Study Of Water Conservancy Engineering And Regional Society In Coastal Plains Of Wenzhou And Taizhou Of Yuan Dynasty

Wenzhou and Taizhou are in the Southeast coastal region, of which coastal plains are the main habitation for humans and major crop-producing areas. Affected by natural weathers, the coastal areas are hit often by typhoons in summer and fall, even sometimes through drought or flood following a long-term sunshine or excessive rains.Traditional irrigation works were charged and built by the government who played a dominant role. But till Song Dynasty, the government gradually gave up its leadership for construction to the folk as a result of local financial difficulties, to some certain which gave gentry more rights to attend local activities. From then on, the irrigation and water conservancy project was built by local people under the supervision of local officials, while water works totally charged by the government appeared intermittent and limited. Local officials always called on gentry and monks and people to donate their money and unite their strength for local irrigation and water works, which were actually good management form benefiting themselves.All above reflect special and unique society structure and region features that coastal areas have.Wenzhou and Taizhou’s Water conservancy projects were quite common, especially in the unity time of Yuan Dynasty. For water project, the source of capital and means of raising funds were not single, from collecting money from the folk in many forms to getting financial supports at all levels of government. But it is worth pointing out that not all relations between government and the public during water engineering were in harmony. The analysis of construction modes of hydroproject in Wenzhou and Taizhou of Yuan’s time and the example of Shanghedai can manifest games among the main interests of all parties and government-people relations when they involved themselves in local public projects. And documents on file prove that the monks had a pulling power and their credibility for collecting funds and strengths from the public then. This paper is designed to exploit primarily the interactions among local government, local elites, monks and people from all walks in water engineering of Yuan Dynasty, water conservancy projects, developments in Binhai District and Tutian District and regional population distribution.