Tashan Barrage is an irrigation project that was built during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) near Ningbo in the eastern part of East China's Zhejiang Province. The barrage could not only store water for irrigation, but also prevent floods from submerging the farmlands. As a very important and famous irrigation project, Tashan Barrage has played a very important role in Zhejiang's agricultural development.

Water is the lifeblood of agriculture. For thousands of years, diligent, brave, and intelligent Chinese people have been fighting with and using the rivers, lakes, and seas in China, building innumerable waterworks that have significantly boosted agricultural production. Consequently, hydrographic knowledge has developed considerably.

Among them, there are a lot of world-famous irrigation projects that were very sophisticatedly designed. Along the Yellow River drainage area, the major projects are the irrigation channels. In the regions between the Huaihe and Yangtze rivers as well as the latter and Hanjiang River, the main irrigation projects consist of many pools. In Southeast China, the main purpose of the waterworks is to hold back water via levies, thus turning wetland into fertile farmland. The famous projects include the Jinghu Lake project. In Northwest China, the main irrigation projects make use of the underground water or thawed snow water to building unique projects like the karez underground irrigation systems.

The construction of public waterworks was an important part in ancient governmental economic management in China. Many an emperor attached great importance on the construction of this agricultural infrastructure. For instance, Emperor Hanwudi in the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-24AD) went to inspect the Yellow River work site, and even beat a drum himself to stir up the morale.

The Chinese mastered the primitive irrigation technology back in the Xia Dynasty (about 2100-1600BC). The primary farm irrigation system, which included the damming, channeling, and drainage of water, was constructed in the Western Zhou Dynasty (about 1100-771BC).

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