Gongjin's Campaign Memorials
Register
Advertisement
Gongjin's Campaign Memorials

Bi Lan 畢嵐 was one of the twelve Regular Attendants enfeoffed as marquises in the 180's A.D. He was known for his engineering achievements.

Biography[]

In 185 A.D. Bi Lan was enfeoffed as Marquis. As Prefect of the Lateral Courts he cast bronze statues and bells for the Southern Palace at Luoyang and also constructed water-lifting machines: Heavenly Deer (tianlu) and Frogs (xiama), probably fed by noria buckets, served aqueducts leading into the palace; while a square-pallet chain pump (fanche) and Thirsty Crows (kewu), probably suction-pumps rather than syphons, supplied the north-south roads of the city.

In 189 A.D. Bi Lan was part of the group which waylaid and killed the General-in-Chief He Jin, and he no doubt died in the slaughter which followed.

Notes[]

References[]

  1. de Crespigny. A Biographical Dictionary of Later Han to the Three Kingdoms, biography of Bi Lan, pp 18-19.
  2. de Crespigny. To Establish Peace, Zhongping 6.

Sources[]

Advertisement