Late Qing Dynasty In Guanzhong Area Of ​​farmland Water Conservancy Disputes And Its Solution

Farmland water conservancy was the lifeline of the agriculture and related closely to the social production in the traditional agriculture-based society. The central Shaanxi Province lies in the northwest inner-land, lacking in water resources. Although there have been major farmland irrigation projects and perfect management system in the Qin and Han Dynasty, the times of the Sui and Tang Dynasty, the situation of water depletion could not be changed radically. During the times of the Late-Qing and the Early Minguo, the conflict of agriculture water was made more prominent by the drought in successive years in the central Shaanxi Province, the deterioration of the water environment, the frequency of wars, the instability of the political situation, and the disability of the government to build new farmland irrigation projects to relieve the conflict. Except for this, the conflict of the water usage was intensified because the formal irrigation projects could not be operated properly. Under the pressure of survival, people strived for the water at all costs and the water conservancy disputes happened frequently. What mentioned above have never been seen before and whose reasons are very complicated.The thesis is based in the cases of the farmland irrigation disputes in the central Shaanxi Province during the Late-Qing and the Early Minguo, making use of the data of the official statistical information, official archives, the notes of the scholars and so on. The writer starts with the time, place, reasons, process and results of the disputes and discusses the commenness and the specialty of the characteristics of the disputes, the impact on the cases and how to deal with the irrigation disputes under the abnormal situation, which have a great impact on the development of the agriculture in the central Shaanxi Province.To be specific, the thesis consists of the following five parts:Chapter 1 is the introduction. It introduces the reasons of the selection of the title, the present situation, the thoughts and the methods of the research. Chapter 2 is the farmland irrigation disputes in the central Shaanxi Province during the Late-Qing and the Early Minguo. The disputes are mainly chosen from Shaanxi Water Resources Monthly and a few from the records of the inscription references and the notes. Chapter 3 is the analysis of the reasons of the farmland irrigation disputes. The cases happened in the special times and places in a collective way, which related greatly to the natural environment and the social environment there. According to the background of the times when the cases happened, they had a direct relation to the annual rainfall, the species of the crops and the distribution of the farmland irrigation engineering. To be deeper, they related greatly to the policies of the government, the system of the water usage in the transition period and the traditional, unscientific ways of the farming and irrigation technology. Chapter 4 is the process of the settlement of the irrigation disputes. Although the mediation was the principle way of resolving the disputes, it had different meanings. The three principal parts in the process of the resolution of the disputes: the local government, the elites in the town and the folk management organizations and their roles; the traditional rules and conventions and the new rules of the water usage and their roles in the resolution of the disputes, all that related greatly to the proper resolution of the cases. Chapter 5 is the conclusion. Under the natural and social background in the central Shaanxi Province during the Late-Qing and the Early Minguo, the irrigation disputes happened frequently. In fact, it was a signal sent to the man---the crisis of water resources. The farmland disputes have profound historical connotation, as the lack of water resources is still the bottleneck of the agricultural development, they still have a great enlightment on the reply system in the abnormal situation.The study is creative in the following aspects: 1. The writer makes the most of the achieves, statistics and the inscription data. By analyzing the typical irrigation disputes, the writer has restored the general situation of the irrigation disputes during the late-Qing and the Early Minguo; 2. The present studies of the irrigation disputes are at the beginning stage and the conclusions are made in the socialistic views, few are in the view of the historical geography; while the writer discusses the irrigation disputes in this way; 3. The irrigation disputes in the late-Qing and the Early Minguo are typical, which at the same time will offer historical references to the reasonable mechanism of resolving the disputes.