The region where Yellow and Huai Rivers met the Grand Canal became a key location for water regulation because of the opening of Grand Canal in Ming Dynasty. Regulation procedures implemented by the government, aiming to keep the Grand Canal unimpeded to navigation, facilitated the evolution of river system structures and water regimen. In early Ming Dynasty, the configuration of river channels was similar to that in Yuan Dynasty, following a pattern of parallel flows with interchangeable main and tributary channels. As the Grand Canal, Huai River and Yellow River were under regulation, and especially as levees were constructed, channels of Yellow River went through a concentration process. They firstly merged from a regional network pattern into a linear pattern, and then continued converging towards a point at Qingkou. The first stage of this process was the abandonment of the northern branch of Yellow River, while the second stage was lining the Xu-Pi segment of Yellow River up with the upper stream. After flow directions of channels were fixed into the Xu-Pi segment, most levee failure events during the Reign of Jiajing Emperor occurred upstream to Xuzhou, but after the 44th year of Reign of Jiajing Emperor, most of such events occurred downstream to Xuzhou. The channel regulation near where Yellow River and Grand Canal meet started with a broader, fan-shaped target region extended from south to north, and then reduced to the southern half of the fan-shaped region, and then concentrated to a linear belt and eventually to Qingkou. The regulation generally served for maintaining the navigational condition of channels. From a regional channel network to a point, or from a broader region to a smaller region and eventually to a single point, such kind of engineering process marked the characteristic of how Ming Dynasty conducted hydrological regulation projects in the region where Yellow and Huai Rivers met the Grand Canal. This hydrological regulation process that follows the change of water environment accordingly fully reflected the wisdom of ancient people in utilizing the aquatic environment on a large regional scale. It has remarkable ecological characteristics.

Xunjiansi (Department of Touring and Inspection) was an important organization in charge of keeping order and public security of base-level communities in Ming Dynasty. Shuntian-fu covered not only the capital city and its vicinity, but served as a border stronghold with strategic importance as well. There were 22 Xunjiansi ever set under Shuntian-fu in different periods. By studying the timing of their establishment and revocation, location of their seats, and their relocation history in detail, we noticed that most Xunjiansi clustered near important passes and fortresses along the Great Wall or near important intersections along the Grand Canal. Two most significant clusters of Xunjiansi were on the flank of the capital city. They were located in the mountainous region to the west of Beijing and along the Grand Canal to the east of Beijing respectively. These two lines had great significance for the public safety in western Beijing and river transportation in eastern Beijing, so they received constant high attention from the court. Xunjiansi along these two lines were relatively evenly distributed and stable in long run. The number of Xunjiansi in Shuntian-fu was low during the reign of Hongwu Emperor of early Ming Dynasty. The number began to increase in the reign of Yongle Emperor and the overall distribution pattern of Xunjiansi in Shuntian-fu was thence established. During the late reign of Hongzhi Emperor and early reign of Zhengde Emperor, the number of Xunjiansi in Shuntian-fu reached its peak. After that, the number of Xunjiansi in Shuntian-fu remarkably declined during the reign of Jiajing Emperor because of the empire’s financial difficulties. This led to the gradually weakening control over base-level communities from Xunjiansi.

After the defeat of the Qing Dynasty in the First Sino-Japanese War, Li Hongzhang (1823-1901) was appointed as a special envoy to sign the Treaty of Peace between China and Japan (Treaty of Shimonoseki) with the Japanese. Subsequently, Russia joined by Germany and France demanded that Japan abandon the occupation of the Liaodong Peninsula. This is the famous “Triple Intervention” in modern history. In the 22nd year of the reign of Guangxu Emperor (1896), the Qing court signed the Li-Lobanov Treaty with Russia. In March of the 24th year of the reign of Guangxu Emperor (1898), the Qing court and Russia signed the Convention for the Lease of Liaotung Peninsula between China and Russia, in which the Qing court leased ports of Lushun and Dalian to Russia. In order to prevent the expansion of the Russian sphere of influence, the United Kingdom proposed the lease of Weihaiwei from Qing court. According to historical records from archives, the British careful analyzed and planned, and negotiated with other major powers before the lease of Weihaiwei. Shortly following these, the United Kingdom negotiated with the Qing court for the Weihaiwei lease, and pressured the Qing court to sign the Convention respecting Weihaiwei between China and Great Britainvention for the Lease of Weihaiwei, which made Weihaiwei under British rule. Based on the historical archive, the Archives of the Ministry Foreign Affair of the Qing Dynasty: the British Lease of Weihaiwei and other related historical archives, we intend to provide a preliminary discussion on the negotiation process of the British lease of Weihaiwei by inspecting the original archive of the Convention respecting Weihaiwei between China and Great Britainvention for the Lease of Weihaiwei and related maps in this paper.

