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Wan Hu

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In this Chinese name, the family name is Wan.
Wan Hu
Illustration of Wan Hu, courtesy of Marshall Space Flight Center
Chinese萬戶
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinWàn Hù
Alternative Chinese name
Chinese萬虎
Transcriptions
Personal name
Chinese陶成道
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinTáo Chéngdào

Wan Hu is a legendary Chinese official described in modern sources as possibly the first man to attempt to use a rocket to launch into outer space.[1] Possibly depicted as the "world's first astronaut"[2] and "the first martyr in man's struggle to achieve space flight",[3] NASA named the crater Wan-Hoo on the far side of the Moon after him.[4]

According to some Chinese sources, "Wan Hu" was a title granted to him by the imperial court during the early Ming dynasty, and his real name was Tao Chengdao. As a Ming official, he was interested in technological innovation, particularly concerning rockets.[5] He is said to have died in 1390.[6]

While the legend is well-known, there is no direct evidence surviving to substantiate it.[7] According to Joseph Needham, the story is dubious and may be invented during or after the Chinoiserie period, considering the lack of firm historical reference.[8] However, Li Chengzhi has argued for the story's plausibility, saying that it may have come from oral transmission by European missionaries who came to China during the late Ming and Qing dynasties,[9] or based on records in an ancient Chinese document that has been subsequently lost.[10]

Legend

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Basic story

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The story concerns an imperial Chinese official, referred to as Wan Hu. In order to realize his space dream of reaching the heaven, he sat on a chair with 47 rockets tied to it, holding a kite in each of his hands, and flying into the sky after his servants were ordered to light the fuses to the rockets. But the rockets then exploded, which resulted in the ultimate failure, and Wan Hu was gone when the air cleared.[11][12] There are also variations of this story.

"Wang Tu"

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A precursor of the story of Wan Hu appeared in an article by John Elfreth Watkins, published in the 2 October 1909 issue of Scientific American, which used the name Wang Tu instead of Wan Hu:

"Tradition asserts that the first to sacrifice himself to the problem of flying was Wang Tu, a Chinese mandarin of about 2,000 years B.C. Who, having had constructed a pair of large, parallel and horizontal kites, seated himself in a chair fixed between them while forty-seven attendants each with a candle ignited forty-seven rockets placed beneath the apparatus. But the rocket under the chair exploded, burning the mandarin and so angered the Emperor that he ordered a severe paddling for Wang."[13]

The possibly farcical text proceeds to describe several other fictional stories of ancient aviators.[14] A date of 2000 BCE pre-dates the emergence of writing in China by three or four centuries and pre-dates the invention of gunpowder-based rockets in China by about 3,000 years.[15]

"Wan Hu"

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The legend of "Wan Hu" was widely disseminated by an unreferenced account in Rockets and Jets by American author Herbert S. Zim in 1945.[16] Another book from the same year, by George Edward Pendray, describes it as an "oft repeated tale of those early days."[17]

Early in the sixteenth century, Wan decided to take advantage of China's advanced rocket and fireworks technology to launch himself into outer space. He supposedly had a chair built with forty-seven rockets attached. On the day of lift-off, Wan, splendidly attired, climbed into his rocket chair and forty seven servants lit the fuses and then hastily ran for cover. There was a huge explosion. When the smoke cleared, Wan and the chair were gone, and was said never to have been seen again.

The legend of "Wan Hu" according to the United States House Committee on Appropriations in 2006:[18]

Chinese person's space dream could be traced to several centuries ago. Back in the 14th century, a Chinese named Wan Hu attempted to send himself into sky by lighting 47 gunpower-packed bamboo tubes tied to his chair. Although he got killed in his bold attempt, Wan has since been widely regarded as the world's first person using rockets as a flight vehicle.

According to Walter Sierra, "Though doomed to fail, the Chinese scholar Wan Hu has been universally acknowledged as the first man to try flying to space with the help of rockets. In memory, NASA named the Wan-Hoo crater on the back of the Moon after him",[19] although according to Mark Williamson most authorities consider the story apocryphal.[20] Meanwhile, some Chinese scholars believe that foreigners from several different countries in the west were unlikely to fabricate a story about ancient Chinese official flying into the sky out of thin air. The tale may be based on the stories told by European missionaries who arrived in China since the late Ming dynasty, and then passed on by word of mouth. Alternatively, these European and American scholars may have indirectly relied on records in an ancient Chinese document that has been subsequently lost.[9] According to William E. Burrows, "If it really happened, Wan Hu had the triple distinction of being the first person to ride a rocket, the first to fly on a self-propelled, heavier-than-air device, and the first rocket pilot to get killed during a test flight."[21]

