Chapter 214: What Benefits People Is Called Skillful

One day in late Second Month, just after breakfast, a line of horse-drawn carts began heading north from Jiangling and Ying County — their destination was the copper-smelting workshop at the foot of Ji Mountain.

When the carriage halted at the workshop gate, Copper Officer Yang Xi hurried over at once to greet them. The men arriving today were his true direct superiors: the Works Officials and Works Deputies from the Southern Commandery Works Section.

But these Works Officials and Works Deputies, all in official robes and wearing caps, voluntarily stepped aside to make way, letting a slow old ox-cart trundle to the very front. Inside sat a grey-haired elder, composed and serene in his seat; his clothes were neat, but his hands were covered in thick calluses and wrinkles.

"I never expected Elder Chen himself to come!"

Copper Officer Yang Xi was both astonished and delighted. He hurried over and, together with the master artisans and Works Officials, helped the old man down.

This old man was called Chen Yi, the most senior master artisan in Southern Commandery. In his youth, Chen Yi had been an ordinary craftsman, but because his skill was outstanding — he excelled at woodwork and stonework — he was transferred to Shu Commandery to serve under Li Bing, the Governor of Shu. In those years, he and countless other artisans had assisted Li Bing in taming the Min River and built the "Jianpeng," which later generations would call the Dujiangyan!

That great weir was the pride of Chen Yi's life. Through their inspired ingenuity, the wild and unruly Min River was transformed from a great scourge into a great blessing for Shu Commandery, irrigating a thousand li of fertile fields. From then on, the Chengdu Plain suffered neither flood nor drought at man's whim; the common people knew no famine, and an endless stream of grain was shipped along the river to Southern Commandery and then on to the Central Plain to serve as army provisions for Qin.

In Chen Yi's view, the Jianpeng already represented the ultimate limit of man's ability to harness the power of flowing water. When Yu the Great tamed the floods in ancient times, he had distilled the principle: water can be channeled, never blocked. One could only coax water to flow where people wanted it to go — but to drive water-power like a tamed beast, making it do work for man? Utter delusion!

So, leaning on his pigeon-staff, he said with a genial chuckle, "I heard that an artisan from Anlu wants to build a device that can run by itself without human effort. This old man has been a woodworker and stoneworker for decades, has traveled all over Shu, Ba, and Southern Commanderies, and even been to Guanzhong — yet I have never heard of such a divine contrivance. How could I not come see it and broaden my knowledge?"

Chen Yi's words made the master artisans and Works Officials around him all laugh. They were just like Chen Yi — they simply did not believe such a thing could exist in this world, let alone that a petty craftsman from a county village could build it.

To be sure, they had also heard that this young craftsman had indeed made the treadle-operated pestle, which was now being promoted in Guanzhong and Southern Commandery, with the other commanderies and counties gradually replacing manual pestle-and-mortar with it as well.

But in everyone's opinion, that was nothing but luck — just a small, simply constructed device. Did that craftsman think he was Lu Ban reborn?

As they walked inside, one master artisan stroked his beard and said, "I have heard that Gongshu Ban fashioned a wooden kite that flew in the sky for three days and three nights before falling. This Anlu craftsman also claims his device can run forever — such arrogance. I hear they intend to test it today. We shall see just how it ends."

Copper Officer Yang Xi, walking beside them, hesitated, wanting to speak. He had meant to say a few words in defense of that honest, simple man who had not rested a moment since arriving at the worksite. But he had only seen Yuan build the waterwheel and make it turn; whether it could actually drive the wooden pestles was still unknown. So in the end he kept his mouth shut and led the party forward.

Their destination was the small stream beside the ore yard, used for washing ore and sluicing away mud. The stream was two zhang wide and, due to the terrain, flowed rather swiftly. A crowd of men were busy working at the water's edge.

"Which one is Yuan?"

Chen Yi tilted his head and asked Yang Xi. He could not pick out Yuan from the mass of convict laborers, every one of them covered head to face in mud and water.

"The one with the black cloth belt, holding a wooden mallet — the one personally setting the device in place."

Chen Yi squinted his old eyes and peered for a moment longer, finally locating Yuan. He saw that Yuan, like all the others, wore a brown hemp tunic for heavy labour. He was not standing on the bank directing the men, but had waded in himself, and was now standing barefoot in the water.

Seeing this, Chen Yi's dislike for Yuan eased a little. Then he took a closer look at the device being installed by the water's edge, and gave a slight start of surprise.

