Mu Niu Liu Ma is the same means of transportation, and it is more appropriate to call it Mu Niu Liu Ma. It is a four-legged wooden vehicle propelled by human power, with a self-weight of about 50 kg and a load of about 200 kg. Using the lever principle to save labor, people's shoulder weight changes regularly around 0-75 kg. It can walk on the roads that real cows can pass, such as mountain roads and muddy roads, which is incomparable to round-wheeled vehicles. When the road conditions are good, the round-wheeled vehicle is much more practical than the wooden ox and flowing horse, which is one of the main reasons why the wooden ox and flowing horse can not be widely used or even lost.
key word
The Four-legged Walking Lever Principle of Mu Niu Liu Ma in Romance of the Three Kingdoms
1. Overview of Mu Niu Liu Ma
There are different opinions about whether there are wooden cows and horses, and whether the wooden cows and horses recorded in ancient books are true or not. The author focuses on the production method of the wooden ox and flowing horse recorded in the popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, and combines the relevant materials such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms to make research, put forward his own opinions, draw drawings and make models. I believe that Mu Niu is authentic. The author is confident that he has unveiled the mystery of wooden cows and flowing horses. Experts, scholars and other comrades are invited to review and appraise, and your opinions are welcome.
1. 1 According to ancient records, a real wooden cow can be made.
According to the original text of the popular Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Volume 21, "Kongming made wooden cows and flowing horses", the author can make wooden cows and flowing horses, and there are several similar models. In this paper, a model is selected, and according to the name and data provided in the original text, the outline map, name map, size map and walking diagram of cow Liu Ma are drawn, and the model is also made. This model can carry heavy loads and advance and retreat freely.
This wooden ox and flowing horse model is made according to the original description and information provided in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The names and sizes of the main parts are completely from the original text, but several names are added and several sizes are calculated according to the requirements described in this paper. The consistency between the model and the original strongly confirms the authenticity of Cow Liu Ma. Please refer to Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4, Figure 5, Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 6, Figure 6, Figure 6, Figure 6, Figure 6, Figure 6, Figure 6, Figure 6, Figure 6, Figure 6, Figure 6, Figure 6.
1.2 cow Liu Ma has practical application value.
This model of a wooden ox and a flowing horse is a four-legged vehicle, which looks like a real cow. Because it walks on four feet, it can travel on uneven roads and muddy roads, which is difficult or impossible for a round-wheeled vehicle (single wheel or four wheels). Because it walks on four feet, it is not easy to slip, and it can automatically "brake" after stopping on the slope. These advantages make it suitable for mountain transportation.
The use of wooden cows and flowing horses can make cows not eat or drink, which is another great advantage. In the war, when transporting grain and grass, real cattle and horses will consume grain and grass, so the transported grain and grass will be consumed before reaching the destination. Moreover, real cattle and horses consume grain and grass as usual without transportation work, which is a big disadvantage for real cattle and horses to transport grain and grass. The longer the transportation time, the more food will be consumed, which is more prominent. Using wooden cattle and horses to transport grain and grass does not consume grain and grass itself, which overcomes the shortcomings of real cattle and horses. This is another basis for wooden cattle and horses to transport grain and grass instead of real cattle and horses.
Driven by manpower, cattle drivers consume grain and grass, which is a disadvantage of transporting grain and grass by manpower, but it has its advantages: first, cattle drivers are also soldiers, which can protect grain and grass and reduce the number of special grain protection teams. Second, when there is no grain transportation task, the cattle driver can be transferred to combat troops; Third, it is economical to transport grain with leisure combat troops.
Being able to make people work hard is another advantage. The design of Liu Ma used the principle of lever and labor saving, and the weight of the driver accounted for 0-30% of the total weight. When the total weight is 250 kg, the weight shouldered by the driver is 0-75 kg. This burden is not difficult for the ancients. It is indeed "people don't work hard." However, compared with the negative weight of wheelbarrows driving on the flat ground, it is still too heavy, which is another reason why Muniu Liuma cannot be popularized or even lost.
The above shows that Mu Niu Liu Ma can "advance and retreat freely" when transporting grain and grass in mountainous areas, "people don't work hard" and "cows don't eat". Therefore, it has practical application value in mountain transportation.
1.3 mu cattle Liu Ma is a means of transportation, not two.
One of the reasons is that in ancient books, there are few separate references to herding cattle or Liu Ma, and most of them are collectively referred to as herding cattle Liu Ma. The second reason is that the original text lists the production methods of wooden cow and flowing horse respectively, but the production method of wooden cow only describes the appearance of wooden cow and does not mention the manufacturing data. On the contrary, the method of making floating horses only has manufacturing data, and there is no description of appearance. If combined into one, it just forms a whole, with both appearance description and manufacturing data. Only when the production method of Mu Niu Liu Ma is regarded as the production method of the same vehicle can the authenticity of Mu Niu Liu Ma be confirmed. There is a phrase "the number of horses flowing" in the History of the Three Kingdoms, which can better explain that the latter part is only "the number of sizes".
How to make a wooden ox and a flowing horse The original text mentioned the characteristics of cattle-horns, which are as slow as cattle but not as fast as horses. It can be considered that the original design was a wooden cow, but it was later called a flowing horse.