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The Song Dynasty in China | Asia Topics in World History

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"In the early part of the Song dynasty ... a new variety of early-ripening rice was introduced into China from Champa, a kingdom then located near the Mekong River Delta in what is now Vietnam, and by 1012 it had been introduced in the lower Yangzi and Huai river regions.

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The Song Dynasty in China | Asia Topics in World History

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Weapons involving gunpowder were extensively used by both the Chinese and the Mongol forces in the 13th century. Song efforts to continually improve their weapons were one reason they were able to hold off the Mongols for several decades.

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History, Silk Association of Great Britain

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The next significant event in the development of the silk industry was the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. The French Huguenots, again subject to religious persecution, fled the country in large numbers. Many Huguenots were expert throwsters and weavers, and they contributed in a very large degree to the development of the silk industry in Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Switzerland.

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The people of ancient China were responsible for developing a number of fantastic innovations that are easily recognizable and important today. Examples of these inventions include the kite, the wheelbarrow, and the compass. The Chinese invented the kite about 3,000 years ago. One reason for this might be that China had many good materials for making kites.

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Chinese Inventions: Umbrellas and Parasols

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Chinese Inventions: Umbrellas and Parasols

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If on your way to a party, you get caught in a spring rain, it would be nice to thank the Chinese for something as common as the umbrella that will protect you from the downpour. If the sun shines so hotly, remember that the umbrella was invented to protect not only from the rain, but from the rays of the sun as well.

Some researchers believe that the umbrella had its beginnings when our ancestors sought protection from the sun's rays and from the rain by tying together leaves and putting that over their heads. Others speculate that the idea came from making the tent portable, enabling people to carry it with them.

Chinese historians trace the beginnings of the parasol to the banners and flags that were used to indicate rank and status during imperial times. While the umbrella was used to protect people from the elements, it also became a symbol of power and wealth. The bigger the umbrella, and the more people are needed to carry it, the higher the status of the person under it.

It is said that when a certain emperor went hunting, 24 people walked in front of him to carry a parasol. Another proof that umbrellas were a symbol of power and rank is that only members of the imperial family were allowed to use red and yellow umbrellas, while the ordinary people used blue.

From parasol to umbrella

The Chinese have used umbrellas and parasols for about two thousand years, and the folding umbrella was invented, according to historical accounts, during the Cao Wei dynasty about 1,700 years ago. The earliest umbrellas were made from silk, and only later was paper used. Umbrellas were treated with wax or lacquer to make them waterproof, while the frame and handle were made from the bark of the mulberry tree or from bamboo. The wooden parts were further treated to protect them from insects and moulds.

The Chinese character for parasol is almost an illustration of a folding umbrella. The simplified version used today is 伞 while the older character looks like this: 傘 (pronounced săn).

The best paper umbrellas are made in Fujian and Hunan provinces, where the handicraft workers are known for their high-level of skill. Making one umbrella takes over 80 steps, and care when choosing the raw materials is also needed. The bamboo used for the handle and frame has to be five years old and taken from a specific region in the northern part of Fujian province.

Today, the Chinese make umbrellas and parasols from many materials -- oil paper, silk, cotton, as well as plastic and nylon. The traditional Chinese parasol now makes its way more to foreign homes as a décor. These parasols were made to be used, and they can be used for the purpose they were made when they no longer match the interior design scheme of a house.
Originally published on 2007-05-18

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Chinese inventions: Umbrellas and parasols

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If on your way to a party, you get caught in a spring rain, it would be nice to thank the Chinese for something as common as the umbrella that will protect you from the downpour. If the sun shines so hotly, remember that the umbrella was invented to protect not only from the rain, but from the rays of the sun as well.

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Although we still cannot accurately predict earthquakes, we have come a long way in detecting, recording, and measuring seismic shocks. Many don't realise that this process began nearly 2000 years ago, with the invention of the first seismoscope in 132 AD by a Chinese inventor called Zhang ('Chang') Heng. The device was remarkably accurate in detecting earthquakes from afar, and did not rely on shaking or movement in the location where the device was situated.

