preface
As the saying goes, the people take food as the sky, and one sentence tells the first position of agriculture in China's ancient economy and society. Xingnong was the foundation of the rulers of successive dynasties to revitalize the country and create a prosperous era, and agricultural production in ancient times was more dependent on natural conditions due to population and scientific and technological restrictions, of which water conservancy was a crucial factor affecting agricultural production. Turning over the annals of Chinese history, there are countless people who are famous for building water conservancy, from the ancient Da Yu Zhi Shui, to Li Bing of the Qin Dynasty building Dujiangyan, to the Ming Dynasty Zhang Juzheng's reform of Pan Ji's taming of water, until today's Three Gorges Project, all of which are famous for the water conservancy people. In addition to the construction of today's Three Gorges Dam for many reasons, other ancient water control deeds are mainly around agriculture and flood control, which shows the importance of water conservancy for agricultural production. Today, we will not talk about these people and deeds related to the construction of water conservancy for the time being, but from another perspective, we will explore an important tool of ancient agricultural water conservancy irrigation - the cylinder car.
Barrel truck
The historical origin of the barrel car
With the assistance of modern science and technology, today's agricultural irrigation has long ceased to use this traditional way, and most of the barrel trucks left behind in individual places are also used as historical and cultural relics for tourists to see. However, in ancient times, especially after the Sui and Tang dynasties, the barrel car was an indispensable tool for agricultural irrigation in many areas.
As a water-carrying instrument for agricultural use, the invention of the cylinder truck has a historical evolution. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, simple water lifting appliances for irrigation of farmland have appeared. Zhuangzi's "South China Classic" once recorded that the orange mallet used by the old man of Hanyin Baoweng was a tool for using the principle of leverage to obtain water, and then there were buckets, barrels, keel carts (also known as overturning cars) and barrel cars. Here briefly mention the keel car, also known as Kong Ming car, according to legend, was created by Bi Lan during the Eastern Han Ling Emperor period, and was promoted in shu Han after being improved by Zhuge Liang, the shu han minister, which is the predecessor of the barrel car, the principle of which is to use a series of live wooden boards into the sink, supplemented by a horizontal axis using human pedaling or using animal power to rotate, and the water of the Gouxi River is introduced into the field with the board. The barrel car was invented on the basis of the keel car after improvement.
Pedal keel cart
The principle and structure of the barrel car
Barrel truck was probably invented in the Sui Dynasty and flourished in the Tang Dynasty, with a history of more than a thousand years, is a kind of water lifting equipment that does not require human power, much more advanced than the previous irrigation tools, it can be said that the wisdom of the ancient Chinese people is crystallized.
The Tang Dynasty scholar Chen Tingzhang once described the barrel car in "Water Wheel Fu":
"Water can benefit things, and the wheel is curved." Lifting and lowering for the purpose of farmers, low wandering with the journey of the craftsman. The first collapse is scattered by electricity, and the Owan is transformed into a wind. Although the waves are broken in Chuanmei, there is no trace of good deeds; they are flowing on the surface of the waves, and there is sound all night. ”
In addition to praising the role of the barrel car and the momentum of operation, it also explains the principle of the operation of the barrel car. The original barrel trucks were built in the middle of the downstream stream and the canyon with flowing water, using the water flow to impact the wheel plate to drive the rotation of the entire wheel, so that the bamboo tube on the wheel enters the water with the rotation of the wheel, fills the water, and then leaves the water surface to rotate upwards. Because the radius of the bottom of the barrel is greater than the radius of the barrel mouth, so at a low place, the lowest position of the cylinder mouth is higher than the lowest position of the bottom of the cylinder, and the water is injected into the bamboo tube, and at a high place, the highest position of the bottom of the barrel is higher than the highest position of the barrel mouth, and the bamboo tube drains, so repeatedly, the cylinder car can continuously store water and drain, and the discharged water continues to water the farmland with the pre-built sink, and there is no need to provide power. This is the original drum truck - the water drum truck. Later, due to the limitations of the construction area of water rotary trucks and the low efficiency of irrigation, livestock rotary trucks and high-roller trucks were developed after improvement.
Livestock rotary truck, as the name suggests, is a drum truck that uses animal power to drive the rotation of the rotor to carry water for irrigation. The rotor of the livestock rotary car is not equipped with a water plate, but on the side of the horizontal shaft of the rotor is equipped with a supporting vertical gear, next to which a vertical shaft with a horizontal gear is erected, the vertical gear and the horizontal gear are closely connected, and the livestock rotates the vertical shaft, driving the rotation of the gear, and then driving the rotation of the rotor, so that the continuous completion of water storage and drainage.
