From Dynasty to Destiny: Ten Famous Inventions of Ancient China

In the last two centuries, new cultural discoveries have almost rewritten history. It has been an exciting time, full of adventures and surprises. Around every corner are new answers to questions that we had already imagined answered. And of these advances, none shines brighter than the impact of ancient Chinese inventions on modern life. As we explore ten of the greatest inventions and innovations of ancient China, you may be surprised at their influence on recent technology.

1.Paper. Paper, as we know it, was invented in China around the year 105. After seeing earlier attempts made with silk, bamboo canes, and animal skins, Cai Lun came up with his own idea for it. After mixing mulberry bark, rags, wheat stalks and other things, he formed a pulp. This pulp was pressed into sheets and dried, becoming a crude form of paper. Paper was such an important invention that the manufacturing process was a closely guarded secret. The secret was safe until the 7th century when the art spread to India.

2. The Press. Before Johann Gutenberg “invented” the printing press in the 1440s, China created a type of printing press between 206 B.C. C. and 45 d. C. It was made from stone tablets to create a “rubbing” of famous Buddhist and Confucian texts. Then came block printing in the Sui dynasty. In block printing, images and words were engraved on wooden boards, smeared with ink, and pressed onto sheets of paper. Later, movable type printing presses were introduced. According to the authors of Ancient Inventions, “By AD 1000, paged books in the modern style had replaced parchment, a good 450 years before Gutenberg.”

3. The First Book. Due to the early arrival of the printing press, China also lays claim to the first book. In 868, nearly six hundred years before Gutenberg’s Bible, the first known book was printed. At the end of the Tang dynasty, China had book stores in almost every city.

4.Paper money. Although today you prefer to carry a lot of cash instead of coins, this has not always been the case. The idea of ​​paper money was first tried under Emperor Han Wu-Ti (140-87 BC) after the war depleted the treasury. He issued treasury notes, worth and in exchange for 400,000 copper coins. Instead of paper, the Emperor used the skin of the white deer. But the creature was so rare that the idea soon lost its appeal. In the early 800s, he revived the idea of ​​deterring highway robbers. In 812, the government returned to printing money. By the year 1023, the money had an expiration date and was already plagued by inflation and counterfeiting. Nearly six hundred years later, paper money headed west, first printed in Sweden in 1601.

5. The abacus. Long before Texas Instruments, he was working on the first calculator. The abacus dates back to around 200 BC It is a very advanced tool with a simple design. The wood is crafted into a rectangular frame with rods running from the bottom to the top. About 2/3 of the way down the base, a divider crosses the frame, known as the counting bar. On each of the rods there are beads. All the beads on the tally bar add up to five. Those below equal one. The rows of rods are read from right to left. The rightmost bar is in the ones place, the next is in the tens place, then the hundredths, and so on. Although its design may seem complex, today there are some Chinese so skilled that they can solve difficult mathematical problems faster than someone using a calculator.

6. The Decimal System. In the West, the decimal system appeared recently. Its first believed instance is found in a Spanish manuscript dated around the year 976. But, the first true example dates back much further. In China, an inscription dating from the 13th century B.C. C., “547 days” was written as “five hundred plus four decades plus seven days.” The Chinese probably created the decimal system because their language relied on characters (such as pictures) rather than an alphabet. Each number had its own unique character. Without the decimal system, the Chinese would have had a terrible time memorizing all these new characters. By using units of ones, tens, hundreds, etc., the Chinese saved time and trouble.

7. The Mechanical Clock. In the year 732, a Buddhist monk and mathematician invented the first mechanical clock. He called it a “Bird’s Eye View Water-Powered Spherical Map of the Skies.” Like earlier watches, the water powered it, but the machinery housed the movement. But, after a few years, corrosion and subzero temperatures took their toll. It was not until 1090, when the astronomer Su Sung designed his mechanical marvel “Cosmic Engine”, that a more reliable clock was made. Created for Emperor Ying Zong, this clock had a tower over 30 feet tall. It housed machinery that, among other things, made wooden puppets jump from one of the five doors at regular intervals throughout the day. (Much like the modern idea of ​​a cuckoo clock). The whole machine was powered by a giant waterwheel. This clock worked until 1126, when it was dismantled by the conquering Tatars and transferred to Peking for several more years. The first reference to a clock in Western history was in 1335, in the church of San Gotardo in Milan.

8. The Planetarium. A planetarium is a large enclosed space that displays the stars and constellations inside. Orbitoscope was the name of the first projection planetarium. It was built in Basil in 1912 by Professor E. Hinderman. But, once again, China is the mother of this invention. The first planetarium is attributed to the design of one of the first emperors. As one source claims, an astronomer named Jamaluddin created a planetarium during the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), along with a perpetual calendar and other important astronomical devices.

9. The earthquake sensor. The oldest earthquake sensor was also an interesting piece of art. It was a bronze cylinder about 8 feet in diameter, with 8 dragons perched on 8 frogs with their mouths open. In the mouth of each dragon rested a bronze ball. When an earthquake occurred, a pendulum inside the cylinder would swing. He took the ball out of the dragon’s mouth and put it into the frog’s mouth. The back of that frog was then facing in the direction of the center of the earthquake. Chang Heng invented it in 132 AD. C. (during the Han dynasty), almost 600 years before the first Western sensor was made in France. Later, in 1939, Imamura Akitsune recreated the invention and proved its effectiveness.

10. The helicopter rotor and propeller. While the ancient Chinese did not actually invent the helicopter, they were involved in its creation. In the 4th century AD, they invented a toy called “Bamboo Dragonfly”. You’ve probably seen them as prizes at local fairs or carnivals. It was a toy top, with a base like a pencil and a small blade like a helicopter at the end. The upper part was wrapped with a cord. When you pulled the cord, the blade would spin and rise into the air. This toy was studied by Sir George Cayley in 1809 and played a role in the birth of modern aviation. It wasn’t until the early 1900s that the first helicopter took off.

Sometimes it’s amazing to realize that what seemed to be modern ideas or inventions are much older than we had imagined. And there are likely more inventions yet to be discovered. More historical changes to be made. In the conclusion to The Greatest Inventions of the Last 2,000 Years, Jared Diamond summed it up well when referring to the changing view of history and its inventors: “Forget those stories about genius inventors who saw a need in society, solved it.” -by hand, and thereby transformed the world. There has never been such a genius… If Gutenberg had not devised the best alloys and inks used in early printing, some other contemporary manipulator with metals and oils would have done so… …give Gutenberg some of the credit, but not too much.”

Questions:

1. Choose one of the inventions mentioned. Explain how different the world would be if it had not been invented.

2. Why do you think there was such a large time gap between the Eastern and Western dates of invention?

3. What are two other inventions that came from ancient China? Do your research and find out when the idea was introduced to Western culture.

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