Tools & tillage: a journal on the history of the implements of cultivation and other agricultural processes (6.1988/1991)

86

WANG XING-GUANG

The evolution of the ploughs was marked
by the popular use of harness and the inven-
tion of the so-called Dai Gen Jia (a kind of
machine used for drawing ploughs by
people). As we know, ropes had been used in
harness early in the Eastern Han Dynasty
(Fig. 43). We do not know exactly when the
harness was used at first because of the lack of
the evidence. It emerged at least early in the
Tang Dynasty. It made the ploughs more
suitable for turning right and left. The beams
were shortened and the length of a plough
was shortened by a half, which made the
ploughs more ingenious and easy for being
drawn by one ox (Fig. 41, Fig. 42) (Jing 1981).

Fig. 41. Niu Tao (ox bow), Yuan (Mongol) Dyna-
sty (1260 AD to 1368 AD) (WZNS, Part'III,
vol. 2). □ Niu Tao (Ochsenjoch), Jiien (Mongolen)
Dynastie (1260-1368).


Wf


Fig. 42. Geng Pan (swingletree), Yuan Dynasty
(1260 AD to 1368 AD) (WZNS, Part III, Vol. 2). □
Geng Pan (Zugschwengel) Jiien Dynastie (1260-
1368).


Fig. 43. Wall painting describing the ox-cart,
E. Han Dynasty (25 AD to 220 AD), found in Ho-
ringer, Inner Mongolia (WTHTH, 1978, 122). □
Wandmalerei mit Darstellung eines Ochsenkar-
rens, Ostliche Han Dynastie (25-220 n.Chr.), ge-
funden in Horinger, Innere Mongolei.