| The traditional waterwhee mentioned in this paper is an equivalent of "rollover" and "tube waterwheel" normally called by the general people. It is a large-scale farming tool that can draw water continuously from the ground-surface water in the rivers, lakes, or pools, and is mainly applied to lifting water to the high ground or drain water in the low-lying farmland. Due to the reason that the traditional agriculture rely heavily on irrigation, waterwheel irrigation had played a very important role in agricultural production; especially in the crop-planted area in the south, where the waterwheel is an indispensable tool for every family. People always use the waterwheel to drain and irrigate, so that the water distribution and regional water conservancy can be improved, and the goal of promoting the agriculture production can be achieved. Through irrigation and drainage, the irrigation area of the paddy field can be expanded and the yield can be increased; on the other hand, the loss caused by the flood and the drought would be alleviated and a certain of amount of yield can be ensured. While promoting the agriculture economy, the traditional waterwheel has been developing and improving itself continuously, thus possesses four distinct features: firstly, it emerged at a very early time. The history of the waterwheel is between 1800 years and 1900 years, which is 1,500 years earlier than the invention of the Western waterwheel. Secondly, the traditional waterwheel has a variety of types, a variety of forms, and is driven by a variety of powers. In order to adapt to the complex hydrological and geographical conditions in different regions, as well as to meet the demand of agriculture production that is developing continuously, the traditional waterwheel has been adapted to various local conditions, and has developed into a "big family":for the rollover, there have hand-driven rollover, treading rollover, ox-driven rollover, water-driven rollover; for the tube waterwheel, there have water-driven tube waterwheel, donkey-driven waterwheel, lofty-drawing tube waterwheel, as well as vertical water-lifting waterwheel; for the powers that drive the waterwheel, there are animal power, water power, wind power apart from man power. In a word, the traditional waterwheel can be considered a representative of the traditional irrigation tool. Third, the waterwheel has been applied in a wide range of areas, and the force to popularize it is quite strong. Besides popularization in the crop-planted area in the south, the waterwheel has been applied to many northern regions, even some oversea nations; Fourth, the economical effects brought forth by the waterwheel is obvious: the advancement of waterwheel technology can transformed into productivity, thus exert a great influence on agriculture production.The traditional waterwheel was firstly invented by Bi Nan at the end of the Han Dynasty, and was improved by Ma Jun in the Three Kingdoms period. It was then called "rollover", which is the predecessor of the later dragon-bone waterwheel. The invention of waterwheel had made a new epoch, in which human began to draw water from the rivers, lakes, pools or channels, and it also indicates the coming of "waterwheel age". The rollover was brought to the south by the immigrants from the northern region, and has become an important tool for the drainage and irrigation in the paddy fields of the southern region. During the Tang and Song Dynasty, with the establishment of the south-China economical center, the application of the rollover had been gradually popularized in the southern region, especially in the plain regions as well as regions of rivers and lakes, and has played an important role in the development of the southern crop-field economy. The tube waterwheel, which was driven by the water flow, was invented in the Tang Dynasty. The utilization of the water power was a symbol of the second apex of waterwheel development. Since the Song Dynasty, the tube waterwheel began to prosper, and had been popularized in some mountainous and hilly regions with abundant water resources, where it had become a powerful tool for irrigation. During the Song and Yuan Dynasty, the family of traditional waterwheel becomes systematic after a period of evolvement. During the Ming and Qing Dynasty, the traditional waterwheel had been improved further and developed into several types:one is the small-scale waterwheel run by hand, and the other is large-scale ,wind-driven rollover and waterwheel used solely in Lanzhou. The application of wind power had led the waterwheel technology to the third apex. Since the modern times, the development of traditional waterwheel came to a standstill; the waterwheel was comparably backward in the presence of the new irrigating and draining tools that were more advanced. Though in the 1950s and the 1960s the waterwheel had been improved in practical functions, eventually it was replaced by the new-type irrigating and draining tools under the circumstance of modernization and disappear from farmlands in the 1980s and the 1990s. And the "waterwheel age", which has dominated the farmland irrigation and drainage of nearly 2000 years, came to an end.The traditional waterwheel has a sophisticated internal structure, therefore it is of great difficulty to manufacture one, only depends on capenters. The invention of waterwheel is a manifestation for the wisdom of the ancient people, and their ideas of designing had been embodied in the manufacturing process of waterwheels, i.e., that is, make decisions according to conditions; save labor force; practice one's wisdom; explore more functions from one tool. The paper, through dissecting and analyzing the structure design, work principle, materials and techniques as well as visual design of the traditional waterwheel, has shown to the readers the relevant technical information of the traditional waterwheel. The presence of a great number of schematic diagrams, orthographic views, overall structure diagrams as well as partial structure diagrams in the paper has also made the image of waterwheel more intuitive and concrete.The waterwheel is an essential tool for drawing water in production and in daily life. The waterwheels have a wide-ranging functions, besides extensive application in agriculture production, i.e., irrigation and flood draining, it also helps a lot in some non-agricultural applications, such as grain-transporting by water and salt producing along the sea. Though the traditional waterwheel possesses an excellent efficiency, there are differences in the aspects of irrigating capability and irrigating for different types of waterwheels. In terms of capability or efficiency, the tube waterwheel is the most excellent, the wind-driven and the animal-driven waterwheel is the second excellent, then is the