The ancient Chinese did not understand that earthquakes were caused by the shifting of tectonic plates in the Earth's crust; instead, the people explained them as disturbances with cosmic yin and yang, along with the heavens' displeasure with acts committed (or the common peoples' grievances ignored) by the current ruling dynasty. Considering the ancient Chinese believed seismic events were important signs from heaven, it was important for the Chinese leaders to be alerted to earthquakes occurring anywhere in their kingdom.

Zhang Cheng was an astronomer, mathematician, engineer, geographer and inventor, who lived during the Han Dynasty (25 - 220 AD). He is credited with developing the world's first earthquake detector. Zhang's seismoscope was a giant bronze vessel, resembling a samovar almost 6 feet in diameter. Eight dragons snaked face-down along the outside of the barrel, marking the primary compass directions. In each dragon's mouth was a small bronze ball. Beneath the dragons sat eight bronze toads, with their broad mouths gaping to receive the balls.

The exact mechanism that caused a ball to drop in the event of an earthquake is still unknown. One theory is that a thin stick was set loosely down the centre of the barrel. An earthquake would cause the stick to topple over in the direction of the seismic shock, triggering one of the dragons to open its mouth and release the bronze ball. The sound of the ball striking one of the eight toads would alert observers to the earthquake and would give a rough indication of the earthquake's direction of origin.

In 138 AD, the sound of the bronze ball dropping caused a stir among all the imperial officials in the palace. No one believed that the invention actually worked. According to the direction in which the dragon that dropped the ball was oriented, it was determined that the quake had occurred to the west of Luoyang, the capital city. Since no one had sensed anything in Luoyang proper, people were sceptical. However, a few days later, a messenger from the western Long region (today, southwest Gansu province), which was west of Luoyang, reported that there had been an earthquake there. As it happened exactly the same time that the seismometer was triggered, people were greatly impressed by Zhang Heng's instrument.

In 2005, scientists in Zengzhou, China (which was also Zhang's hometown) managed to replicate Zhang's seismoscope and used it to detect simulated earthquakes based on waves from four different real-life earthquakes in China and Vietnam. The seismoscope detected all of them. As a matter of fact, the data gathered from the tests corresponded accurately with that gathered by modern-day seismometers!

Today, from an advanced modern science and technology point of view, the seismometer Zhang Heng invented is still considered amazingly refined and remarkable and way ahead of its time.

Featured image: A replica of Zhang Heng's seismoscope. Photo credit: Marilyn Shea

By April Holloway
References
Zhang Heng: Great Chinese Inventor - Epoch Times

Zhang Heng and the World's First Seismometer - History Innovations
Ancient Chinese Seismometer

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The incredible earthquake detector invented nearly 2,000 years ago

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Although we still cannot accurately predict earthquakes, we have come a long way in detecting, recording, and measuring seismic shocks. Many don't realise that this process began nearly 2000 years ago, with the invention of the first seismoscope in 132 AD by a Chinese inventor called Zhang ('Chang') Heng.

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Smallpox was once one of the most severe infectious diseases that was endemic throughout the world for most of the recorded history. It is caused by variola virus (a DNA virus and a member of the Poxviridae family), and characterized by three phases: incubation, prodrome and rash. This disease killed and disfigured innumerable millions of people globally.

The origin of smallpox

The historians believe that smallpox appeared around 10 000 B.C. during the first agricultural settlements in northeastern Africa. From there it spread to India by means of ancient Egyptian merchants. Furthermore, observations of typical skin rashes on Egyptian mummies dating from 1100 to 1580 B.C. give credence to theories that ancient Egypt was an early region with endemic smallpox.

