Zu Chongzhi

Zu Chang (祖昌) at one point held the position of Chief Minister for the Palace Buildings (大匠卿) within the Liu Song[3] and was in charge of government construction projects.

[4] When Emperor Xiaowu of Song heard of him, he was sent to the Hualin Xuesheng (華林學省) academy, and later the Imperial Nanjing University (Zongmingguan) to perform research.

The Sung dynasty calendar was backwards to the "Northern barbarians" because they were implementing their daily lives with the Da Ming Li.

In 488, Zu Chongzhi was responsible for erecting water powered trip hammer mills which was inspected by Emperor Wu of Southern Qi during the early 490s.

[10][11][12] Zu is also credited with inventing Chinese paddle boats or Qianli chuan in the late 5th century AD during the Southern Qi dynasty.

It was a wheeled vehicle that incorporated an early use of differential gears to operate a fixed figurine that would constantly point south, hence enabling one to accurately measure their directional bearings.

This effect was achieved not by magnetics (like in a compass), but through intricate mechanics, the same design that allows equal amounts of torque applied to wheels rotating at different speeds for the modern automobile.

In the Sheng-Ming reign period, Gao Di commissioned Zi Zu Chongzhi to reconstruct it according to the ancient rules.