On the lower reach of Damagou River in Tarim Basis, there was a desertified area once an oasis, it was about 80 square kilometers. On the ancient oasis area, many relics were scattered, such as Huyangdun Buddha temple ruins, Tuopulukedun Buddha Temple ruins, Big Graveyard, Huyang Graveyard, Kalaqin Ancient City, and Sipier Ancient City. The textual research shows the Kalaqin Ancient City was Kanchengzhen (Kanzhou) in Tang Dynasty, also the Phema City. In those years, the Kalaqin Ancient City was of a large population, commercially developed, and prosperous for Buddhism, but abandoned and desertified after 790 A.D. The Sipier Ancient City was the former capital of Qule State in Han Dynasty, but also abandoned and desertified in late Wei and Jin dynastys. The author analyzed two stages of desertification in the ancient oases and its causes.

This paper compares the geographical elements, such as traffic stations, river systems, village names, and prefectures or counties’ names, of the northeastern part of the three measured maps in Qing Dynasty, including two versions of the Kangxi Huangyu Quanlan Tu, the Yongzheng Shipai Tu and the Qianlong Shisanpai Tu. It shows that, at least in the northeastern part, the copper plate version of the Huangyu Quanlan Tu’s relationship with the Shipai Tu and the Shisanpai Tu is closer than that of the Fuchs version of Huangyu Quanlan Tu. And the geographical element information in Shisanpai Tu was mainly derived from the Shipai Tu.

The water area of Dianchi Lake is basically stable from Ming and Qing dynasties thanks to the annual dredging of the Haikou area. Still, seasonal change in water level is not completely solved due to frequent flood disasters. The deep rice was gradually planted systematically in Ming and Qing dynasties along the coast of Dianchi Lake to adapt to the seasonal changes in the waters in the Dianchi Lake, realizing the ecological coupling of low-field deepwater rice cultivation with seasonal changes in the water level. The situation changed completely in the late 1960s. With the construction of reservoirs and other water conservancy projects in the upper reaches of the Dianchi Lake, the lakeside and low fields were gradually drained, and the water environment for the deepwater rice was lost. From the point of view of the interactive relationship between the water environment of the Dianchi Lake and rice-growing ecology, if only the regional environment changes regularly for a long time, human beings may gradually turn “harm” into “benefit”, which is the proof of human wisdom to adapt to and make use of nature.

During Ming and Qing dynasties, the water environment of Fuzhou’s West Lake gradually deteriorated. In Ming Dynasty, the water source of West Lake was abundant and the water quality was good. Since Wanli’s reign, affected by social factors such as land reclamation, the West Lake shrunk in size and the water quality was affected. In the middle to late Qing Dynasty, waterways in Fuzhou were shallow, and the river tide eventually disappeared. The changes in water environment of the West Lake during the Ming and Qing dynasties were not only affected by regional climate change in humidity, forest soil and water conservation, and lake sedimentation, but also closely related to water and land disputes. Due to the dire human-land bearing ratio, the unclear ownership of water resources, and the vague taxation regulations on newly reclaimed lake fields, excessive lake reclamation became inevitable. The local government made considerable efforts, such as repairing floodgates and protecting lake embankment, turning the reclaimed land back to water surface, cleaning up feces and silt, etc., which achieved phased effects. However, affected by the socio-economic factors such as population pressure, land resource limits and ecological patterns, the West Lake still deteriorated due to the accumulated problems over the centuries.

