Sunshu Ao

Sunshu Ao was a Chinese hydraulic engineer and statesman of the Eastern Zhou dynasty, serving as prime minister under King Zhuang of Chu in the early seventh century BC. He is credited as the first known hydraulic engineer in Chinese history for overseeing construction of a large dam and reservoir in what is now northern Anhui province, later known as the Anfeng Tang reservoir, which flooded a flat valley to create a reservoir with a circumference of about 62 miles and irrigated an area reported at roughly six million acres. As with other monumental works of the period, the labor force that actually built the dam was large and is not individually recorded, while Sunshu Ao himself, as the directing official, is.