The wooden ox (木牛流馬; ''lit.'' wooden ox and flowing horse) was a single-wheeled cart with two handles (i.e., a
wheelbarrow
A wheelbarrow is a small hand-propelled vehicle, usually with just one wheel, designed to be pushed and guided by a single person using two handles at the rear, or by a sail to push the ancient wheelbarrow by wind. The term "wheelbarrow" is mad ...
) whose invention within China is sometimes credited to
Zhuge Liang
Zhuge Liang ( zh, t=諸葛亮 / 诸葛亮) (181 – September 234), courtesy name Kongming, was a Chinese statesman and military strategist. He was chancellor and later regent of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period. He is r ...
while he served
Shu Han
Han (; 221–263), known in historiography as Shu Han ( ) or Ji Han ( "Junior Han"), or often shortened to Shu (; pinyin: ''shŭ'' <
around the year 230 CE. The wooden ox purportedly allowed a single man to transport enough food to supply four others for up to three months, and this allowed for the feeding of large armies in the field. The wooden ox is pulled from the front, like an ox with a
yoke
A yoke is a wooden beam sometimes used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load when working in pairs, as oxen usually do; some yokes are fitted to individual animals. There are several types of yoke, us ...
; the flowing horse is pushed from behind. The basic device, however, appears to have been recorded centuries earlier in stone carvings dating from as early as 206 BCE.
References
External links
* https://web.archive.org/web/20070929213048/http://140.116.71.92/acmlab/newpage14.htm - A page dealing with the reconstruction of this machine, also citing some sources.
Chinese inventionsScience and technology in ChinaShu Han
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