Four Great Inventions in China
7 min readThe four great inventions refer to the four Chinese ancient key inventions: compass, paper-making, printing, and gunpowder. They remain a marker of achievement for Chinese ancient civilizations as well as an indicator of pioneering inventions for Chinese traditional science and technology. Each of the inventions affected deeply the progress of China and the world’s civilization and they remain China’s great contribution to the world civilization.
1) Compass
A compass is an instrument to indicate the directions of magnetic north and south making use of a magnetized pointer. As recorded in Wang Chong’s biography and philosophical treatise Discourses Weighed in the Balance, the oldest magnetic indicator was the “Si Nan”(south pointer) invented by some Chinese during Han dynasty around the 1st century. They polished a natural magnet into a small spoon with a smooth, round bottom and placed on a base with a smooth surface, the handle kept pointing to the south. According to Biography of Ma Jun, in History of Three Kingdoms: History of Wei, during the Three Kingdoms period in 3rd century, Chinese people invented a south-pointing mechanical carriage through combination of magnetite and a speed differential gear. The “South Pointer”was used till Tang dynasty. Together with the invention of the artificial magnetized technology, China invented the compass in the middle of 9th century. In his work General Introduction to Graveyard with GoodGeomantic Omens, Yang Weide, an astronomer of Song dynasty, discovered magnetic declination with a compass.
In his work Anecdotes and Insights at the Dream Stream Garden, Shen Kuo,a scientist of Song dynasty, gave a detailed account of various processes for making compasses by magnetic induction.
The compass was a great invention in Chinese history as well as one of the country’s significant contributions to world civilization and progress. It can be applied to navigation, survey, military investigation, and daily life. Bythe latest estimation, China used the device for navigation in late 1lth century and introduced it to Asian and European countries in 13th century, promoting the rise of the world navigation. With both functions for direction of navigational courses and determination of a ship’s longitudinal location on the sea, application of the compass led to a dramatic revolution for the world’s navigation technology ushering in a new epoch of the navigational industry. As remarked by Joseph Needham,a British historian in science and technology, the compass application would terminate the primitive navigational era and foresee the arrival of the metric navigational era.
2) Paper-making
Before the invention and spread of paper making, ancient Egyptians kept records of events on papyrus, ancient Indians wrote on tree leaves, ancient Babylonian left records on clay bricks, and ancient European put their handwritings on goat hides and other similar materials. In Shang and Zhou dynasties, ancient Chinese people mainly kept events through inscriptions on oracle bones and bronze wares and later in the Spring and Autumn & Warring States period handwrote on bamboo slips, wooden slips, silks and other similar materials. The writing materials were heavy, expensive, short of supply, or hard to write on. The invention and spreading of paper-making brought about a fundamental reformation to the writing materials previously used by ancient Chinese and other nationals throughout theworld. As a result, paper minimized the cost of the carrying of written languages and made it possible to generalize knowledge among the common people, to gear up the civilization process and communication between China and other parts of the world, and to contribute greatly to furthering world civilization.
In reference to the archaeological findings from the paper relics unearthed at Baqiao of eastern Xi’ an city (1957) and Zhongyan of Fufeng city (1978), Shaanxiprovince, and at Jinguan of Juyan (1974), Matan of Tianshui (1986), Tianshuijing (1990) and Xuanquanzhi (2002) of Dunhuang, Gansu province. However, the hemp paper then was very coarse. Based on his survey and summary of paper making technology since Western Han dynasty, Cai Lun carried out a series of innovations and experiments at the beginning of the 2nd century. For raw materials, he made use of wastes such as”hemp cloth rag, tattered fabric, fishing net, etc.”He also found a new raw material-bark, to expand the scope of raw material sources,· Cai Lun to dramatically reduce paper production cost, and to openup vast channels for the development of the paper making industry. Later he improved the original process and technology for production of better paper known as”paper of Marquis Cai”in the imperial court and the public.
The sizing technology for production of alum paper was invented in Jin dynasty. In 404 Eastern Jin imperial court promulgated the order of “replacing bamboo slips with paper”, which helped terminate the history of on-slip writing history and ever since made paper as the main carrier of Chinese characters. The paper making technologyfor production of rice paper, hard toned paper, water-lined paper, golden flowery paper, etc. was further improved in Tang dynasty. The Chinese paper-making technology reached a stage of maturity in Song and Yuan dynasties with compilation of the first paper-making specific monograph Manual of Paper-making (986) and output ofa variety of high-grade paper for painting and calligraphy, scripture keeping, and writing paper made of mulberry-bark, among some others. Paper-making was further developed with output of bamboo paper, paper ofthe Xuande reign of Ming dynasty, roller presses glossy paper, water mark paper, etc. During the period from the 2nd to the 18th century, Chinese paper-making technology retained a leading place around the world. The world’s most detailed record in the 17th century can be found in the volume Green-removing Process of the great work Exploitation of the Works of Nature. Chinese paper-making technology was introduced to its neighbouring countriesduring the 4th-5th centuries, to central Asia in the 8th century, to Europe in the 12th century, and became popular in almost all the European countries in the 17th century.
