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Du Shi
Eastern Han governor of Nanyang who built water-powered bellows for casting iron farm tools and was paired by local people with an earlier governor as father and mother of the commandery
In a workshop, a craftsman at a wooden vat lifts a bamboo-framed sheet from the pulp beside stacks of white paper and a tub of pulp, while others hang sheets to dry and work at a long table of carved printing blocks, and a water wheel turns outside the window.
Also known as Zi Jungong
Du Shi, courtesy name Jungong, came from Ji county in Henei and first served as a fair-minded commandery officer. Recruited by the grand marshal's office under the Gengshi emperor, he was promoted three times in 25 AD and sent as attendant censor to pacify Luoyang, where he killed General Xiao Guang for letting his troops prey on the people; Emperor Guangwu summoned him and granted him ceremonial halberds. After posts at Chenggao, Pei and Runan he became governor of Nanyang in 31. There he built water-driven bellows for casting farm tools, gaining much work for little labour, and repaired reservoirs to open new fields, so that local people paired him with the Western Han governor Shao Xinchen as the father and mother of Nanyang. He also asked that troops be raised only on presentation of tiger tallies. When he died in 38 he was too poor for a funeral, and the emperor had it held at the commandery's lodge in the capital and sent a thousand bolts of silk.
Life and times
Dates Birth unknown–38 CE