Abstract: China’s agricultural water rights market has developed rapidly,but the number and scale of agricultural water rights transactions are small,and agricultural water rights transactions are limited to some areas. Revealing the driving mechanism of agricultural water rights trading（AWRT）is of great significance for building an active agricultural water rights market. The driving mechanism of AWRT still lacks a systematic classification method,therefore the type and characteristics of the driving mechanism of AWRT cannot be effectively judged. A classification framework of the driving mechanism of AWRT is constructed from the two perspectives of transaction demand and transaction incentives of transaction subjects. The transaction demand is divided into four categories:the water rights allocation difference demand,the irrigation water use difference demand,the ecological restoration demand and the economic development demand. The transaction incentive is divided into three categories:the water rights constraint incentive,the water use cost saving incentive and the water rights buy-back incentive. A combination of transaction demand and transaction incentives yields nine types of AWRT driving mechanisms. Based on this method,the driving characteristics of typical cases of AWRT in China are analyzed. In addition,the driving path of intra-agricultural water rights trading and inter-industry AWRT is sorted out. The results show that the administrative cost of the water rights constraint type AWRT is high,and this type is only applicable to areas where water ecology has seriously deteriorated. Water rights repurchase type AWRT is difficult to sustain due to big financial pressure. Cost-saving type AWRT can generate sufficient economic incentives,which has the biggest development potential. This study can deepen the understanding of China′s AWRT,and provide a basis for further quantitative research on the driving mechanism and trading potential of AWRT. It can also provide a reference for the construction of suitable agricultural water rights markets in different regions.