Ma Jun

Also known as Zi Deheng

Ma Jun, courtesy name Deheng, came from Fufeng and lived under the Cao Wei state. Fu Xuan's preface on Master Ma, quoted in Pei Songzhi's commentary to the Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo zhi), describes him as matchlessly ingenious but slow of speech, poor while serving as an erudite. Looms for patterned silk then needed as many treadles as heddles, fifty or sixty, and he reduced them all to twelve. As a palace attendant he argued with Gaotang Long and Qin Lang over whether the south-pointing carriage had ever existed, and when Emperor Ming ordered him to build one, he succeeded. He also made a chain water lift that children could turn to irrigate gardens in the capital and refitted a set of puppet entertainers to run by water power. His plans to improve Zhuge Liang's repeating crossbow and a stone-throwing engine were mocked by Pei Xiu, and Fu Xuan's recommendation of him to Cao Xi came to nothing, which the preface laments.