“Shui” is a pictographic word. In oracle bone inscriptions, it looks like the flowing water; while in the small seal script, it is almost unchanged: still assuming the shape which seems to be the water vein in the middle and the flowing water on both sides. In the regular script, the shape of the character is what we write now – “水”, but we can vaguely distinguish the meanderingly flowing form. The character is also a radical of Chinese characters; the characters taking “shui” as a radical mostly refer to the names of rivers or water conservancy, the flowing of water, or the property or state of water.

Water is the indispensible medium of environmental circulation as well as the human body. The ancient Chinese had the saying of “five elements”, one of which refers to “water”. For the ancient Chinese, water sometimes would be the cause of a disaster, just as the floods. Therefore, the irrigation works have been attached much importance by the Chinese of all ages.