Experts unanimously believe that Dujiangyan Dam was built on the basis of the masses' wisdom which was drawn upon by Li Bing. Li Bing and his son certainly turned out to be the most striking symbolic figures among the heroes harnessing floods in ancient Shu.

As to the whole world, ancient Egypt, Babylon, Greek Rome and many other countries in that era also built irrigation systems on the large scale. However, those huge dams were buried into the historical ashes and dust.

On the contrary, with its Taoism principle of "Heaven follows Tao and Tao follows the nature" and its maxim of "When the river flows in zigzags, cut a straight channel"and "When the riverbed is wide and shallow, dig it deeper", Dujiangyan Dam carries the brand of "benefiting the whole country" ,still playing a significant role today, and will not be buried even as the Chinese civilization undergoes the test of time.

Ceremony of releasing water

One representative program in the ceremony of releasing water is to stump the wood tripod dam for releasing water.

Principal sacrificial host in traditional costumes reads sacrificial address on the spot of the mysterious ancient Fish Mouth Dam and sings high praise of the two kings (Li Bing and his son) who had already passed away and were embodied as immortals.

The particular ceremony of releasing water starts formally followed by three rumbles of canon.

A man, tall and tough, raises the sharp axe in his hands to cut the back cudgel of the first wood tripod and then people on the bank unanimously pull the rope with strength, accompanied with fitful loud shouts. In a flash, scores of wood tripods across the river section fall into the water one after another. The dam for temporary use collapses suddenly and is swallowed by the turbulent water rushing towards the direction of Bottle-Neck Channel.