A Recarved Tradition: The Formation and Reorganization of Order in Water Management in Grassroots Society in Early Modern Shanxi

Longwang (Dragon King) Temple (Longwang miao) in the village of Xihai in Quwo county, Shanxi province, to reconstruct the formation of traditions concerning the use and management of water. The traditions surrounding the use and management of the hot spring’s water had their origins during the Mongol conquest of North China in the thirteenth century and were established as a result of the reconstruction that followed a major earthquake in the early fourteenth century. They were further reorganized in the first half of the eighteenth century on the pretext of reviving a former tradition and were reconfirmed in the first half of the nineteenth century through the production of recarved steles. This phenomenon occurred concurrently with the formation of the patrilineal descent group of the Jin lineage of Quwo county, and steles that were augmented or recarved played an important role in the process of reviving tradition. “Water books” (shuice) and water management steles, which served as the basis for water use rights, cross-referenced each other and served as backups, as it were, so that one could be restored by means of the other if either was lost. Furthermore, together with local gazetteers, these three forms of records made up for the deficiencies of each while changing in content from time to time. This is similar to the relationship between lineage genealogies, steles, and local gazetteers in the formation of order in patrilineal descent groups.