the countryside having suffered a drought.

[2] The silt from the Yellow River began to obstruct the flow of the Huai and started to expand Hongze still farther,[2] ultimately quadrupling its original size.

In Kangxi 16 (c. 1677), the viceroy of rivers Jin Fu (t 靳輔, s 靳辅, Jìn Fǔ, 1633–1692) extended the embankments from Zhouqiao to Jiangba (t 蔣壩, s 蒋坝, Jiǎngbà).

[5] The Kangxi and Qianlong Emperors continued the expansion and reinforcement of the Gaojia Weir, reaching 67–70 kilometers (42–43 mi) and completing the modern Hongze Lake Embankment.

[5] In 1966, 1976, and 1985, the Hongze Embankment itself was reinforced and improved with more modern engineering and materials, particularly with additional barriers to break up the force of the rivers' and lake's waves against the levees.