Li Bing

Li Bing was a Chinese hydraulic engineer and administrator of the third century BC who governed Shu Commandery for the state of Qin during the Warring States period. He directed construction of the Dujiangyan irrigation system on the Minjiang River, completed around 256 BC after roughly eight years of work that included cutting a channel through solid rock using a fire-and-water heating and cooling technique to crack the stone. Dujiangyan controlled flooding and supplied year-round irrigation water to the Chengdu plain, and it remains in active use today, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The project was carried out by a large workforce whose individual members are not named in the historical record that credits Li Bing as its director.