Irrigation projects in ancient China were numerous and different in size but were all built by certain constructive forms. As a rule, irrigation projects fall into two types, reservoir diversion projects and nonreservoir diversion projects, which both consist of dams, ditches and waterdiversion facilities. As waterdiversion facilities, dams classify into diversion dams, rolling dams and retaining dams by function but into earth dams, stone dams and earthstone dams by constructive material. As water supplying facilities, ditches consist of belt sewers, trunks, laterals and sublaterals with fishmouths and sluice gates as diversion facilities. It was by following the principle of favorable gravity irrigation and localconditionsbased measures under certain models that the dams were paid out and built, ditches lined and constructed, diversion facilities mated and made and the whole project preserved and serviced. In fact, some constructive models were remarkably advanced and highly technologyintensive.

irrigation projects in ancient China; farmlandirrigation; constructive model