A Study On Social Change Of Water Conservancy In Si She Wu Cun

Si She Wu Cun is a folk water conservancy organization established by the people in the Huozhou border area of Hongdong to solve the water problems in Shawo Valley(known as Qing and Tiaoyu in ancient times).Members of the water organization are arranged in brother-family order according to the number of days they use water.The "eldest" is Qiuchi Society in Zhaocheng Town,Hongdong County;the "second" is Li Zhuang Society in Taotangyu Township,Huozhou City;the "third" is Yiwang Society in Taotangyu Township,Huozhou City;the "fourth" is Xinggou Society in Xingtangsi Township,Hongdong County;and the "fifth" is Kongjian Village in Taotangyu Township,Huozhou City.Due to the scarcity of local water resources,it has gradually become a consensus for villages to jointly use water and control water.The water use system of "bottom-up,take turns to make water" established by the water conservancy organization has been continued through the Han,Jin,Tang,Song,Jin,Yuan,Ming and Qing Dynasties until now,and still maintains strong vitality.In the late 1990 s,Professor Dong Xiaoping of Beijing Normal University and Professor Lankley of the French Institute for the Far East jointly launched a cooperative project named "North China Water Resources and Social Organizations".They took the lead in collecting and sorting data from Si She Wu Cun.After four years,they finally published the data collection "No irrigation but Control-Documents and Folklore of Water Conservancy in Si She Wu Cun of Shanxi".Since then,Si She Wu Cun have been concerned and known by the academic community.Since then,Chinese and foreign scholars have visited the Four She and Five Villages many times,and continue to pay attention to the changes of Si She Wu Cunin recent years.Based on the existing research results in the academic field and the author’s field investigation report,this paper finds that the water conservancy system of Si She Wu Cun has undergone great changes compared with the traditional period after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.In the traditional period when "the imperial power was not in the county",the four communes managed Shawowyu water through the way of "association autonomy",forming a relatively fair pattern of water use among the village communes.At the same time,water conservancy managers also established a complete sacrificial system and punishment mechanism for the dragon king,in order to consolidate and protect the water rights and legal status of water conservancy organizations.This water conservancy model,which combines institutional rationality and folk pressure,has not been substantially impacted by external forces in its historical evolution for thousands of years.The only change is a quantitative process,that is,after the middle of Qing Dynasty,the upstream migrant villages successively joined the water use system led by the four communes.After the founding of the People’s Republic of China,the power of the state sank and the overall control of rural society was realized.The "marginal" village organization of Si She Wu Cun was thus incorporated into the perspective of the state and became a part of the official dominant "narrative".Under the influence of national political discourse and ideology,the four communes and five villages were forced to share water with the surrounding villages,which also opened the history of "master commune village" and "subsidiary village" with different order and strict hierarchy.In this process,a new water conservancy management mode was generated,namely,the implementation of hierarchical management within the water-using villages.Since the reform and opening up,Si She Wu Cun have accelerated their differentiation under the stimulus of external factors.After the success of the well drilling,the Chouchi Association and the Li Zhuang Association gradually realized the irrigation dream of the past and withdrew from the water use sequence of the four associations.At the same time,in the market economy environment,the local water day trading gradually rises,impacting the "dying" water system.With the decline of the water conservancy organization and system of Si She Wu Cun,the ritual activities to maintain the order of water conservancy are gradually marginalized,and what remains is only an intangible cultural heritage.