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  • In the Tokyo DisneySea attraction Soaring: Fantastic Flight a painting of the story of Wan Hu can be seen in the rotunda of the Museum of Fantastic Flight queue area alongside other paintings of legendary attempts at human flight.
  • In Kung Fu Panda (film), the main character Po straps himself to a chair with fireworks attached and launches himself into the sky in order to attend the Dragon Warrior reveal ceremony. According to the film's director's commentary the idea was based on "a myth of a low level Chinese official from the Ming Dynasty who tried to go to the moon by strapping rockets to a chair."
  • In R.A.P. Ferreira & Fumitake Tamura 's "47 rockets taped to my chair" appearing in the album the First Fist to Make Contact When We Dap

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Butler, Ashley (2009). Dear Sound of Footstep. Sarabande. p. 43. ISBN 978-1-936747-44-3.
  2. ^ Moore, James; Nero, Paul (2011). Pigeon Guided Missiles. History Press. pp. 158–159. ISBN 978-0-7524-6676-7.
  3. ^ AF Manual. Department of the Air Force. 1960. pp. 1–2.[full citation needed]
  4. ^ Cocks, Elijah E.; Cocks, Josiah C. (1995). Who's who on the moon: a biographical dictionary of lunar nomenclature. Tudor. ISBN 978-0-936389-27-1.
  5. ^ Guo Rui (郭銳) (2020). 種子的奇幻之旅：航天育種簡史 (in Chinese). p. 41. ISBN 978-988-8676-61-3.
  6. ^ Shu Xili (舒錫莉) (2020). 免死背！圖解物理強棒教室 (in Chinese). p. 18. ISBN 978-957-9068-37-6.
  7. ^ Gainor, Chris (2020). To a Distant Day: The Rocket Pioneers. University of Nebraska Press. p. 30. ISBN 978-1-4962-1158-3.
  8. ^ Needham, Joseph, ed. (1987). Science and Civilisation in China, Part 7, Military Technology: The Gunpowder Epic. Cambridge University Press. p. 509. ISBN 978-0-521-30358-3.
  9. ^ a b 古代的飞天梦与飞天探索. Retrieved 27 January 2024. 中国学者根据多年的文献检索、研究与分析认为：第一，外国人且是来自美、德、苏、法等不同国家的人，不可能凭空编造一个中国古人飞天的故事，他们可能根据欧洲传教士在明清之际来华时听到这个事件，然后口口相传得知；第二，上述欧美学者也可能间接依据中国一本已经失传的古代文献中的记载，把这个故事写进书中的。毕竟，中国古代除正史外，还有大量的笔记、杂记、杂说、小说等文献存世，其中某一文献的作者可能亲历了此事，并将它记录了下来，但后来因种种原因失传了。
  10. ^ Ping Shuai (2021). Understanding Pulsars and Space Navigations. Springer Nature Singapore. pp. 100–101. ISBN 978-981-16-1067-7.
  11. ^ Jones & Bartlett Learning (2010). Exploring Space: The High Frontier. Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC. p. 457. ISBN 978-0-7637-8961-9.
  12. ^ 宋学军 (2013). 军用飞机的魅力 (in Chinese). 北京燕山出版社. p. 5. ISBN 978-7-5402-2986-3.
  13. ^ Watkins, John Elfreth (1909-10-02). The Modern Icarus. Scientific American, Vol 101 No 13, 2 October 1909, p 243. Retrieved from https://archive.org/details/scientific-american-1909-10-02.
  14. ^ Watkins, J (2 October 1909). "The Modern Icarus". Scientific American. 101 (14): 243–245. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican10021909-243.
  15. ^ "Chinese Inventions". Asia Society. Retrieved 10 January 2023.
  16. ^ Amazon.com: Rockets and jets,: Herbert Spencer Zim: Books. Harcourt, Brace and Company. January 1945.
  17. ^ Pendray, George (1945). The Coming Age of Rocket Power. Harper & Brothers. p. 77.
  18. ^ United States Congress House Committee on Appropriations (2006). Science, the Departments of State, Justice, and Commerce, and Related Agencies Appropriations for 2007. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 198.
  19. ^ Walter Sierra (2016). Beyond the Saga of Rocket Science: The Dawn of the Space Age. Xlibris Corporation. p. 66. ISBN 978-1-4931-7124-8.
  20. ^ Williamson, Mark (2006). Spacecraft Technology: The Early Years. IET. ISBN 978-0-86341-553-1.
  21. ^ Varlin Vissepa (2003). Reusable launch vehicles: crossroads between air and space law (Master thesis). Mc Gill University. p. 1.
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