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A combined study of mineral O isotopes and hydroxyl contents was carried out for the contacts between ultrahigh-pressure eclogite and gneiss from main hole of the Chinese Continental Scientific Drilling Project in the Sulu orogen. While there is a large δ18O variation from −8.3 to 7.3‰ for all minerals, different styles of mineral-pair fractionation occur at the boundaries of different lithologies. Both equilibrium and disequilibrium O isotope fractionations are observed between quartz and the other minerals, with reversed fractionations between omphacite and garnet in some samples of eclogite. This suggests that both eclogite and gneiss acquired their negative δ18O values by meteoric-hydrothermal alteration of their protoliths at high temperatures before subduction, and that fluid-assisted O isotope exchange did take place across the boundary of different lithologies at local scales during amphibolite-facies retrogression. Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy analysis yielded H2O concentrations of 50 to 1144 p.p.m. (by weight) for garnet and 139 to 751 p.p.m. for omphacite. The state of equilibrium or disequilibrium O isotope fractionations between omphacite and garnet are correlated with variations in their water content at local scales, indicating that the internally derived fluid plays a critical role in retrograde metamorphism during exhumation. The retrograde metamorphism results in mineral reactions and O isotope disequilibria between some of the minerals, but the fluid for retrogression was derived from the decompression exsolution of structural hydroxyl and thus internally buffered in the O isotope composition. A quantitative estimate suggests that a hand specimen (3 × 6 × 9 cm) of eclogite composed of 70% garnet and 30% omphacite can release 0.316 g water by the decompression exsolution of structural hydroxyl, which can form 14.4 g amphibole during exhumation. This provides sufficient amounts of water for the amphibolite-facies retrogression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]