Livestock car
The structure of the high-drum truck is to install a revolver on the field shore and in the water, and the rotor in the water should be half below the water level, and the position is lower than the rotor on the shore. The upper and lower two wheels are connected by ropes with many small bamboo tubes, and the water power or animal power rotates the rotor on the shore, driving the operation of the rope and the water wheel, so that the small bamboo cylinder on the rope is filled with water at the water wheel and returns to the rotor on the shore, and the water is automatically discharged into the sink and flows into the field. This kind of barrel car can adjust the position and structure according to the change of terrain, which is convenient for wide application.
High bowl truck
It can be said that although the principle is simple, the barrel truck has played a very important role in agricultural irrigation, and has been valued by successive rulers, making it a long-term development in China's history.
Application and dissemination of barrel trucks
Because of its advantages of sustainable irrigation without manpower, barrel trucks were widely used in ancient China, and were widely used in the hilly areas of southwest China and the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River in the northwest. It is also used in Yun, Gui, Sichuan, Gansu, Shaanxi, Guangdong and other places. According to historical records, the application of the Song Dynasty tube car is mainly concentrated in Hunan, Guangxi, Sichuan and other hilly areas, the Southern Song Dynasty poet Zhao Fan in the poem "Water Wheel" once described the use of the barrel car,
Most of the two sides of the strait are water wheels, which are created by human beings like gods. The mountains are dry and the lakes are flooded, but this abundance is every year.
The poem depicts the widespread use of the drum truck and its important role in responding to natural changes and regulating agricultural production.
In the Qing Dynasty, barrel cars were more widely used, almost all over the canyons, lakes and streams in southeast, south China, southwest China and other places. Liang Jiutu of the Qing Dynasty records in the "Miscellaneous Records of the Wisteria Pavilion":
"More residents in Guangdong, Zhejiang and Huguang are far apart from the boulders on both sides of the river, and the water is turbulent, and the trees and stones obstruct the water as a overturn."
The overturning car here refers to the barrel car, which was next to the hilly mountain stream at that time, and the frame car irrigated the farmland, which was a major agricultural scene in the southern hilly mountains of the Qing Dynasty. It played a great role in the development of agriculture at that time.
It is also recorded that the barrel car was brought to Japan in the Tang Dynasty with the Japanese envoys sent to Tang. The Book of the Japanese Taigun Fu "The Waterwheel Thing" records:
"It is rumored that the wind of the Tang Dynasty, the inconvenience of the canal weir, and the multi-structuring water wheel. A land without water, Ess does not lose its profits. The people here have no such preparations, and they are like scorched. It is advisable to look down at the people and make spare parts as a tool for agriculture. It is hand-turned, foot-stepped, and ox-fed back, etc., and is prepared to be cheap. ”
The catetocar was transmitted to Japan during the Tang Dynasty and was widely used, it is no longer just a tool for irrigating farmland, but also spread to Japan as a culture, promoting the exchange of Chinese and Japanese cultures.
The value of the tube car
Barrel truck as a kind of agricultural irrigation water lifting appliances, its application to the development of agriculture is of great significance, the barrel car is both a keel car and another kind of water lifting equipment for agricultural irrigation, and the keel car is different, the barrel car does not require manpower, driven by water power or animal power, repeated circulation of water intake and drainage, time-saving and labor-saving, widely used in agricultural irrigation, improve the efficiency of irrigation. In terms of the development of mechanical technology, the barrel car, as another kind of machinery with gear transmission, is an important achievement of the ancient people's research on gear transmission machinery, and has great progressive significance for promoting the development of ancient Chinese mechanical science and technology.
In addition to its own application value, as a great invention of ancient China, its cultural value is more prominent. As the Song Dynasty poet Li Chuquan described in "Tugui Wants to Give Water Wheels":
"Jiangnan water wheel is not a fake person, and the wise man's creation is really a great skill." A round of ten barrels and bets, the cycle under the up and down time. ”
The invention of the barrel car condensed the wisdom of the ancient Chinese working people, and its application made agricultural production to a certain extent promoted, making it popular with the people. Since then, a rack truck has been running repeatedly, and the grand scene of irrigating farmland has become a unique scenery in many areas in the south. In the cultural exchanges between countries, the barrel car as a symbol of Chinese culture has been brought to other countries in Asia, welcomed by the local area and widely used, and at the same time, it has also allowed Chinese civilization to spread overseas and become famous in all directions. Nowadays, with the advancement of science and technology, the barrel car as a major irrigation tool has become a history, but in many places, as a historical and cultural heritage with local characteristics, the barrel car has been preserved for tourists to see. The barrel car continues to run with the wheel of history, never stopping, its continuous operation symbolizes the continuous hard work and hard work of Chinese farmers in the field, and what follows is a bumper harvest and Guotai Min'an.