3) Printing
As a Chinese major invention in ancient time, printing experienced two key stages of development: engraved printing and movable-type printing.
In the 10th year of the Zhenguan reign of Tang dynasty (636), China and the world’s first engraved printing work Code of Conducts for Women was printed. Invention of the engraved printing required such material conditions as paper, pen, and ink, as well as good command of character-engraving process and technology and the principle of reserved printing. In those years only China had such material and technological conditions in the world.
The engraved printing was developed through combination of rubbings during the Spring and Autumn & Warring States period and shaping of seal impressions during Western Zhou dynasty. At the time, the engraved printing newspaper Kaiyuan Gazette during the Kaiyuan reign of Tang dynasty (713-714) was the world’s earliest newspaper known so far. On the fifteenth day of the fourth month of the ninth year of the Xiantong reign, Tang dynasty (868), the world’s first specifically dated printing in kind, the engraved printing of The Diamond Sutra, came into being. The finding of the engraved printing of Aryarasmi-vimalvi suddha-prabha nama-dharani satra at the Pulguksa temple of Gyeongju, South Korea in 1966 was a copy from Luoyang or Chang’ an around the Wu Zetian’s reign of Tang dynasty (702). The invention of the copperplate engraving printing was made during Song dynasty. Later the engraved process printing technology was also invented. The engraved printing technology was a major invention in the cultural history of mankind as it was not only more convenient than manual transcription, in that printing hundreds’ of volumes only needed one time of typesetting, but also produced better quality,a regular and neat font and a more exquisite workmanship. However, for· Shizhuzhai Studio’s Manual of Paintings, Ming dynasty the printing of every page,a plate was needed, requiringmuch labour, long time and high consumption of material, with difficulties of space availability for storage.
During 1041-1048 in Northern Song dynasty,a technician Bi Sheng invented the first known movable type printing press technology. He took sticky clay to make movable Chinese charaeter types, one for each single character; he engraved characters on the types and baked them into hard pottery types for typesetting and printing.
The movable type press printing had several advantages such as saving of labor and material for plate engraving, shortened time of publication, convenience of storage and repetitive use. Economical and convenient, it was a revolution in the history of printing, among the greatest inventions in the history of mankind. The basic principle of the modern typesetting and printing by application of lead types and computer word processing software remain completely consistent with Bi Sheng’s invention of the technology. Wooden, copper and lead movable type press printing was successively invented in Yuan and then Ming dynasty.
As a result, the invention of printing greatly promoted spread communication and development of the cultures of the world. There is a definition in the entry “science”in Encyclopedia Americana that the printing technology helped open the door of the Renaissance for the West, and that in the 15th century there were two great events that fundamentally changed the entire road of the West: invention of printing and great discovery of geography.
4）Gunpowder
Gunpowder，just as its name implies，refers to an explosive powdered mixture for firearms.Modern people would call it”black powder”or“black gunpowder”.It originated frem Chinese ancient alchemy，based on whichChina invented gunpowder in the 3rd year of the Yuanhe reign of Tang dynasty（808）.The powder is composed of combustibley<substances and combustionimprovers（oxides），of which the combustibles mainly include sulphur and charcoal while the major improver is saltpetre（potassium nitrate）.For the latest，in 904（the first year of Tianyou reign of Tang dynasty），China already formally used a weapon“flying fire”-a bow to shoot a pack ofgunpowder to the enemy’s town gate tower.The Chinese characters for“gunpowder”were first used in Compendium of Key Military Techniques (1044), which was compiled by Zeng Gongliang in Song dynasty, with three formulae for gunpowder making. They were the earliest gunpowder formulae in the world. The weapons of the gunpowder combustion type invented in Song dynasty include the pipe-like shooting weapon “gunpowder propellant musket”, which is recognized as the “forerunner”of the world’s modern firearms. In Yuan dynasty the original bamboo barrels were replaced with metal-barrels to produce the firearm known as the “blunderbuss”. To sum up, the invention of gunpowder did make epochal contributions to development of the ancient weapons. According to Compendium of Materia Medicaby Li Shizhen, gunpowder could also be applied to treatment of diseases, sore curing, desinfection, and plague relief. In addition, it is also used for fireworks and firecrackers.
Gunpowder was introduced to the Arabian region in the 12th-13th centuries and to Europe one century later leading to a series of changes for European weapon manufacturers, their strategies and tactics. Consequently, it became a powerful weapon for smashing the feudal fortresses during the Renaissance and thus changed the historical progress of humankind.