First there was a wooden support frame over a zhang tall, driven deep into the ground and secured with tightly packed stones. The object mounted on the frame closely resembled an extra-thick cartwheel, or a woman's spinning wheel magnified many times over; standing upright, it was as tall as a man.

The wheel was fitted with a number of paddles. Once the great wheel was successfully set in place atop the water, everyone at the water's edge drew back.

What followed, before Chen Yi's eyes, was an astonishing sight: with no human effort treading or pulling, and no livestock turning in circles, that enormous mechanism seemed to come alive of its own accord. Under the rush of the stream, it began to rotate clockwise with a rushing, splashing sound, spinning faster and faster until its speed matched that of the flowing water.

And once the crowd had moved aside, the other side of the waterwheel was fully revealed: a drive shaft linked by gears, connected to the waterwheel. On the shaft were four offset striking boards. As the water struck the wheel and turned it, it drove the striking boards to rotate as well. Each time a board pressed down on the tip of a treadle-pestle lever, it was exactly like a man stamping down with all his strength — the four treadle-pestles set beneath the shaft began to move on their own, rising and falling to pound the ore inside the stone mortars!

"It works!"

Yuan and the Copper Office craftsmen who had followed him in felling timber, building the wheel, and testing it for days all burst into cheers.

On the opposite bank, Chen Yi and all the master artisans and craftsmen who witnessed this scene were utterly dumbstruck, as if the wooden pestles driven by the waterwheel were not smashing down onto ore, but onto their very hearts!

Their old conviction that man could never harness water-power to do work was shattered into fragments by the fact they had just seen with their own eyes!

"To think it could so ingeniously make use of the power of flowing water — how did we never think of this!?"

Chen Yi was filled with shame. A veteran craftsman of several decades, yet he had never once explored this direction.

While the crowd was still reeling in shock, Yang Xi had already brought Yuan over. Yuan was an honest, simple man, nothing like his scheming brother-in-law. Seeing a group of commandery master artisans and Works Officials, plus a white-haired old craftsman, standing before him, he immediately began to kneel and bow to them in trepidation…

"We dare not accept such a courtesy. Rather, we should be bowing to you and seeking your instruction."

Chen Yi hastily helped Yuan up. He looked him over from head to toe, then broke into a smile and said with admiration, "Truly worthy of the craftsman who made the Anlu pestle — today you have indeed opened our eyes and ears!"

The surrounding master artisans and Works Officials also heaped praise on Yuan, piling every term like 'skilled worker' and 'ingenious craftsman' onto him.

If they had said nothing it would have been fine, but Yuan immediately flushed bright red and repeatedly declined.

Chen Yi took this only for modesty and admired Yuan all the more. Little did he know that in Yuan's heart, he was thinking guiltily, "It wasn't me — all of this was thought up by Heifu. I only followed his instructions…"

"Has this device been given a name?" Chen Yi was thoroughly excited. He circled the contraption again and again, and after closely examining the cams and connecting rods, he could not stop praising it.

"It is called the water-powered pestle."

Yuan said, "Because it can drive several treadle-pestles in sequence, my brother-in-law gave it a name: the linked water-powered pestle…"

"The linked water-powered pestle."

Chen Yi exclaimed in admiration, "Excellent! Legend has it that in high antiquity, Shennong fashioned the pestle and mortar to aid the myriad people. Two years ago, you created the treadle-pestle, extending force by borrowing the body's weight to stamp the pestle — its benefit was twice that of the pestle and mortar. Today, you have further set up ingenious mechanisms, employing water to do the pounding — its benefit is ten times that of the treadle-pestle!"

As an old craftsman, Chen Yi could see the enormous utility of this device: so long as the flowing water never stopped and the waterwheel never halted, those four pestles could keep moving without cease, day and night!

They tested its force and found it was no less than a grown man raising a hammer and bringing it down. And men needed rest and sleep, had to eat and drink, and might slack off — the linked water-powered pestle would not. Thus, one linked pestle setup was at least equal to ten adult laborers!

"If we could set up fifty of these here, wouldn't that be equivalent to giving the Copper Office five hundred extra hands?"

At this thought, Chen Yi, overcome with emotion, took the flustered Yuan by the hand, raised his arm high, and declared to everyone:

"For all craftsmen, what benefits people is called 'skillful'; what does not benefit people is called 'clumsy.'"

"Those so-called skilled craftsmen in the palaces of the feudal lords cast exquisite ritual vessels and carved jewels — one may say they exhausted every ability, yet they brought no benefit to the common people. In my eyes, those men are nothing but clumsy artisans!"

