Four Magnificent Chinese Inventions
From the first century before Christ to the
fifteenth century, China was the world leader in many domains related to the
study of nature, with the four major innovations having the largest worldwide
impact. The compass, printing, gunpowder, and papermaking—the four primary
technologies of ancient China—have had a profound influence on world culture.
Four Magnificent Chinese
Inventions: Paper
The first country to create paper was China.
Before it was invented, ancient people wrote words on a variety of natural
materials: the Egyptians wrote on grass stalks, the Mesopotamians wrote on
earthen plates, the Indians wrote on tree leaves, the Europeans wrote on sheepskin,
and the strangest of all was that the Chinese wrote on bamboo or wooden strips,
tortoise shells, or ox shoulder blades. Afterwards, the people of ancient China
were able to create the first silk paper known as "bo" after being
inspired by the process of reeling silk. However, the lack of available
resources made manufacturing exceedingly costly. A court official by the name
of Cai Lun created a novel type of paper in the first few years of the second
century using materials including bark, rags, and wheat stalks. It was more
appropriate for brush writing because it was lightweight, thin, sturdy, and
reasonably priced. The method of creating paper initially reached Korea around
the start of the third century, and subsequently it reached Japan. It made its
way to Europe in the 12th century and the Arab world under the Tang Dynasty. In
the sixteenth century, it traveled from Europe to America before progressively
spreading over the entire planet.
The first Chinese emperor, Qin Shihuang, had to
handle nearly 120 kg of official paperwork written on bamboo or wooden strips
before paper was developed. A Western Han Dynasty paper map was discovered in
Tianshui, Gansu Province, in 1986.
The printing press was one
of China's Four Great Inventions.
In the Tang Dynasty, printed The earliest book
in history with a confirmed printing date is a Buddhist sutra.
Before printing was invented, the two main ways
that knowledge was shared were through handwritten manuscript copies or word of
mouth. They were both awkward and prone to mistakes. Stone-tablet technology
dates back 2000 years to the Western Han Dynasty (206 B.C.–25 A.D.). Rubbing
was a popular method of disseminating Buddhist sutras or Confucian classics.
This gave rise to the technique of carving text or images on a wooden board,
spreading it with ink, and then printing on sheets of paper page by page during
the Sui Dynasty (581-618). We now refer to this as block printing. Almost 600
years before books with a certain publishing date debuted in Europe, the first
book with a definite printing date was published in China in 868. This
technique was progressively brought to Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and the
Philippines during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). However, block printing has
disadvantages. After the printing was completed, all of the boards were
rendered unusable, and a single carving error might destroy a whole block.
During the Song Dynasty (960–1279), around 1041–1048, a man called Bi Sheng
engraved distinct characters onto matched pieces of fine clay, which he baked
slowly to solidify and create moveable type. The type was stored for further
use when the printing was completed. Later, Vietnam, Korea, Japan, and Europe
received this technology. Later, between 1440 and 1448, the German Johann
Gutenberg created the moveable metal type.
One of the Four Great Chinese Inventions:
gunpowder Ancient China is also credited with the development of gunpowder.
Through the discipline of alchemy, ancient necromancers learned that specific
types of ores and fuel could be combined in precise amounts and heated to cause
an explosion. As a result, gunpowder was found. The Compilation of the Key
Military Techniques, published by Zeng Gongliang in 1044, had three recipes for
producing gunpowder: a flammable concoction of sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter.
These, according to Dr. Needham, are the first formulations of their sort. The
process of producing powder was brought to Europe in the fourteenth century and
to the Arab world in the twelfth. Originally used to create fireworks, gunpowder
subsequently revolutionized combat all over the world. In an attempt to create
a medicine that would allow them to live forever, ancient Necromaniers combined
plants and minerals.
Firearrows that fly (Tang Dynasty) grenades
Gold canons of the Song Dynasty The Dynasty of Yuan
The compass is one of ancient China's four
great inventions. The first known guidance instrument in the world was the
Sinan (Warring States Period).
Another important contribution from ancient
China was the compass, an essential tool for navigation... People discovered a
naturally occurring magnetite that attracted iron and pointed fixedly north
when mining ores and melting copper and iron. The circular compass was created
by continuous development.Dream Pool Essays (1086), by Song Dynasty scholar
Shen Kuo, is cited by Dr. Needham as one of the first works to explain the
magnetic compass. This book was written almost a century before Alexander
Neekam recorded the device in Europe in 1190. During the Northern Song Dynasty,
the compass was brought to both Europe and the Arab world (960–1127). Prior to
its creation, navigators had to rely on the polestar, the sun, and the moon's
positions to keep them on course. When the compass was brought to Europe, it
made it possible for humans to sail across the oceans, which led to the
the discovery of the New World. It was therefore
not surprising that English philosopher Francis Bacon noted in The New
Instruments how the development of printing, gunpowder, and the compass altered
the course of human history. They had more of an impact on all of humanity, he
claimed, than any empire, religion, or heavenly body.