杜诗公元前 50—38

生平

杜诗年轻时有才能，在那里任官为功曹，以公平著称。

更始政权时，被征辟为大司马府官员。建武元年（25年），一年内三次升迁至侍御史。当时将军萧广放纵士兵横行，惊扰百姓。杜诗劝谕萧广，萧广不知收敛，于是击杀萧广，回京后奏报光武帝。光武帝派他巡视河东，去招降和诛杀反叛的贼人杨异等。杜诗到达大阳，听说贼人企图北渡，于是与长史迅速焚毁船只，调集部署郡中士兵，派骑兵突袭贼兵，杀死杨异等人，贼兵因此被消灭。拜授为成皋县令，任官三年，政绩优异。又迁升至沛郡都尉，再转任汝南都尉。所到之处，皆有政绩。

建武七年（31年），升任南阳郡太守。他生活节俭，施政清正平和，以诛除强暴建立威信，擅长计划谋略，节省和爱惜民役。又设计制作水排（水力鼓风机），以水力传动机械，使皮制的鼓风囊连续开合，将空气送入冶铁炉，铸造农具，用力少而见效多，便利百姓。此外，还修建池塘，开垦土地，使郡中百姓生活丰足。当时人们把他比作召信臣，所以南阳人赞颂他：“先有召父，后有杜母。”杜诗自认没甚功劳，不应长期任大郡肥缺，请求他迁以让职位给功臣，于是上疏请辞。光武帝爱其人才，不让他请辞。

杜诗喜好推举贤才，多次举荐知名士人清河人刘统以及鲁阳长董崇等人。东汉初期，法令制度仍很简陋，皇帝以玺书调动兵马，并没有兵虎符作凭信，杜诗上疏建议设置虎符被采纳，书《乞退郡疏》。

杜诗虽在外地任官，仍留意朝廷大事，时常上奏建议。任官七年，政化大行。建武十四年（38年），因派食客为弟报仇，被征召问罪，正巧因病去世。杜诗家中贫困，没有田宅，死后无处下葬。诏令在郡中官邸治丧，并赐一千匹绢办丧事。

Du Shi (Chinese: 杜詩; pinyin: Dù Shī; Wade–Giles: Tu Shih, d. 38) was a Chinese hydrologist, inventor, mechanical engineer, metallurgist, and politician of the Eastern Han dynasty. Du Shi is credited with being the first to apply hydraulic power (i.e. a waterwheel) to operate bellows (air-blowing device) in metallurgy. His invention was used to operate piston-bellows of the blast furnace and then cupola furnace in order to forge cast iron, which had been known in China since the 6th century BC. He worked as a censorial officer and administrator of several places during the reign of Emperor Guangwu of Han. He also led a brief military campaign in which he eliminated a small bandit army under Yang Yi (d. 26).

Life

Early career

Although the year of his birth is uncertain, it is known that Du Shi was born in Henei, Henan province. Du Shi became an Officer of Merit in his local commandery before receiving an appointment in 23 as a government clerk under Gengshi Emperor (r. 23–25), following the revolt against the Xin dynasty usurper Wang Mang (r. 9–23). However, Du soon after swore his allegiance to Emperor Guangwu of Han (r. 25–57), who is considered the true founder of the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220).

Censorate officer

Under Emperor Guangwu, Du Shi was appointed as an officer in the Censorate and was in charge of monitoring affairs and upholding law and order within the new capital at Luoyang. When the undisciplined troops of the military officer Xiao Guang (d. 26) ran rampant in the capital city and terrorized its inhabitants without any perceivable action on Xiao's part to prevent it, Du Shi had him arrested. Du had Xiao summarily executed without explicit consent from the throne, sending in a report of the event only after the execution. Guangwu was not displeased with this, as he called him into his court to grant him an insignia which justified his actions. Shortly after this event, the bandit leader Yang Yi (d. 26) caused a major disturbance in Hedong Commandery, which Du Shi was sent to quell. When word of the arrival of Du Shi's forces in the region reached Yang Yi, he planned to flee across the Yellow River. However, Du Shi anticipated this, sending a raiding party to burn the boats Yang Yi intended to use for his escape. After conscripting troops from the Hedong Commandery, Du Shi led a surprise ambush with a cavalry unit that dispersed Yang's bandits and annihilated them.

Administrator

For three years, Du served as a county magistrate in Henan province where his administration gained wide acclaim from provincial authorities. Afterwards, Du distinguished himself as a Commandant in Pei and in Runan.

The Water-Powered Blast Furnace

Book of Later Han account

The engineer and statesman Du Shi is mentioned briefly in the Book of Later Han (Hou Han Shu) as follows (in Wade-Giles spelling):

In the seventh year of the Chien-Wu reign period (31 AD) Tu Shih was posted to be Prefect of Nanyang. He was a generous man and his policies were peaceful; he destroyed evil-doers and established the dignity (of his office). Good at planning, he loved the common people and wished to save their labor. He invented a water-power reciprocator for the casting of (iron) agricultural implements. Those who smelted and cast already had the push-bellows to blow up their charcoal fires, and now they were instructed to use the rushing of the water to operate it...Thus the people got great benefit for little labor. They found the 'water(-powered) bellows' convenient and adopted it widely.

Donald B. Wagner writes that there is no remaining physical evidence of the bellows which Du Shi used, so modern scholars are still unable to determine whether or not they were made of leather or giant wooden fans as described later in the 14th century.

Spread of Use

The historical text Sanguo Zhi (Records of the Three Kingdoms) records the use of both human labor and horse-power to operate metallurgic bellows of a blast furnace before water-power was applied. It also records that the engineer and Prefect of Luoling Han Ji (d. 238) reinvented a similar water-powered bellows that Du Shi had earlier pioneered. Two decades after this, it is recorded that another design for water-powered bellows was created by Du Yu (222–285). In the 5th-century text of the Wu Chang Ji, its author Pi Ling wrote that a planned, artificial lake had been constructed in the Yuanjia reign period (424–429) for the sole purpose of powering water wheels aiding the smelting and casting processes of the Chinese iron industry.