Emperor Jing of the Han Dynasty adjusted the administrative divisions in Huainan region and Wu region after the “Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms”. The King of Runan was transfered to be the King of Jiangdu, governing Dongyang Prefecture and the northern counties in the old Zhang Prefecture. The rest of the old Zhang Prefecture was merged with the Kuaiji Prefecture to form the new Kuaiji Prefecture. Similarly, The King of Lujiang became King of Hengshan and the new prefecture of Lujiang was established in the southeast of the old Hengshan kingdom. The original Lujiang south to the Yangtze River was combined with Yuzhang to form the new Yuzhang Prefecture. This adjustment was not only a part of the centralization policy, but also a reconstruction of the political geography in the southeast region.

The anonymous Zuo Shanmu Fangpai Yaolan (Keys to Chinese Fir Wood Business and River Transportation) offers a slightly different view from previously discovered and rather common itinerary books on the Xin’an River-Qiantang River business journey. In addition to the place names and the distance along the way, it also includes many rules of wood business operation, which makes it a comprehensive business manual. Accordingly, we can explore the many facts of Huizhou merchants’ conducts in timber industry in the Qiantang River basin. The book contains business secrets of Hui-Xi merchants engaged in Qugang timber transportation and marketing, including five sections of continuous water routes along the way and a land route back to the hometown. On that basis, we can outline the route of Hui-Xi merchants engaged in Qugang wood business, and examine their related business norms more closely. From this point of view, the success of Hui merchants in the traditional times depended not only on their abundant wealth and higher cultural quality, but was also closely related to the relevant technologies and business norms they professed and spread.

The Imjin War (1592-1598) was an important historical event with far-reaching influence in East Asia at the end of the 16th Century. The importance of the formation of Huayi Yanhai Tu, a map related with the war situation, is also noteworthy in academic cartography. Through a comprehensive analysis of both Chinese and Korean historical accounts, especially intensive examinations of the Annals of the Chosǒn Dynasty and Korean geographic records, this study reveals an increase in the exchange of geographic knowledge between Ming China and Chosǒn Korea during the late 16th Century. When the Ming official Song Yingchang, who was in charge of the military affairs in Korea, directed the production of Huayi Yanhai Tu (the Coastal Map of China and the Barbarians), he relied not only on his accumulated knowledge but also his direct experience in Korea. This led to the timeliness and accuracy of this map, showing a strategic transformation of the Ming government’s management of the Bohai and Yellow Sea region. There were profound implications behind his selection and handling of specific geographic information. The display and interpretation of seemingly minor information could be effective tools for presenting political stances and military thoughts.

Modern maps drawn using scientific surveying and mapping technology are precious historical geographical data source, directly showing land cover information in the past. Digitization is a necessary way to extract the historical land cover and its changes from old maps. This paper proposes an old map digitization method based on machine learning and image morphology analysis, and takes the “Eastern China: Shanghai” map as an example to elaborate its implementation process and verify the effectiveness. Results show that the method can fully utilize the color information and morphological information in the map, and extract the surface water information quickly and accurately in a semi-automatic manner. The proposed method can be applied to the digital extraction of land cover information with color characteristics in most color modern maps. It shows great potential to provide both data and method basis for accurately restoring land cover changes and understanding the evolution in man-land relationship since modern times.

A map of the English Settlement in Shanghai right after its port-opening collected by the British Royal Geographical Society did not mark its drawing time. One view holds the map was drawn in 1846-1847, another infers that in 1844-1847, but both are speculative. We reconsider its drawing time and try to evaluate the map based on the information on it. The results show the map should be drawn from October 1st to October 19th, 1846. It is the earliest map of English Settlement in Shanghai having found, and a very important source to study the developing process of English Settlement. Also, this map is of great value for the study of Land Deed.

Historical records after the late Ming Dynasty generally claim that Nanwang has been the “water ridge” occupying a commanding height alongside the Huitong Canal, which is a section of the Grand Canal, since the Yuan Dynasty, and the key determining the success of the Huitong Canal in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties lies in choosing Nanwang “water ridge” as the water diversion hub. This paper proposes that this view is incorrect. Nanwang was originally the last remnant of Liangshanpo with a low-lying terrain. It began to silt up after Song Li diverted Wenshui River water to Nanwang for transportation in the early Ming Dynasty. In the Chenghua period of the Ming Dynasty, the pivotal position of Nanwang as the water diversion hub was determined. By then the mud and sand dug out and piled up on both sides of the river created a landform of heaped-up hill, hence the “water ridge” image in the eyes of people since the late Ming Dynasty. That is to say, the Nanwang “water ridge” was formed in the Mid Ming Dynasty as a result of natural sediment accumulation and artificial dredging. Based on this, this paper re-examines the reasons determining the success or failure of the Huitong Canal in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties and discusses the significance of the formation of the Nanwang “water ridge” on transforming the Huitong Canal from a river depending on the violent Yellow River for water supplies to the one that relies on the stable Wenshui River for water source in the middle of the Ming Dynasty as well as its far-reaching influence on the principle of Yellow River maintenance after the Mid Mind Dynasty.

