Ma Jun

Ma Jun (馬 鈞; * 200 or 220 in Fufeng; † 265 ), adult name Deheng (徳 衡), was a Chinese mechanical engineer and government official during the Three Kingdoms period in China . His most important invention was a compass car , a vehicle that indicated the direction via a planetary gear .

Mainly because of this invention, Ma Jun is one of the most important engineers and inventors of his time alongside Zhang Heng from the Eastern Han Dynasty . The invention was subsequently repeated by others, for example the astronomer and mathematician Zu Chongzhi (429-500). In the later medieval dynasties , Ma Jun's compass cart was combined in one device with an odometer , which was used to measure distances .

Life

According to his friend and contemporary, the poet and philosopher Fu Xuan (217-278), Ma Jun was born in Fufeng in the valley of the Wei River between Wugong and Baoji . In his youth, Ma Jun traveled through what is now Henan Province and graduated with a minor in literature as bo shi . Despite this rank, he was relatively poor, but his dexterity made him pay attention to mechanical devices and inventions.

He entered the service of the Northern Wei Dynasty and became an overseer and advisor (Ji Shi Zhong). He oversaw the construction of the Chong Hua Palace of the Emperor of Wei Cao Rui . Ma Jun was known as a talented designer of weapons and implements and was particularly praised by Fu Xuan . Fu Xuan noted that Ma Jun was not a good public speaker and rhetorician and was poor at convincing others of his ideas because he was an introvert . But his mechanical genius has been extolled and he is widely regarded as one of the greatest mechanical engineers of ancient China.

Engineering achievements

Replica of a compass cart

One of Ma Jun's early inventions was an improved silk loom . At that time, looms had fifty healds and fifty pedals or levers, some up to sixty. Ma Jun's machine only had twelve, which not only made it faster and more efficient, but also allowed for new, more complicated patterns.

While serving at court, he argued with Permanent Advisor Caotang Long and Cavalry General Qin Lang over the concept of the compass cart . The minister and the general scoffed at Ma Jun for believing historical texts that such a car had been invented in the past (according to the legend of the Yellow Emperor), which they considered to be nonsensical, non-historical myths. Ma Jun disagreed with the argument "Empty words cannot be compared with a practical test". After receiving instructions on how to build something like this, he completed his fully functional machine in 255. With his mechanically driven compass car, he built the first historically verifiable subtraction gear. The compass cart was later reinvented in China by Zu Chongzhi (429–500) because the original plans had been lost.

He also built a hydraulically powered mechanical puppet theater for the emperor . It was much more complicated than that of Liu Bang , the first emperor of the Han Dynasty , and is similar to what the Greek Heron of Alexandria built. Joseph Needham describes Ma Jun's mechanical theater in Sanguo Zhi , Records of the Three Kingdoms :

“Various people offered the Kaiser theater with puppets that could be set up in various scenes, but all of them motionless. The emperor asked if it could be made mobile, and Ma Jun said it could. The emperor wanted the whole thing more witty. Ma Jun was ordered to do it. He modeled a wooden wheel that rotated horizontally and was invisibly driven by water. He arranged pictures of singing girls, playing music and dancing, and when a particular doll came on the stage, other wooden men would drum and puff flutes. Ma Jun also built a mountain with wooden images dancing on balls, throwing swords, hanging overhead from rope ladders, and generally moving with ease. Government employees could be seen in their offices, roosters fought, and everything was constantly changing and moving in a nifty manner and in a hundred variations. "

Possibly inspired by this incredible mechanical puppet theater, Qu Zhi did something similar with wooden puppets in the following Jin Dynasty (265–420). Joseph Needham notes that he was famous for his house of wooden dolls, with pictures that opened doors and bowed, and for his rat market, which had figures that automatically closed doors when the rats tried to run out.

Ma Jun also built a chain pump for irrigation, though not the first. The philosopher Wang Chong gave a first description from the year 80 in his “ Discourses Weighed in the Balance ”. The engineer Bi Lan also built a series of chain pumps for irrigation and water supply outside the capital Luoyang in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Ma Jun built his pump for a garden in Luoyang for the Emperor of Wei, Cao Rui.

See also

• List of inventors
• List of engineers
• Empire of China
• Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms
• The story of the three kingdoms

literature

• Lance Day and Ian McNeil: Biographical Dictionary of the History of Technology . Routledge, New York 1996, ISBN 0415060427
• Joseph Needham: Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 2 . Caves Books, Ltd., Taipei 1986

Web links

• Sciencemuseum: Chinese South-pointing chariot (with picture)

Individual evidence

1. ^ Day & McNeil, 461.

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Ma is the family name here, Jun is the first name.