Evolutionary statecraft

This research examines the evolution of statecraft in the field of hydrological management by focusing on the roles of the Ming state and local elites in administrative coordination, regulation of funding and corvée, and formulation of hydrological knowledge. The three-phase evolution of hydrological management over the course of the Ming dynasty, which this research adopts, is based on the analysis of local gazetteers, literary works of bureaucrats and local elites, and hydrological specialists' books. A common characteristic in all these phases is the active role of the local elite, particularly in their sophisticated appeals for the state to be more active and proactive in maintaining good hydrological conditions. In the first phase (1360s-1450s), the state was not required to pay the people for their work on hydrological management. It was relatively easy for officials to launch large and routine projects. In the second phase (1460s-1570s), a shared view was that regional-scale hydrological management was necessary to keep the condition in good shape, and that furthermore it required the supervision of a regional hydrological authority. Since paying the public had become a noun, bureaucrats and local elites developed a variety of strategies to stabilize funding. Another important experiment was the "head land system" and the expansion of "mobilization based on landownership" to secure labor. The need to achieve effective use of funding and labor led to a critical development: the systematization of hydrological understanding. In the third and final phase (1570s-1640s), localization of hydrological management emerged as an important alternative to the "regional-scale hydrological management." Although the regional-scale approach, after one-century experiment, was eventually abandoned, this research shows that the consensus reached among bureaucrats and local elites during the second phase--that is, those who benefited should bear the cost, or the "principle of benefit"--built a sold foundation for them in this final phase to manage hydrological matters without the intervention of higher authorities.