Located along the lower reaches of Daqing River and Ziya River, the Wen’anwa(文安洼) in Wen’an and Dacheng County of Hebei Province is a low-lying depression and shaped like “the bottom of a cauldron” in colloquial language. It is difficult to drain its water reserve, which often caused severe flood disasters in the past. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Wen’an County took many measures, such as building dikes, diverting river courses, and planting rice in shallow water, to control the flood but to no avail. It was not only the environmental factors, such as the low-lying terrain and the silt of the lower reaches of Daqing River and Ziya River, that made it hard to control the flood in the Wen’anwa Depression, but also social factors, such as the conflicting interests of water control between Wen’an County and the surrounding prefectural and counties, and the lack of ability and tactfulness of water management by Wen’an County itself.

It is possible to make a comparative calculation of the distances and routes recorded in ⅡT0214①∶130 and ⅤT1611③∶39, two Han dynasty slips from Xuanquan. The post at the easternmost point of Jiuquan Prefecture recorded in ⅡT0214①∶130 was not Biaoshi, but to the west of it; Biaoshi was a county belonged to Zhangye Prefecture at that time. The jurisdiction of Wuwei Prefecture recorded in ⅤT1611③∶39 was not in Guzang, but possibly in Fanhe. The main line of the “Southeast”courier route as seen in ⅤT1611③∶39 passed Tianshui and connected Anding, which was basically the conventionally acknowledged “North Route”from Chang’an to Hexi. This route also had a branch to Jincheng. Based on the above conclusions, the features of ⅡT0214①∶130 can be roughly reconstructed. The two slips of ⅡT0214①∶130 and ⅤT1611③∶39 commonly display a portion of the courier routes and administrative divisions of Hexi at a certain point in the Western Han dynasty.

In the past, it was believed that Xinzhou(信州) in the Liao and Jin dynasties was located in present-day Qinjiatun, in Gongzhuling City, while the ancient site in Wujiazi, 13 km to the west of Qinjiatun, was considered to be a sub-state of Xinzhou and received little attention. Based on the reading of historical satellite photos and field surveys, we have discovered the outer city wall around Wujiazi, thus increasing its perimeter to be comparable to that of Qinjiatun. This discovery is different from the old understanding. By re-evaluating the surface remains of the two cities and the excavated relics, it is clear the ancient city of Qinjiatun was a Jin dynasty site, while the ancient city of Wujiazi was a Liao dynasty site, abandoned in the early Jin dynasty. Based on the archaeological evidences and combined with the literature, we believe that the Liao Dynasty Xinzhou was ruled from Wujiazi ancient city, and during the Jin Dynasty Xinzhou was ruled in Qinjiatun ancient city. According to the Yuan Yitong Zhi, the time of the change seems to be the third year during the Huangtong period (1143).

Settlement pattern is an understudied topic in historical settlement geography. The settlement pattern of Jingsheng Village in Lingshi County in Shanxi Province had experienced three stages of change: the initial development of the gullies and lanes from the late Yuan Dynasty to the early Ming Dynasty, the boundary expansion and internal expansion from the late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty, the filling of the settlement pattern in the late Qing Dynasty and the “southward invasion” across the river. Factors such as geographical environment, clan power, war and banditry, national policies had all played an important role in the development and evolution of Jingsheng Village settlement pattern. The case study of Jingsheng Village shows that the formation and development of settlement pattern is a historical process of dynamic change, and the establishment history of settlement temples and landmark buildings has become an important index for investigation. Research on the pattern of rural settlements will be one of the trends of future rural historical geography studies in China.

