Cultivated land since Han and Tang dynasties
Our country invented thunder very early, and used it to turn over the whole land, sow crops and carry out agricultural production. With the development of production, Reddy developed into a plow. But before the Warring States period, people only used stones, wood, bones and a small amount of copper soil preparation tools. Later, due to the emergence of Niu Geng and the rise of iron smelting industry, iron plows appeared in the Warring States period, and iron plows in the Warring States period were unearthed at Yanxiadu site in Yixian County, Hebei Province and Huixian County, Henan Province. The invention of the iron plough share is a remarkable achievement, which marks a new period of human social development and a new stage of human struggle to transform nature.
In the Han Dynasty, advanced production tools and farming methods were vigorously popularized, and plows were further developed and widely used throughout the country. Among the more than 0/00 pieces of iron plows unearthed after liberation, there are iron mouth plows, sharp-winged plows, tongue-shaped trapezoidal plows and large plows. The structure of plows in Han Dynasty can be seen from several plows unearthed from Han tombs in Pinglu and other places in Shanxi. At that time, the plow was made of iron, and there was already a plow wall device. Iron plough walls of the Han Dynasty were unearthed in Anqiu, Shandong, Zhongmou, Henan, Xi, Xianyang, Liquan and other places in Shaanxi. The invention of plow wall is an important development of plow. A plow without a plow wall can't achieve the purpose of breaking soil and loosening soil to make ridges for an acre, and it must rely on the help of hoes and shovels. With the plow wall, the soil can be turned over and broken, and the plow wall has certain directionality, so the soil can be turned to one side, and weeds can be buried under it as fertilizer, and at the same time it has the function of killing insects. There was no record of plow wall in Europe until the 11th century, and there was no plow wall device in China until the Han Dynasty, which was nearly a thousand years earlier than in Europe. The wooden part of the plow in Han Dynasty consists of the plow shaft, the plow tip (the plow handle), the plow bottom (the plow bed), the plow arrow and the plow cross. It can be seen that the plows in the Han Dynasty have been basically shaped, including not only advanced plow wall devices, but also plow arrow devices that can adjust the depth of cultivated land. The plows in the Han Dynasty have two shafts and one shaft, which are basically carried by two cows. Because it is a straight-axis long-axis plow, it is not flexible enough to turn around when plowing, which is laborious and inefficient. Nevertheless, compared with the plough in the Warring States period, it has made great progress.
In the Tang Dynasty, Lu Guimeng's Reggie Classic described in detail the parts, dimensions and functions of the plow at that time. The structure of this plow is composed of a plow blade and a plow wall made of metal, and eleven parts made of wood, such as a plow bottom, a pressure blade, a plow arrow, a plow shaft, a plow tip, a plow evaluation, a plow floor and a plow plate. These components have their special functions and reasonable forms. The plow walls are above the plow, and they are a curved composite device for digging and turning the soil; The bottom of the plow and the pressure hammer tightly fix the plow head, which enhances the stability of the plow; Policy ■ is to defend the plow wall; Plow arrow and plow evaluation are devices used to adjust the depth of cultivated land. By adjusting the plow evaluation and the plow arrow, the included angle between the plow shaft and the plow bed is widened or narrowed, so that the plow head becomes deeper or shallower. You can also master the width of cultivated land through the plow tip; Its plow shaft is short and curved, and the shaft head has a rotatable plow plate, and livestock use a set of ploughing ropes to pull the plow. The whole plow is quite complete, advanced and portable, and it is very convenient to turn around when ploughing, and the buried depth is easy to control, which is labor-saving and efficient.
The plow written by Lu Guimeng is a typical example of the relatively complete stage of China's plow development. Its structure is much more complete and complicated than that of Qin and Han dynasties, and it is basically the same as that of modern plows. This is the result of the continuous exploration and creation of the broad masses of working people in the long-term practice of production struggle, and it is the crystallization of the wisdom of working people.
After the Song and Yuan Dynasties, the forms of plows became more diversified, and many new plows were created in various places. Ploughs are used in paddy fields in the south, plowshares are used in dry land in the north, plowshares are used to cultivate grasshoppers, plowshares are used to cultivate wasteland such as reeds and Artemisia, and hoes are used to cultivate ridges.
According to historical records, in the whole ancient society, the development level of China plow has been in the forefront of the development of agricultural technology in the world.
Ding cymbals, a seeder in Han Dynasty
China had seeding machinery in the Warring States period. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, Zhao created and invented a three-legged cymbal that could play three lines at the same time on the basis of the one-legged cymbal and the two-legged cymbal. One cow pulls, one person leads the cow, and one person helps to plow the field, so one hectare of land can be planted in one day, which greatly improves the sowing efficiency. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty once ordered the popularization of this advanced seeder throughout the country.