treading waterwheel, and the most inferior one is hand-driven waterwheel.The Ming and Qing Dynasty is a period in which the force of promotion for the waterwheel reached a peak and the waterwheel had been applied the most extensively, which was not only caused by the good natural environment, but also closely related with the social circumstances then. During that period, the processes of conserving water, drawing water and lifting water had been integrated as a single process; the waterwheel was used together with other irrigating tools; The waterwheel was applied and attached great importance of as the terminal technique of the irrigating technology; some local officials also took effort to promote the application of waterwheel and consider it a measure that would benefit the people. During that period, the number of areas where the traditional waterwheel had been applied was unprecedented comparing with the previous eras: abundant historical materials have shown that the application and promotion of the waterwheel existed in the southeast, the mid-east, the southwest, and the northern region in China during that period. In the regions of Jiangsu and Zhejiang province, Hubei and Hunan province, Guangdong and Guangxi province, as well as Sichuan province, each type of waterwheel had been applied, and the regional features of waterwheel application had been formed. With the expansion of crop-planted area, the waterwheel had also been promoted with great force in the northern regions, and among them the most typical is Beijing-Tianjin region and Lanzhou. The waterwheel reveals the general condition of the ancient Chinese science and technology. After the wind-driven waterwheel has been invented, it hadn't been achieved to the machine-driven stage in a long period. The paper tries to discuss the inter-relationships between the offerer (the carpenter), the medium (the government officials), and the receiver (the peasants), as well as the inborn deficiencies this relationship has, that is, the offerer and the receiver were too frail, while the medium was too strong, so there was a lack of motivation for the waterwheel to further develop.The effects and infiltration the waterwheel had for the society and life of ordinary people is complex. The ownership of waterwheels, as well as the distribution of waterwheel resources has revealed the characteristics of social classes and in ancient villages as well as the characteristics of inter-personal relationships in the traditional society; The various legends as well as the customs and emotional symbols formed in utilization of waterwheels has revealed the influence the waterwheel had exerted on the life, beliefs, and sense of value of the ordinary people. For example, the worship for the waterwheel existing extensively in the crop-growing regions can be regarded as a kind of "Dragon Worship", which reflected the social belief and practical sense of value of traditional Chinese people; the custom of writing on the waterwheels implied that the peasants had a strong wish for the waterwheels to lead a good harvest; the waterwheel chant, women drawing water, and waterwheel drums are all customs formed in the process of utilizing waterwheels, and they all reflected to the fullest degree the farming life with waterwheels as an essential part in the areas south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. There was an interactive relationship between the waterwheels and the traditional culture. On one hand, the waterwheel has an in-depth and comprehensive infiltration to people's production and daily life, thus forming a unique waterwheel culture; on the other hand, the society had marked a symbol on the waterwheel, through it the life and sense of value in traditional farming society can be reflected.From the perspective of machine history, the waterwheel had a complicated mechanism, including crank mechanism, wheel and axle mechanism, link mechanism and self-adapted mechanism, etc., all of which had embodied the characteristics of ancient Chinese machine and reflected the advanceness and progresses achieved by ancient Chinese science and technology, mainly in the aspects of the originality, comprehensiveness, and the complementariness of the technology; from the perspective of powers that drived the waterwheels, the rise from man-driven and animal-driven waterwheel to water-driven and wind-driven waterwheel had marked the peak level of motivation application, while representing the outstanding progress the Chinese ancient people had made in this aspect. Among the farming tools used for intensive cultivation, the waterwheel is the most advanced of the irrigating tools and could hardly be replaced by other equivalents. The plough and sowing tools and the waterwheels had played a specific role in farming activities respectively, and they had offered a strong technical support for agriculture production through cooperating with each other. Chinese waterwheel, compared with the farming tools used in the other parts of the world in the same era, can be regarded as an advanced one. China can be regarded as the birthplace of waterwheel technology. Since the Tang Dynasty, the technology of waterwheels had been spread to Korea and Japan in the eastern direction; to the southeastern Asian countries in the southern direction; and to the Western countries in the western direction. The waterwheel had promoted the local agriculture and made a certain contribution for the global agriculture civilization, therefore it had a proper place in the history of science and technology communication. Though the function of irrigation for the waterwheel has declined, people still make it a scenery spot as well as a symbol of the agriculture era, and show it in the modern medium. As an essential part of the traditional culture, the waterwheel re-displays a new kind of vigor as well as an aesthetic value that is unique: one is the visual beauty on the external; the other is technical beauty on the internal.Why do I make the waterwheel as the topic of my research? I don't mean to praise highly the technical connotation and technical level the traditional waterwheel has reflected; nor do I mean to recall the self-sufficient economy in the traditional society; My goal is to seek the valuable enlightenment the waterwheel has for the modern society, due to the reason that the progress of modern technologies are making it a scenery. This enlightenment can be summarized as three main points: first, the technical advancement can shine a lasting vigor only when it has been combined with natural environment; secondly, the natural resources should be exploited and utilized reasonably; third, the core value of the traditional waterwheel is the harmony between people, nature and society. |
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