The wooden ox was created by Zhuge Liang

Zhuge Liang

Zhuge Liang was a chancellor of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. He is often recognised as the greatest and most accomplished strategist of his era....

 while he served Shu-Han

Shu Han

Shu Han was one of the three states competing for control of China during the Three Kingdoms period, after the fall of the Han Dynasty. The state was based on areas around Sichuan, which was then known as Shu...

. It was a thought to be either

• a mechanical
  Machine
  A machine manages power to accomplish a task, examples include, a mechanical system, a computing system, an electronic system, and a molecular machine. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work...
  
  , walking replica of an ox
  Ox
  An ox , also known as a bullock in Australia, New Zealand and India, is a bovine trained as a draft animal. Oxen are commonly castrated adult male cattle; castration makes the animals more tractable...
  
   whose main purpose was to carry supplies such as grain
  Cereal
  Cereals are grasses cultivated for the edible components of their grain , composed of the endosperm, germ, and bran...
  
   to an army
  Army
  An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
  
   that was running low on supplies

or

• a sort of wheelbarrow that had 2 booms on which it was pulled (this was later reversed with the "gliding horse").

Ox replica

The correct English name should be "wooden galloper with a free-standing cargo box" since said device walks in a gallop form. It was equipped with two handles to make it walk by manpower. The swing cargo box is used to store useless work caused by the up-and-down motion of the walking machine. When the cargo box swung forward, the walking machine steps forward at the same time to raise efficiency. This invention was specifically mentioned in the Romance of Three Kingdoms, Records of Three Kingdoms

Records of Three Kingdoms

Records of Three Kingdoms , is regarded as the official and authoritative historical text on the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history covering the years 184-280 CE. Written by Chen Shou in the 3rd century, the work combines the smaller histories of the rival states of Cao Wei , Shu Han and...

, Book of Qi

Book of Qi

The Book of Qi or Book of Southern Qi is a history of the Chinese dynasty Southern Qi covering the period from 479 to 502, and is one of the Twenty-Four Histories of Chinese history...

, and some other works from the Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

.

Pulled wheelbarrow

The "pulled wheelbarrow" understanding of the wooden ox was noted in the book "The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World by Brian M. Fagan", and was thought to be similar to the rickshaw. This would make better sense, because the wheelbarrow could have been a development flowing forth from the chariot

Chariot

The chariot is a type of horse carriage used in both peace and war as the chief vehicle of many ancient peoples. Ox carts, proto-chariots, were built by the Proto-Indo-Europeans and also built in Mesopotamia as early as 3000 BC. The original horse chariot was a fast, light, open, two wheeled...

.

External links

• http://140.116.71.92/acmlab/newpage14.htm - A page dealing with the reconstruction of this machine, also citing some sources.