출토문서를 통해 본 唐代 西北 지역의 水利 行政

Abstract

Since ancient times, the Chinese dynasty carried out a lot of water conservancy projects. At first glance, the conditions of mature imperial despotism, meticulous legal administration, and constant water conservancy seemed to justify Wittfogel's “hydraulic society” theory. Although this theory was refuted a long time ago, but some scholars have highlighted China's authoritarianism and bureaucracy, viewing water conservancy as a tool for strengthening the rule of state power. The author believes that there is room for further elaborated understanding based on the Turfan documents. In order for Tang era regional officials to undertake irrigation facility construction, they had to calculate the necessary manpower and resources and report this to the central (Royal) Court for approval. In violation of this, if construction works were started without leave, or manpower or resources were found to differ from what had been reported, the regional official and person in charge of the work were punished according to legal provisions. In addition, regular maintenance and management of existing irrigation facilities carried out by regional governors was only possible during limited period as prescribed by legal regulations. Additionally, in many cases, the development of water use facilities required mass mobilization of manpower and resources, making it difficult for regional offices at the xiàn(縣) level to take charge of their implementation. Therefore, apart from some small-scale water use facilities listed in historical records, regional officials at the zhōu(州) level and above became the principle agents in developing irrigation facilities, and it is difficult to think that such works were typically implemented particularly actively or enthusiastically. Due to these various practical limitations, the irrigation related duties that regional officials could implement would have been limited to the level of routine inspections and management or perhaps slight repairs, along with taking charge of some judgements regarding irrigation facility water utilization disputes. In addition, the repair administration of the time, which can be confirmed through the Turfan documents, clearly has local restrictions. To summarize the above content, irrigation projects during the Tang era were implemented with relatively high frequency, but that does not lead credence to the argument that the Tang Dynasty placed great emphasis on water use projects. In addition, the strict legal procedures necessary for water use development were not specifically applied only to water use projects, but rather should be interpreted as a part of political institutional norms established throughout the Tang era administration.