●[Birthplace of Faucet]>>Origin of Faucet
>> Why does faucet’s Chinese name consist of “dragon” instead of other animals?
- There is an ancient Chinese legend that Dragon has nine heirs, everyone has its own taste. The sixth son, Gong Fu, also named as Baxia, has a head like lion and a tail like dragon. The water beast loves water and drinks a lot. In ancient times they were usually applied to bridges as piers by the water, or used for dragon shape roof and floor drain outlets. Therefore, it is called dragon faucet.
- Faucet originated from the tomb of Hongwu Emperor, the founder of Ming dynasty – Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum.
Professor Yun-Ao He from Nanjing university institute of cultural and natural heritage said, Ming Xiaoling lies at the foot of Purple Mountain suited for building a complete drainage system which provides flood control. Besides three moats, there are huge underground culverts for flood discharge in rainy season. There are underground drainage pipelines inside the mausoleum and open drainages surrounding the buildings. Dozens of stretching chisou surrounding the mausoleum stylobate. Through these chisou rainwater can be disposed from roofs.
“Chi” is one of the heirs of Dragon which explains the origin of faucet. There are brick aprons and brick walls outside the mausoleum. - What is the origin of faucet, “Gong Fu” or “Chi,” both sides has their points. To put it simply：
>> Water dragon + dragon faucet = Water dragon faucet
>> It means --- where water comes from
photo：Tainan Confucian Temple- Quan Tai Shou Xue- Ta-Cheng Hal photography on February 21, 2015 by Hetung elementary school Ci-Fu Wang teacher
>> Origin of faucet version (one)
- Faucet appeared from Istanbul in sixteenth century, four or five hundred years earlier than Beijing.
- Before faucet appeared, there were stream outlets with beast head shape which usually made of stones and metals on the water spring walls. Water from these stream outlets is free flowing. In order to prevent wasting of water resources, people created valves to control streams.
>> Origin of faucet version (two)
- Chinese legend- rain drops fall from sky because dragon spit waters from clouds. So people call their valves “water dragon faucets” or “dragon faucets.”
>> Origin of faucet version (three)
- Comes from fire control equipment – water dragon.
- Water pump came to Shanghai from Japan in early Qing dynasty. They made an oval barrel with taller heights than bath barrel and then put the water pump inside the barrel. One firefighter poured water inside the barrel, the other two or four kept on sliding the lever up and down in order to pump the water towards fire.
- This pump has bigger water injection quantity than water bag and cylinder. Like dragon in the sky, it constantly spraying water, as a result, it is called “water dragon.” The belt is called “water dragon belt,” and the fire hose is called “water dragon faucet,” “faucet” for short.
Aforementioned information comes from http://tc.wangchao.net.cn/xinxi/detail_794281.html