客語陂塘詞彙探源及文化觀，旨在提出「陂塘」一詞，就其音義詞彙內涵來源而言，不宜寫作「埤塘」。因而就從古至今的典籍文獻與當今客語詞彙，不論是單字的「陂」，或是連詞的「陂塘」，加以論述之。並及於歷史上最早興建的陂塘，可追溯到春秋時代。因此，陂塘不只是表象的陂塘而已。
陂塘詞彙既然貫穿千古，自然形成深厚的文化。因而探討其與民生至為密切的灌溉水利的農業觀、精神生活的文學觀、倫理觀、環保觀、哲理觀，以見陂塘文化貫穿千古，價值鮮明，與人類生活息息相關。如今，更應加強陂塘的維護與建設。

The goal of tracing the origins and cultural roots of the word “Pi-Tang” (陂塘 - pond) in Hakka vocabulary is to prove that its interpretation must be deeper than the one that comes from its pronunciation and is usually written as 「埤塘」. In this dissertation we’ll discuss not only the independent word “Pi”「陂」but also the term “Pi-Tang”「陂塘」in the classical documents and modern Hakka vocabulary. The first Pi-Tang (pond) was built within the Spring and Autumn Period (722 BC - 481 BC) of Chinese history, thus we assume that term “Pi-Tang” must carry a number of meanings.
The word Pi-Tang has been used for thousands years in different cultural contexts and as a result has accumulated a variety of semantic meanings. In order to understand how “Pi-Tang” was used through the history, we intend to research its meanings from different aspects, such as: agriculture (irrigation and water conservancy), spiritual life (spiritual literature), ethics, environmental studies and philosophy. The researched term was strongly integrated in human life for thousands of years, which proves its significance.