Digital Restoration of the Grand Canal Grain Transporting Boats in the Ming Dynasty

Abstract

The Canal transport system was an important financial system in the Ming Dynasty, in which the waterways were used to transfer grain from the south to supply the salaries of the officials in the capital and to feed the military. It is a professional transportation that uses waterways (river and sea) to transport grain. The boats transporting grain were called Cao boats, grain boats or transport boats in the historical records of the Ming Dynasty, and their styles were called shallow flat-bottom boats and sea-going vessels. This article mainly deconstructs the hull structure and manufacturing process of the grain boat (shallow flat-bottom boat) on the Grand Canal in detail, and representing it through 3D modeling, and digitally restores it through rendering.