The restoration model of Ding cymbals in the Han Dynasty is now on display in the Museum of Chinese History. Its structure is as follows: the following three small shovel blades are used for ditching, which are called shovel feet. The middle of the back half is empty, and the distance between the feet is one foot. Three wooden hollow cymbal legs, the lower ends of which are embedded in the cymbals, and the upper ends of which are communicated with the seed grooves. The front part of the lower part of the seed box is communicated with the front barrel through a rectangular opening. There is an opening below the back of the bucket, and shutters are movably installed and fastened with wedges. In order to prevent the seeds from blocking the opening, a bamboo stick is hung on the post of the tiller handle, the front end of the bamboo stick extends into the lower part of the tiller and is fastened, and an iron block is tied in the middle. There are two shafts on both sides of the cymbal, which can accommodate a cow. There is a cymbal handle in the back.
Before sowing, according to the seed type, seed size, soil moisture and other conditions, adjust the gate of the bucket mouth so that the amount of seeds flowing out at a certain time is just right. Then put the seeds to be sown into the bucket and pull them with cows, one holding the cows and the other holding the cymbals. By controlling the height of the tiller handle, the tiller can adjust the depth of the tiller foot into the soil, and also adjust the sowing depth. When walking and shaking, the seeds automatically flow out of the tiller bucket and are divided into three strands and scattered in the soil under the tiller. On the wooden frame behind the tiller, a square wooden stick is hung with two ropes and placed horizontally on the sowing ridge. With the advance of tillering, the soil is automatically raked and the seeds are covered under the soil, thus completing the tasks of ditching, sowing and covering at one time. Then it is compacted with a roller, so that the seeds and soil are closely attached together and germinate and grow.
All the functions of the latest modern seeder are just to finish the four processes of ditching, sowing, covering soil and compacting one after another, while the three-legged cymbals in China more than two thousand years ago have already completed the first three processes with the same machine. It was indeed a great achievement to create such an advanced seeder at that time. This is one of the great inventions of ancient agricultural machinery in China.
Irrigation machinery. keel water wheel
Keel waterwheel is one of the most famous agricultural irrigation machinery in ancient China. Dragon bone car is called rollover in ancient books. According to the records of the later Han Dynasty, this irrigation machine was invented at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. At first, water was irrigated by turning the wheel shaft manually. Later, due to the development of axle and the progress of machinery manufacturing technology, the keel waterwheel powered by animal power, wind power and water power was invented and widely used throughout the country. According to the different power, keel waterwheel has the following kinds.
Man-keel waterwheel Man-keel waterwheel is powered by manpower, and it uses pedal and hand. Wang Zhennong's Book in the Yuan Dynasty and Lin Qing's Book of River Tools in the Qing Dynasty described the dragon bone car in more detail. Except for railings and sill piles, the car body is made of wood, which is two feet long, four inches to seven inches wide and about one foot high. A sidewalk board is erected in the trough, which is the same as the width of the trough and one foot shorter than both ends of the trough board, and is used to place large and small axles. Up and down the sidewalk, the whole perimeter is connected by a keel plate with wooden pins, which is very similar to the skeleton of a dragon, so it is called a dragon bone car. There are four crutches at both ends of the upper shaft, which are placed between the wooden frames on the shore. People hold the wooden frame and step on crutches with their feet, which will drive the keel leaves below to move up along the wooden trough, scrape the water ashore and flow into the ground. The keel plate leaves bypass the upper shaft, then move down on the upper edge of the paving plate, bypass the lower shaft and wipe again. In this way, the water is constantly driven ashore from the lower part. This is the structure and working process of the dragon bone car.
Due to human resources, the water-drawing capacity of the human keel waterwheel is not large enough, but it can be used anywhere near the water surface, where two people can step or shake together, or only one person can step or shake. It is very convenient and popular, and it is a widely used agricultural irrigation machinery.
In the early Southern Song Dynasty, the keel waterwheel had a new development, and a keel waterwheel powered by animal power appeared, which was a new stage of the development of keel waterwheel. The structure of its waterwheel is the same as that mentioned above, but there is a new improvement in power machinery. A vertical shaft is installed on the horizontal shaft at the upper end of the waterwheel, and a large vertical shaft stands next to it. A large horizontal gear is installed in the middle of the vertical shaft to connect the teeth of the horizontal gear and the vertical gear. A big cross bar is installed on the vertical shaft, so that the cattle can pull the cross bar to rotate, and after the transmission of two gears, the waterwheel is driven to rotate and the water is scraped up. Because the animal power is relatively large, the waterwheel can be lifted to a relatively large height and the amount of water drawn is relatively large.
