Fengshanche

'wind fan vehicle') was a winnowing machine that was used in ancient China to separate the grain from the chaff or seed casings after harvest.

The winnowing machine also had a rotary fan which had a blower that had a crank handle to create air to blow away the lighter seed casings to separate the husks from the pile of grain.

[5] The pottery winnower model was used as a funeral object in the Central Plains.

The ancient Chinese used their other invention of the crank handle and a rotary centrifugal fan and applied it to the design of the winnowing machine.

[2][6] Evidence of the rotary fan winnowing machine that makes use of the centrifugal principle can be traced back to the Western Han dynasty with archaeological evidence provided by pottery models of the winnowing machine excavated from Western Han tombs in Luoyang, Henan in the early 1970s.

A rotary fan winnowing machine with two farm workers separating the grain from the husks as illustrated in Song Yingxing 's Tiangong Kaiwu .
A Western Han pottery model featuring two men operating a winnowing machine with a crank handle and a tilt hammer used to pound grain.