木牛流马

The Mubei Liumao was a form of transport invented by Zhuge Liang, the Prime Minister of the Shu Han state during the Three Kingdoms period. It consisted of two parts: the Mubei and the Liumao. According to historical records, it was used from the ninth to the twelfth year of Jianxing (231–234 AD) during Zhuge Liang's northern campaign. Its capacity was sufficient to carry "one year's grain," which is estimated to be over 400 jin. The daily travel distance was "up to several dozen li for a single unit and up to thirty li for a group," providing food for the ten thousand troops of the Shu Han state.

The Mumen and Liuluma are the same type of transportation tools, and it is more appropriate to call them Mumen. It is a wooden transportation tool pushed by human power with four legs, weighing about 50 kilograms and carrying about 200 kilograms. It uses the principle of lever to save effort, and the weight on the shoulders varies regularly from 0 to 75 kilograms. It can walk on roads where real cattle can pass, such as mountainous and muddy roads, which is unlike the round wheel car. When the road conditions are good, the round wheel car is much more practical than the Mumen and Liuluma, which is one of the main reasons why the Mumen and Liuluma are not widely used and have been lost.

Three Kingdoms: The Unofficial History in Popular Forms - The Wooden Ox and the Stream Horse - Transportation - Four-legged Walking - Lever Principle

1. Overview of the Wooden Ox and the Stream Horse

Whether the Mu Niu Liu Ma actually existed, and whether the Mu Niu Liu Ma described in ancient books is real, there has been much debate. The author, based on the Mu Niu Liu Ma construction method recorded in the twenty-first volume of the "Three Kingdoms Popular Romance," combined with relevant materials from "The Three Kingdoms" and "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms," conducted research and presented his own opinions. He drew plans and built models, confirming the authenticity and credibility of the Mu Niu Liu Ma.

The wooden ox and flowing horse have practical application value.

The wooden ox and horse model is a four-legged transportation tool resembling a real ox. Due to its four-legged walking, it can move on uneven and muddy roads, which is difficult or impossible for a round wheel (single or four-wheel) vehicle to move on. Because of its four-legged walking, it is less likely to slip, and it can automatically "brake" when stopping on a slope. These advantages make it suitable for mountain transportation.

Due to the use of oxen and carts for transportation, the drivers of oxen need to consume grain and fodder, which is a disadvantage of human-powered transportation. However, there are advantages to human-powered transportation: Firstly, the drivers of oxen are also soldiers, who can protect the grain and fodder, reducing the need for a dedicated guarding team. Secondly, the drivers of oxen can be deployed to battle when not transporting grain; and thirdly, using the time during leisure battles for transportation is very economical and cost-effective.

The above explanation indicates that the wood ox and flowing horse are capable of 'freely advancing and retreating' and 'requiring little human labor' and 'not requiring the ox to eat or drink.' Therefore, they have practical application value in mountainous transportation.

1.3 The wood ox and horse flow is a single type of transportation tool, not two.

One of the reasons is that in ancient books, "木牛" or "流马" are rarely mentioned separately; they are often mentioned together as "木牛流马". The second reason is that the original text separately lists the methods for making "木牛" and "流马", but the method for making "木牛" only describes the appearance of the "木牛", without mentioning any manufacturing data. On the contrary, the method for making "流马" only includes manufacturing data without any description of its appearance. If we combine them, it forms a whole, which has both the description of the appearance and the manufacturing data. Only by considering the methods for making "木牛" and "流马" as the same type of transportation tool, can we prove the authenticity of "木牛流马". The phrase "流马尺寸之数" in "三国志" can better explain that the latter part is just "尺寸之数".

In the original text of the method of making wooden oxen, it is mentioned that the characteristics of the ox—the horns—and the fact that the movement is as slow as an ox but not as fast as a horse, which suggests that the original design was for wooden oxen, and it was only later that it came to be known as the flowing horse.

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