In the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Zhen's "Agricultural Book" also recorded that water turned to keel waterwheel. It can be seen that the invention of this machine should be nearly 700 years before the writing of agricultural books, about the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty. Its installation and waterwheel are exactly the same as the previous waterwheel. Its power machine is installed by the fast-flowing river. First, set up a big wooden frame, erect a rotating shaft in the center of the big wooden frame, and install two big cross wheels on the rotating shaft. The lower lying wheel is a water wheel, and a plurality of blades are installed on the water wheel, so that the water wheel rotates under the impact of water. The upper horizontal wheel is a big gear, which is connected with the vertical gear on the upper shaft of the water tanker. Put the waterwheel in the deep ditch dug by the river bank, and the running water will impact the waterwheel to rotate. The horizontal gear will drive the vertical gear on the waterwheel to rotate, and the vertical gear will also drive the waterwheel to rotate, driving the river to flow from the deep ditch in the river to the shore and into the field to irrigate crops.
If the water source is relatively high, it can be made into a large vertical waterwheel, which can be directly installed on the rotating shaft of the waterwheel to drive the waterwheel to rotate, eliminating two large gears.
A pair of large wooden gears are applied to the irrigation machinery driven by running water, which transfers the rotation of the water wheel to the shaft of the water wheel and drives the water wheel to wipe water for irrigation. This is a great progress in machinery manufacturing in Yuan Dynasty, and it is also a great achievement for people to use natural forces to benefit mankind.
Advanced grain processing machinery-water hammer and water mill
After grain is harvested and threshed, it must be processed into rice or flour before it can be eaten. China invented many grain processing machinery in ancient times, such as grinding, grinding, grinding, turning, rolling and so on. , and later invented the hydrodynamic hydrodynamic water mill, water mill. These machines are efficient and versatile, and they are important inventions in agricultural machinery.
Water mill is a kind of machine that uses water to grind rice, which appeared in the late Western Han Dynasty. Huan Tan's New Theory of Huan Zi in Han Dynasty (about 23 BC-50 BC) recorded water land.
The power machine of water hammer is a large vertical waterwheel with several blades, and the length of the shaft varies according to the number of water hammers driven. There are some dials on the shaft. A roller has four dials, and four rollers need sixteen dials. The moving plate is used to move the rod. A pillar sets up a wooden pole, and a conical stone is installed at one end of the wooden pole. Put the rice to be processed in the stone mortar below. The running water impacts the waterwheel to make it rotate, and the shifting plate on the shaft moves the tip of the hammer rod, so that the hammers land together for rice threshing. Using water hammer, it can be processed day and night.
Water rows can be set on both sides of the stream. According to the level of water potential, people have taken some different measures. If the water potential is relatively small, you can use wooden boards to block the water and let the water flow through the waterwheel from the side, which can increase the speed of the water flow and enhance the impact. The number of driving cymbals can be determined according to the hydraulic power, and more can be installed in places with large hydraulic power and less can be installed in places with small hydraulic power. Setting more than two cymbals is called connecting cymbals. Commonly used, it is usually four cymbals.
Mill, formerly known as Zhuan Xu, was called Mill in Han Dynasty. This is a machine that processes rice, wheat and beans into flour. The mill is made of two flat cylindrical stones with a certain thickness. These two stones are called grinding fans. There is a short vertical shaft made of iron in the middle of the lower fan, and a corresponding empty sleeve in the middle of the upper fan. After the two fans are combined, the lower fan is fixed and the upper fan can rotate around the shaft. On the opposite sides of the two fans, there is an empty chamber called grinding chamber, and the periphery of the chamber is made into falling grinding teeth. There are grinding eyes on the upper fan. When grinding, the grains flow into the grinding chamber through the grinding eyes, are evenly distributed around, are ground into powder, flow from the gap to the grinding disc, and are screened to remove bran and the like to obtain flour. It is people, animals and water that grind. The mill driven by water was invented in the Jin Dynasty. The power part of the waterwheel is a horizontal waterwheel. The upper fan of the mill is installed on the vertical shaft of the wheel, and the running water drives the mill to rotate. This kind of mill is suitable to be installed in the place where the water impact force is relatively large. If the impact of water is relatively small, but the amount of water is relatively large, another form of water mill can be installed: the power machine is a vertical wheel, and a gear is installed on the axle, which is connected with the gear installed at the lower part of the grinding shaft. The rotation of the water wheel turns the mill through gears. These two kinds of water mills are relatively simple in structure and widely used.
With the progress of mechanical manufacturing technology, people later invented a water mill with complex structure. A waterwheel can drive several mills to rotate at the same time. This kind of water mill is called a water mill. In Wang Zhennong's book, there is a record about water grinding. The waterwheel of this kind of hydraulic processing machinery is high and wide, and it is a vertical wheel, so it is necessary to use a flushing waterwheel. The axle is thick and the length should be moderate. Three gears are installed on the shaft at regular intervals, each gear is connected with a grinding tooth, and the middle three grinding teeth are connected with two adjacent grinding teeth. The rotation of the waterwheel drives the middle mill through gears, and the middle mill rotates, and then drives the next mill through the wooden teeth on the mill. In this way, a waterwheel can drive nine mills to work at the same time.