"In those years, the Jianpeng Great Weir that Governor Li of Shu Commandery led us to build irrigated a thousand qing of fields, let flood and drought be decided by man, and brought great abundance to Shu — that may be called great skill."

"And the linked water-powered pestle that Yuan has made today — one frame equal to conjuring ten extra men out of thin air — this may be called small skill!"

…

By the afternoon, Heifu had also come, accompanying Li You to observe the completed "linked water-powered pestle." As the crowd pressed together at the water's edge, watching the wooden pestles operate on their own, driven by the waterwheel, and gasping in repeated exclamations, Heifu was at the back whispering with Yuan, and learned from him the effusive praise given by the old master artisan Chen Yi.

"'Small skill'?"

Heifu smiled. "I can't agree with that. Chen Yi only sees this one little stream before him, only sees its effect on the Copper Office. But he forgets that Southern Commandery has over a thousand streams, and the world has tens of thousands of rivers. If this device can be spread far and wide, the number of people who benefit from it will be in the hundreds of thousands or even millions — how could it be any less than the Dujiangyan… than the Jianpeng?"

Moreover, the linked water-powered pestle could not only be used to process ore, but also to hull grain and crush medicine — its uses were very broad.

Sometimes Heifu could not help but reflect that ancient inventions and creations actually did not need to be flashy or complex. Sometimes, the simpler a thing was, the more easily it endured and renewed itself over time.

The water-powered pestle — although it was something their ancestors had invented as early as the Western Han, right up until the Reform and Opening era, water-powered pestle houses for hulling grain and grinding flour could still be seen everywhere in the south. Heifu's hometown in his previous life had one; his maternal grandfather, when young, had worked at the grain management station and been assigned to a water-powered pestle house for several years. Heifu had gone there to play as a child, so he had some impression of it…

In Heifu's eyes, the significance of the water-powered pestle went beyond this. This should be the first time on the land of China that people had actively sought to harness water-power and convert it into motive force.

Once the paper window of "man can harness water-power" was pierced, one could imagine that craftsmen everywhere would spontaneously begin to study and understand its principles. Within a hundred years, things like the watermill, the water-powered bellows, and the waterwheel could all be invented; with Heifu's pointers and suggestions, that time might even be shortened to within a decade!

"I only hope that these things can truly free more people from heavy, exhausting labor, and slowly change this era."

Thinking this, Heifu teased, "Brother-in-law, you are already a craftsman of great skill. Promotion in rank and reward for merit — the day is just around the corner!"

"I'm not after any reward or rank — I just want to avoid being exposed."

Yuan still felt uneasy. To him, this was nothing short of defrauding the government of merit and reward; if it ever came to light, they would be punished for a crime!

"I've already told the Commandant that I figured this thing out by the water and passed it on to you. Even if someone raises doubts, neither of us will be guilty."

Heifu reassured Yuan with these words, but he still intended to let Yuan take the credit. Each trade has its own expertise — Heifu might have had the ideas, but it was Yuan's skill that turned those ideas into reality. From now on, Heifu would have even more need to rely on him.

By this time, Li You had already finished his inspection with satisfaction. In this way, the boast Heifu had made that day had been completely fulfilled. If they could add several dozen more water-powered trip-hammers along the surrounding streams and rivers, the copper office would be able to deliver more copper ingots, allowing the casting workshops to manufacture more weapons. Before the fighting began, they would surely be able to make up the shortfall in the arsenal!

Li You finally said with emotion, "My father once showed me an essay by Xunzi. It said: 'Stand on a height and beckon — your arm is no longer, yet you are seen from afar. Shout with the wind — your voice is no swifter, yet you are heard more clearly. One who borrows a horse and carriage does not have faster feet, yet can travel a thousand li. One who borrows a boat and oars does not know how to swim, yet can cross rivers and seas. The noble man is born no different — he is simply good at borrowing from things!'"

"And today, we have Left Arms Clerk Heifu and the skilled craftsman Yuan of Anlu County. These two men borrowed from the power of water and created the linked water-powered trip-hammer, achieving several times the result!"

Everyone responded in agreement, among them the Chief Clerk of the Commandery Governor's residence, who had come to see the excitement after hearing the news. He nodded slightly, looking thoughtful.

After returning to Jiangling City, the Chief Clerk went directly to the Commandery Governor's residence and told Teng, the Governor of Nan Commandery, about the "marvel" he had witnessed that day…

(End of chapter)