Editing Irrigation (section)

==== China ====
[[File:Turpan-karez-museo-d02.jpg|thumb|Inside a [[Turfan water system|karez]] tunnel at [[Turpan]], Xinjiang, China]]
The oldest known [[hydraulic]] engineers of [[China]] were [[Sunshu Ao]] (6th century BCE) of the [[Spring and Autumn period]] and [[Ximen Bao]] (5th century BCE) of the [[Warring States]] period, both of whom worked on large irrigation [[project]]s. In the [[Sichuan]] region belonging to the [[Qin (state)|state of Qin]] of ancient China, the [[Dujiangyan Irrigation System]] devised by the Qin Chinese hydrologist and irrigation engineer [[Li Bing (Qin)|Li Bing]] was built in 256 BCE to irrigate a vast area of farmland that today still supplies water.<ref>{{cite book |title=China&nbsp;– history |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica, 1994 edition}}</ref> By the 2nd century CE, during the [[Han dynasty]], the Chinese also used [[chain pump]]s which lifted water from a lower elevation to a higher one.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 2 344 346">Needham, Joseph (1986). ''Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering''. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd. Pages 344–346.</ref> These were powered by manual foot-pedal, hydraulic [[waterwheel]]s, or rotating mechanical wheels pulled by [[oxen]].<ref name="needham volume 4 part 2 340 343">Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 340–343.</ref> The water was used for [[public works]], providing water for urban residential quarters and palace gardens, but mostly for irrigation of [[arable land|farmland]] canals and channels in the fields.<ref name="needham volume 4 part 2 33 110">Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 33, 110.</ref>