Cao Chong
| Cao Chong | |
|---|---|
| Born | 196 |
| Died | 208 (aged 12) |
| Names | |
| Traditional Chinese | 曹沖 |
| Simplified Chinese | 曹冲 |
| Pinyin | Cáo Chōng |
| Wade–Giles | Ts'ao Ch'ung |
| Courtesy name | Cangshu (traditional Chinese: 倉舒; simplified Chinese: 仓舒; pinyin: Cāngshū; Wade–Giles: Ts'ang-shu) |
| Posthumous name | Prince Ai (Chinese: 哀王; pinyin: Āi Wáng; Wade–Giles: Ai Wang) |
Cao Chong (196–208),courtesy name Cangshu, was a son of Cao Cao, a warlord who rose to power towards the end of the Han dynasty and laid the foundation of the state of Cao Wei in the Three Kingdoms period. A child prodigy, Cao Chong is best known for his ingenious method of weighing an elephant using the principle of buoyancy. He was considered by his father as a possible successor but died prematurely at the age of 12.
Cao Chong was the eldest son of Cao Cao and his concubine Lady Huan (環夫人). He had two younger brothers: Cao Ju (曹據) and Cao Yu. He was a child prodigy and already possessed the intelligence of an adult when he was around the age of five.
On one occasion, the southern warlord Sun Quan sent an elephant as a gift to Cao Cao. Cao Cao wanted to know the animal's weight so he asked his subordinates but no one could think of a method to measure the elephant's weight. Cao Chong said, "Place the elephant on a boat and mark the water level. Then replace the elephant with other objects until the boat is submerged to the same level. The weight of the elephant can be found by summing up the weights of all the objects." Cao Cao was delighted and he had Cao Chong's idea implemented.
According to Joseph Needham, although no official treatise in the likes of Archimedes' principle was ever written regarding buoyancy in ancient China, there were observational precedents of it in the Rites of Zhou, compiled and edited in the early Han dynasty (202 BCE–220 CE). Needham states:
Empirical use, of course, was made of [Archimedes'] principle, as in the floating of arrows and vehicle wheels in water by the [Zhou] and Han technicians, in order to determine their equilibrium and add or remove material accordingly.
In another incident, Cao Cao's saddle was chewed by rodents when it was kept in a store. The storekeepers feared for their lives because the laws were very harsh during those times of war, so they planned to tie themselves up and admit their mistake to Cao Cao in the hope of receiving a lenient punishment. Cao Chong told them, "Wait for three days before reporting the incident." He used a knife to cut holes in his clothes, making it seem as though they had been damaged by rats, and then pretended to look upset. When his father asked him, he replied, "There is a saying that a person whose clothes have been chewed by rats will encounter ill luck. Now, as this has happened to me, I fear something might happen." Cao Cao said, "This is just a superstition. There's nothing to worry about." When the storekeepers reported the saddle incident to Cao Cao three days later, Cao Cao laughed and said, "My son's clothes were with him, yet they were still chewed by rats, so it is not surprising that my saddle in the store was also damaged." He did not pursue the matter.
...
Wikipedia