We verify the Invariance Conjectures of tautological equations in genus two. In particular, a uniform derivation of all known genus two equations is given.

A new tautological equation of $\bar{M}_{3,1}$ in codimension 3 is derived and proved, using the invariance condition explained in earlier works.

The main goal of this paper is to introduce a set of conjectures on the relations in the tautological rings. In particular, the framework gives an efficient algorithm to calculate all tautological equations using only finite dimensional linear algebra. Other applications are also indicated.

We prove that all monomials of κ-classes and ψ-classes are independent in $R^k(\ocM_{g,n})/R^k(\partial\ocM_{g,n})$ for all k≤[g/3]. We also give a simple argument for κ_l≠0 in $R^l(\ocM_g)$ for l≤g−2.

The aim of Part II is to explore the technique of invariance of tautological equations in the realm of Gromov--Witten theory. The main result is a proof of Invariance Theorem (Invariance Conjecture~1 in [14]), via the techniques from Gromov--Witten theory. It establishes some general inductive structure of the tautological rings, and provides a new tool to the study of this area.