The Four Major InventionsA Glimpse of Chinese Traditional Culture

The Four Major InventionsCompassPapermakingGunpowderPrinting

CompassThe compass is a device showing geographic() direction by using the earths magnetic() field. It enabled trade and exploration in whole new ways.

CompassEarly in the Warring States period, while mining ores and melting copper and iron, Chinese people chanced upon a natural magnetite that attracted iron and pointed fixedly north. Referred to as a "South-pointer", the spoon or ladle () shaped compass is made of magnetic lodestone (), and the plate is bronze. The circular center represents Heaven, and the square plate represents Earth.

A compass vehicle () was an ancient Chinese vehicle equipped with many gear wheels and a wooden figure that always pointed south no matter which direction the vehicle went. Its an earlier and more primitive form of the compass.

The Compass gives play to () important function in the navigation after introducing to Europe.

Paper MakingPapermaking SkillPaper has been a major medium of recording, transmitting, and storing information in human civilization. The earliest characters were inscribed on bones, tortoise shells and bronze wares in the Shang Dynasty and later on silk, bamboo and wood.

Do you know the process of paper-making?In the Eastern Han Dynasty (A.D.105), a court official named Cai Lun () used inexpensive materials such as bark, hemp (), rags, fishnet, wheat stalks () and other materials to make paper, known as Cai lun Paper (). The materials were soaked, cut into pieces, boiled with plant ash, washed, and grounded with a pestle in a mortar (). The mixture was then poured evenly on a flat surface to dry, or baked to become paper. It was relatively cheap, light, thin, durable and more suitable for brush writing.

Paper MakingBamboo SlipsThe bamboo slip has been used as a book form for the longest time in Chinese history. It was the main writing tool before the invention of papermaking and the popularization of paper.

Gunpowder

Gunpowder was invented in China, not by people seeking better weapons or even explosives, but by alchemists () seeking the elixir () of immortality.

Gunpowder

Gunpowder is made of niter(), sulfur and charcoal three kinds of materials mixing.

Gunpowder

In the Tang Dynasty, the gunpowder begins to be applied to the military affairs.People utilize the throwing stone machine, light the gunpowder bag and throw out, burn the enemy, this is the most primitive cannon.

GunpowderIn the Yuan Dynasty, the method of making gunpowder was introduced to the Arab world and Europe, bringing a series of revolutions to weapon manufacturing, as well as to stratagem () and tactics () on the battlefield.

PrintingTypography[tapgrf] ()Printing, known as mother of civilization, was another great invention of the Chinese people. It has a long history and includes block printing () and movable type printing ().

Block Printing was probably invented between the Sui and Tang dynasties. The process of block printing started with the cutting of wood into blocks, and then characters were engraved in relief () on the blocks. Ink was brushed on the engraved block and a white sheet of paper was spread across it and then brushed with a clean brush on its back leaving an image when the paper was removed.

The woodblock printing appear in Sui Dynasty. To carve protruding backward Chinese character() on woodblock with knife, then brush Chinese ink-liquid, and print on the paper.

The worlds oldest surviving book printed on paper is Vajra Sutra (). It is the earliest woodcut illustration in a printed book.

In Song Dynasty, word worker Bi Sheng (A.D.1004-1048) used the clay with viscidity, made into the rectangle cube, carved the single Chinese characters on it, burned it with the fire, and formed the font. The printing skill is named the typography / movable type printing ().

PrintingMovable Type Printing involved engraving single words into pieces of clay, firing them until hardened and using them as permanent type. The type was then set into printing plates.

Other Impressive Ancient Inventions

The ancient Chinese had brought many other fine inventions to mankind such as fireworks, the abacus () and silk.

Fireworks: Fireworks were probably first made by stuffing gunpowder into bamboo sticks. It was commonly thought that explosions would scare off evil spirits and ghosts.

The abacus was an early form of a calculator. It is a frame with rows of beads() on metal rods() that are used for calculations. Usually, it can be separated into two sections; two beads above, each representing 5 and five beads below, each representing 1, it was used for the four fundamental operations () of arithmetic ().

Silk: A few centuries ago, European traders trekked along the Silk Road for Chinas exquisite () silk which only the Chinese knew how to make by rearing silkworms. It takes 40,000 silkworms to make just five and a half kilograms of silk. Silk is cool to wear in hot weather and warm in cold weather.

Porcelain ['p:slen] is made from coal dust and the fine, white clay called kaolin ['keln] (). It is baked at 1200 degrees centigrade while ordinary ceramics[s'rmks] are baked at 500 degrees centigrade. The first glazing color was blue from the mineral cobalt ().

Discussion (5 minutes)How do you feel about the Four Major Inventions in ancient China?

HomeworkDiscussion topic for next class: Tell the difference between Traditional Chinese Medicine and west medicine.