Combining documentary research and primary fieldwork, this article focuses on the development of irrigation in Jiyuan and He’nei counties in northern Henan Province during the Ming and Qing dynasties1 The article addresses the institutional transformation and social changes that arose from the interactions between county governments and local dignitaries, the effects on canal technology, and the benefits of irrigation and agricultural development that the reformation of the water -control system brought about during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries1 Suggesting a dynamic examination of the extension of regional spatial relations, the author forsakes structural analysis models such as the water-control community argument, and p refers a broader yardstick to measure the social history of water resources in North Chinal.