Stories form Ancient China: Accounts of the Tang Dynasty Master Craftsman Ma Daifeng

[Series Note: The ancient Chinese technology of mechanical engineering was very advanced; distinguished mechanical engineers at that time were able to create many marvellous types of robots. For example, King Mu (976 – 922 B.C) of the Western Zhou Dynasty (10th century - 771 B.C.) once conducted an inspection tour of the west of his empire. A skillful artisan named Yan Shi made a robot to entertain King Mu during the inspection tour. This robot could sing and dance like a real person. It also had extremely realistic organs, bones, muscles, joints, skin and hair.]

After Ma Daifeng had manufactured some mechanically operated utensils, he went to report to Emperor Xuan Zong. The Emperor gave an excuse that he had matters to deal with at the palace and so did not grant an interview to Ma Daifeng. Ma Daifeng felt bitter about his poor fortune and so he decided to change his name and live in seclusion at the mountains of Xi He. At the end of the Kai Yuan period (713 - 742 A.D.), Ma Daifeng moved from Jinzhou to the capital city of Changan. He referred to himself as a Taoist monk by the name of Wu Ci and often fasted.

The Taoist monk Ma Daifeng together with the officer in charge of Cui City constructed a wine-dispensing utensil modelled like a mountain. They also made containers of baked clay that had a tilting mechanism for storing money and so on. The model mountain that Ma Daifeng constructed was placed at the centre of a round disk that was four feet, five inches in diameter. A huge tortoise was built under the disk and acted as its support. All the operating mechanisms were built into the tortoise’s abdomen. The mountain model, which was three feet high, was built at the centre of the disk. The mountain had wonderful and remarkable peaks and ridges. The inside of the mountain was hollow and could hold three dou (1 dou equals 10 litres) of wine. A number of “ponds” were arranged around the mountain, and their purpose was to hold wine. Other mountains surrounded the ponds. In the ponds of wine were “lotus plants”. The flowers and leaves of the lotus plants were made of cast iron. The flowers looked like they were blooming and the leaves like they were unfolding. They could be used as plates or trays. They were filled with dried meat, meat sauce, vegetables and fruits that were to be eaten with the wine. A dragon was placed at the south side, half way up the mountain. Its body was hidden in the mountain. When its mouth was opened, wine poured out from it. Wine glasses were placed on the lotus leaves below the mouth of the dragon. When each glass was filled to eighty percent of its capacity, the wine would stop flowing. The person wishing to drink the wine from the glass could immediately take the glass away. If it took too long for a person to finish drinking the glass of wine, a door at the two-tiered platform on top of the mountain would automatically open. A well-dressed mechanical man who wore a hat and held a board, would appear from the open door to remind the drinkers to drink faster. When the drinkers replaced the empty glasses on the lotus leaves and had their glasses filled with wine from the dragon’s mouth, the mechanical man would go back inside the two-tiered platform. The door would then close automatically. If there were people who still drank slowly, the mechanical man would again appear to urge them to drink their wine. In this manner, by the end of the feast, all the wine in the model mountain would be consumed and the automatic mechanical components would not have made any error. On the four sides of the mountain were the mouths of dragons pouring out wine. Sometimes the wine would be poured into the ponds, but there were hidden holes in them that would drain the spilt wine into the wine storage at the centre of the mountain. This would continue till the end of the banquet when not a drop of wine would remain in the container.

The wine pouring mechanism that Ma Daifeng installed in the model mountain to dispense wine was equipped with automatically tilting wine glasses to enable the wine to be poured from the dragon's mouth into each of the glasses. When the glasses were empty, they would assume an inclined position; when they were half-full, they would stand erect; and when they were full, the glasses would automatically tilt over, pouring the wine into the pond. This was what the Confucian temples referred to as the "urge-to-sit mechanism". What it meant was that "the gentlemen had already been warned that they had enough to drink".