Abstract:As a place for ancient students to learn art, recreation and cultivate their body and mind, the Academy Garden is an important part of the Academy in addition to the three spaces of lectures, book collection and sacrifice. It creates a quiet and comfortable environment for teachers and students through the combination of mountains and stones, water, flowers and trees, pavilions and other elements. The water is the most valued, so this paper focuses on the characteristics of water management in the garden of the academy, expounds the importance of water, analyzes the types and intentions of external water management and the form and meaning of internal water management, from the specific characteristics of water bodies to abstract symbols. In order to present the diversity and uniqueness of academy garden water management, and take this as the starting point to deeply understand the spiritual connotation of academy garden, so that we can enrich the research on water management in classical gardens.