Selecting the population data of settlement in 1934, 1982, and 2019 in Tumote plain, the distribution pattern evolution and its driving factors of settlement in the study area were analyzed through using GIS spatial analysis methods and combining qualitative and qualitative analysis. The results show that: during 1934-2019, the scale system of settlement in the study area was dominated by small settlement. The number and proportion of settlement with larger populations increased year by year and the population hierarchical structure showed a pyramid shape from “flat” to “long-tall”. The spatial distribution pattern of settlement showed the characteristics of agglomeration distribution as a whole. The agglomeration of large-scale settlements is not significant, and the distribution pattern of the other three levels of settlements changed from uniform to agglomeration distribution model. The population polarization in the study area was significant. The non-equilibrium development trend of the spatial distribution of the study area was obvious, showing signs of evolution from pole nucleus type to Pole-axis type. The spatial neighbor effect of network connection of settlement was significant, and the central urban area with a large population became a strong connection node. Terrain, river and traffic were the main driving factors for the evolution of the distribution pattern of the settlement in the study area during 1934-2019. The settlement showed strong spatial orientation to low altitude, and were significantly close to rivers, roads and towns. This study facilitates the clarification of the evolution of the settlement distribution patterns in the Tumut Plain in the past 100 years, and provides a certain reference value for the optimization and regulation of the spatial layout of local settlements.

Since the Northern Song Dynasty, Yudi Guangji has been issued in many different versions. In addition to the original version, there were two more re-issued editions from the Southern Song Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, many more editions were issued either based on the original version or the re-issued versions. The Qing versions are on the one hand comparatively independent from each other, and on the other hand complementary to each other. To compile the best edition of Yudi Guangji, one has to rely on the original Northern Song Dynasty version, and consult with the other versions.

Collected by the Nanjing Museum, the Atlas of Border Towns mainly depicts fifteen border towns of significance in Ming dynasty. It used to be collected and commented by Yizhai. The atlas is also compiled into Atlas of Ancient Maps in China (Ming Dynasty) and Collection of Ming Dynasty Maps. After been inspected by Zhang Baochai, the atlas gradually draws attention from the academic circle. According to the current research, the atlas was produced during the 32nd to 33rd year of the Wanli's reign of Ming Dynasty, with Luo Hongxian's Enlarged Terrestrial Atlas as its main reference. Its collector, Yizhai, was believed to have lived in Qing Dynasty. However, after examination and verification, it is proved that the atlas was drawn during the 3rd to 4th year of Kangxi's reign of Qing Dynasty. The author of the work, whose surname is Huang, was a Ming loyalist. He mainly referred to Chen Zushou's Atlas of Territories of August Ming. The collector of the work, Yizhai, is Cheng Zhiqing, a seal carver from Suzhou. Bonze Yiling could be inferred as Qu Dajun, a famous scholar who lived in the early Qing Dynasty.

During the Puppet Qi Dynasty, Mianchi County(渑池) was changed to “沔池” to avoid breaking the taboo of using a character from Emperor Jin Taizu's name, namely Wanyan Min. “渑” is a multi-syllabic character, and when used as the county name it does not involve taboos. The regime of Jin Dynasty does not avoid this word. But to please Jin, the Puppet Qi deem “渑” as a taboo character, and used the nearest homonymous character “沔” as a substitute. After the Jin Dynasty re-ruled Henan, they did not change back the county name, and the Jin never strictly avoid the word “渑”. “沔池” was used as the official name during the Jin Dynasty, and it became alias of the county in later dynasties interchangeable with “渑池”. In the new and old annotated versions of Jin Shi, it should be restored where “沔池” had been mistakenly changed to “渑池”. For other literature, unless there is sufficient evidence that “渑池” was used in the original version, “沔池” should be kept and not changed into “渑池”.

At the turn of the Twentieth century, Western municipal concepts and theories were gradually introduced into China along with the examples set by treaty port cities. Some traditional cities formed in the dynastic time also began to carry out modern municipal constructions. In this study, we take Ningbo old city as a typical case and focus on three ways of road improvements in the 1920s and 1930s: the demolition of the city wall, the filling of rivers and the removal of residential buildings. Based on earlier studies, we use large-scale old maps and local gazettes to restore and analyze the river channels and road networks. It shows that for the traditional cities in China, due to the lack of motivation and capital, even if the urban administrative districts had been set up, it might not be able to promote the conditions. On the contrary, it caused many social problems especially during the expropriation of construction land.

