水戏，主要包括游泳和龙舟竞渡等水上运动形式。它源于原始人类的渔猎生产活动。在历史的发展过程中，由于军事上的需要，提高了水上运动的技术水平；而与民间节日活动的紧密结合，又丰富了水上运动的形式，因而是具有民族特色的传统体育的重要组成部分。
Aquatic Sports
In ancient times, swimming and rowing grew out of the needs for fishing and fighting on water and developed, usually in connection with festivals, into sporting activities with a strong national colour, such as the dragon-boat race.
这幅壁画表现了一群活泼健美、生气勃勃的习水善泅者的形象。
Swimming among lotus flowers: A mural in Mogao Grotto No. 257 in Dunhuang, Gansu Province, built in the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534).
画面描绘了习水游泳者的各种姿态，人物活泼生动，形象逼真。
Churning through the waves: A Qing mural in Potala in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region.
铜钺一面的纹饰中，上部刻有双龙图案，下部为一组插羽饰的划船者。这是一幅反映龙舟竞渡活动的画面。
A bronze axe in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-475), excavated in 1976 in Yinxian County, Zhenjiang Province, with the upper part of the design showing a pair of dragons and the lower part some dragon-boat rowers wearing feathered headgear.
鼓胸有羽人划船纹六组，每组5、6 人，栩栩如生。
A bronze drum unearthed in 1976 in Guixian County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, dating back to the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-AD25), depicting six crews in a dragon-boat race.
Another Western Han drum with a design of dragon boats, excavated in 1972 in Xilin County, Guangxi Province.