The lakes once distributed all over the plain in the southern part of the Haihe River valley have now disappeared completely.As for the evolution and dry-up of these lakes,there are only general findings and conclusions, in need of further researches of higher resolution.Based on almost exhaustive historical archives and with the help of toponomy methods,this paper carries out an in-depth analysis to the evolution of the major lakes and clearly maps out the important evolving process from prosperity to extinction of these lakes.The principal findings are: During the Ming Dynasty to the late 16th century,there was the Daluze Lake,which extended from Renxian County at the southernmost to Ningjin County at the northernmost(both present location).In the early 17th century,the Daluze Lake disaggregated into two parts,with the Daluze Lake at the south and the Ningjinpo Lake at the north.On disaggregation,Daluze was deeper and wider than Ningjinpo.However,Ningjinpo thereafter continued to expand and,in the early 19th century,it became three times as large as Daluze,which was continuously shrinking.The two lakes simultaneously presented significant and rapid shrinkage since the 1820s or the 1830s.By the end of the 19th century,Daluze dried up entirely,while Ningjinpo could be hardly called a lake and at last became dry land by the end of 20th century.