Chinese Plow（La charrue chinoise）

Chinese Plow（La charrue chinoise）

The envoys traveled through Shan-tung Province in early spring，and“all the country we have this day travelled through consists of arable land，a great part of which having been sown in the autumn，begins already to be covered with a delightful verdure.”[26]Van Braam also saw farmers work with plows，which，though simple，were“sufficient to turn up the strongest ground.”He was so amazed by the instrument that he admitted feeling that the Western plow was“inferior to theirs，”and was“resolved to buy one the first opportunity to carry out of the country with me.”So he did.The one he brought back became the model for drawings（see illustration 8），which enable today's readers to visualize this“excellent instrument for indifferent land.”

This plow is extremely simple.An iron plowshare is attached at the far end of the plow.The plow sole is also clearly visible.The shaft and the set of harness show that cattle were probably the source of power.The angle of the plowshare and the moldboard is just slightly larger than a right angle.Which is appropriate for the soft and fertile soil in Shan-tung Province.

As the most important agricultural instrument，the plow is described in almost all major Ming and Ch'ing reference books，[27]and illustrations of the plow tend to be essentially the same.Its use in China can be traced back to prehistoric times.[28]Plows used before and during the Han dynasty were pictured in frescoes on tomb passages and engravings on earthen tiles.Iron plowshares were also employed.But the Han models did not contain such fine parts as a plow sole.A T'angdynasty work，Lei-ssu ching，records that the structure of the plow improved noticeably during the T'ang dynasty.[29]A moldboard appeared，as did a minor plowshare，making plows more efficient in forming furrows.The plow sole was separated from the handle and became an independent part，which made the plow steadier while plowing.Later scholars considered this a fully developed plow，and named it the“chiang-tung li”（illustration 9）.Few improvements had been made to this plow since the T'ang dynasty，for the plow that van Braam observed and recorded is almost identical to this model.(https://www.daowen.com)

Van Braam noticed that the“husbandmen”were working with the plow，but he did not specify whether the plow was powered by man or animal.On other occasions，he did mention that the semoir was man powered：“This instrument is put in motion by means of two wheels.Two Chinese draw it，while a third who guides with his two hands，first sows one，and then the other furrow.”[30]At the two ends of the field were sets of pulleys.A long rope was used to connect the sowing machine and the pulley sets.Two men operated the pulleys to provide power for the machine and made it move back and forth along the furrows over the field.This device was also described by a Ch'ingdynasty scholar，Ch'ü Ta-chün，in his Kuang-tung hsin-yü.[31]According to Ch'ü，the device was equivalent to two men's power.Local farmers praised the device and named it“wooden cattle.”