山西保存豐富的水利文獻，因此成為研究者關注的焦點。現今學界已將水利視為山西歷史發展的主軸。本文試圖將水利放到山西的自然環境與制度變遷的過程中，重新檢視水利對山西社會的意義，並且透過官員、水利領導者以及實際用水者的眼光，分析水利對於日常生活的影響。由各種不同觀點的討論可以發現，山西環境的不穩定因素，使水利所能發揮的效能有限。而明中後期的賦役改革，雖然移轉民間自行管理水利，但實際上官府更嚴格以土地等則來規範水利開發以及水利事務的運作。以至於民間水利組織不僅要修復環境因素造成的損壞，更要回應官府對賦役的要求。身在其中的百姓，雖然知道水利會帶來一定的利益，但是他們也清楚隨之而來的是各式各樣的控制。是故，日常生活中的水利並非山西社會共同追求的目標，而是各種身分的人面對動態的環境與制度時，所做的回應與彼此的交互作用。

Rich historical documents relating to irrigation management have been preserved in Shanxi, attracting the attention of researchers. Scholars already regard irrigation as a major theme in Shanxi’s historical development. This paper attempts to situate irrigation in the context of environmental and institutional change, re-examining the significance of irrigation in Shanxi society. Further, this paper analyzes the influence of irrigation on daily life through the eyes of officials, irrigation leaders, and peasants. By discussing irrigation from a variety of different perspectives, it can be seen that the instability of Shanxi’s environment was the factor limiting the efficacy of irrigation. Although tax and corvée reforms implemented in the mid to late Ming made ordinary people take on irrigation management, in reality local officials used the land-water-corvée principle to even more strictly regulate irrigational development and affairs. This was the case to such an extent that, in their operations, non-governmental irrigation organizations not only had to make good the damage caused by environmental factors, but also had to respond to demands for tax or corvée labor from the local authorities. Caught up in this situation, however, though people knew that irrigation brought certain benefits, they also clearly understood that when they used irrigation they became subject to various outside controls. As a consequence, water conservation through effective irrigation was by no means a common goal of everyday life shared by all in Shanxi society, but rather a response to environmental and institutional change, and the result of mutual interaction between people of various identities.