Tao River, which is recorded in the volume of Zhuozhang River of Notes to the Book of Rivers, was thought to be the current Tao River by many scholars through history, while Yan Gengwang argued that it should be Guguan River. However, there are discrepancies between the two opinions. Actually, the watercourse of the ancient Tao River include the watercourse of present Gantao River, Ye River and the ancient watercourse of Ye River. We thought the reason the current Tao River bears the name is that Cai Gui misunderstood Notes to the Book of Rivers.

Reconstructing the temporal and spatial process of population change in mountainous settlements is a significant way to understand the population development in historical periods.Taking Yanhe village, a mountainous settlement in Southwest China, as an example, we estimated the whole number and average size of households, and reconstructed the population change process of the village in the past three hundred years mainly with fieldwork and document research.The number of households was converted on the basis of a proxy index, namely the number of marriageable men from the predominant generation at a given time point.We used the family structure model to calculate the average size of households according to the marriage, birth and death data of several villages in the basin.Then, we calculated an empirical value as a substitution, with the age composition data of 1953, and the average size of children and elderly per household in the basin, to reconstruct the average size of households before 1920.Therefore, a long-term average size of households was obtained.This method is meaningful for the population sequence reconstruction in the intergenerational resolution of mountainous settlements in historical period.The population change in mountainous area has the characteristics of large fluctuations and obvious stages, and it fell faster than rose.

The formation of sandbanks in the Lijiang River was a result of the interactions between natural environment and human activities. Since the Ming and Qing dynasties, people continuously flowed into the upper reaches of the Lijiang River to engage in agricultural work and land reclamation. They also reshaped the natural environment of the mountainous upstream area. The soil unearthed left from agricultural work and those carried by rainwater were then swept out into the Lijiang River, resulted in sediment, which accelerated the formation and development of sandbank, and shaped the appearance of the Lijiang river bed in Guilin city. The settlements were also transferred from the sandbars to sandbanks. The relationship between man and land in Lijiang River basin changed as thus.

Against the background of modernization, the distribution pattern of roads in Qinghai changed significantly from the beginning of Qing Dynasty to the founding of People's Republic of China. The Xining-Lhasa road was the main line of the traffic network of Qinghai. The changes of the distribution pattern in modern times epitomize the road network distribution patterns of those in the history. Based on a set of old maps from 1935 in the National Library of China, the changing process of the distribution pattern of Xining-Lhasa road in Qinghai were restored. Three driving forces led to road network changes in modern Qinghai: the abolition of the postal system, which led to the collapse of the official road system in last Qing Dynasty, the new transportation system brought by new vehicles, and the developing activities in the period of Republic of China in Qinghai. The changes of the distribution pattern of Xining-Lhasa Road showed the road network pattern in ecologically vulnerable area was prone to the influences from ever changing human factors in the historical period. The restoration of modern roads based on richly surveyed map data was a preliminary work towards accurate restoration of ancient roads.

After the port opening of Shanghai city, social condition experienced great changes. A founding was that the main worshipers of Hong Temple became the prostitute group. The main reasons of such transformation were the prosperity of prostitution thereby and the policy change for sacrificial ceremonies. Newspapers and modern novels accelerated the transformation of traditional folk beliefs in modern Shanghai as well.

Determining the drawing time of traditional maps is an important and fundamental task. Based on the “approaching from both termini” method, and literature and archive review, this paper offers a revisit on the drawing time of two Hongbing (Hong army) military maps of Canton during the Taiping Rebellion, which are now held in the National Archive, U.K. It cannot be clearly proved if the first map (F.O.931/1079) drew on July 18, 1854, whereas the drawing time of second map (F.O.931/1892) can be determined on November 1-2 of the same year, from the period of October 21-26.

Water conservancy map tablet is a special form of water conservancy materials. The spatial distribution of such tablets is quite dispersive though with a small amount overall. To some extent, the water conservancy monument reflects the history of a regional society, especially in areas where water resources are scarce. It is not only the epitomized expression of water right consciousness, but also the reflection of people's attitude towards water resources. It is also the result of people's consultation, negotiation, and confliction under water stress. Taking the water conservancy map tablets as clues, this paper further excavates the history of related people and events, with the aim to deepen and expand the existing social history researches of water conservancy. It will help to gain a deeper understanding of the role and influence of water in the historical changes of traditional Chinese rural society.