Unambiguous descriptions of the disease were documented in 4th-century China, 7th-century India and Mediterranean region, as well as 10th-century southwestern Asia. It is estimated that smallpox was introduced to Europe between the 5th and 7th centuries, with frequent epidemics during the Middle Ages.

The disease was generally confined to the Eurasian landmass before the 15th century; however, European colonists introduced smallpox to the Americas (but also Africa and Australia) between 15th and 18th century with devastating case-fatality rates that approached 90%. It is generally believed that this was instrumental in the fall of the empires of the Aztecs and the Incas.

By the end of 19th century a milder and less lethal form of smallpox (also known as variola minor) became apparent in the USA. Originally described as Amass ( alastrim in South America), this variant of the virus eventually got recognized in Brazil during the 1970s, as well as in Ethiopia and Somalia during the 1970s.

Variolation and vaccination

The first protection against smallpox consisted in rubbing infectious material from patients with smallpox into the scratched skin of children. Lady Montagu brought this method (known as variolation) from Turkey to England in 1721. Albeit dangerous, it was adopted in Europe during the 18th century (mainly by aristocracy) after successful treatment of the two daughters of the Princess of Wales.

By the end of that century, variolation has been widely accepted throughout the world as an effective way to prevent smallpox. The pervasive use in Great Britain (and North American colonies) significantly reduced the impact of the virus in the upper classes, but not in the population as a whole.

Edward Jenner (1749-1823) was first to use cowpox in order to protect against smallpox in 1796. This virus caused only mild infections in humans, but induced an immune response which provided cross-protection against smallpox infection - the principle that underlies the development of all subsequent vaccines based on an attenuated organism.

Dissemination of the new technique, despite fierce opposition, was rapid throughout Europe and the United States. During more than 60 years the vaccination was carried out from "arm to arm" with a certain risk of transmission of syphilis; hence from 1864 onward the vaccine was primarily produced on cows to avoid this risk.

As smallpox vaccine was the first vaccine to be widely deployed in humans, it seems quite fitting that smallpox was the first human infectious disease to be eradicated by vaccination, which was a milestone achieved in 1979. Nevertheless, variola virus remains a risk as routine vaccination is no longer undertaken.

Further Reading

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Smallpox was once one of the most severe infectious diseases that was endemic throughout the world for most of the recorded history. It is caused by variola virus (a DNA virus and a member of the Poxviridae family), and characterized by three phases: incubation, prodrome and rash.

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Canal Lock/Flash Lock/Pound Locks

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HISTORY OF CANALS including The great canal of Darius I, China's Grand Canal, Flash locks and pound locks, European canals, Bridgewater Canal

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Ancient China has introduced various different styles and types of construction to the art of architecture throughout history, such as lou (multistoried buildings), tai (terraces), ting (pavilions), ge (two-story pavillions), etc. All of these architectural forms were recorded in early documents of Chinese history. However, pagodas did not appear until relatively late in Chinese history. Although pagodas are a traditional part of Chinese architecture, the pagoda originated in India, and was introduced to China along with Buddhism during the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) When translated from Indic Sanskrit, pagoda means tomb. This is because in ancient Buddhist literature, pagodas were said to be used to preserve the remains of Sakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism. The two images below compare an Indian style pagoda (left) and a Chinese style pagoda (right).

The ancient pagodas we see today are a combination of Indian and Chinese architecture, and they come in various shapes and forms. There are circular, hexagonal, and octagonal pagodas, as well as pagodas built with wood, bricks, rocks, iron, bronze, tiles, or even gold, silver, or pearls. The number of stories in the pagoda varies, but is always an odd number. The earliest Chinese pagodas were square and circle-based, but by 500 A.D. during the Tang Dynasty, the Chinese began to build more complex pagodas such as octagonal-based pagodas. During the Song Dynasty, around 1000 A.D., pagodas that were very tall and thin began to become very popular, with designs becoming increasingly intricate. Below are a few examples of the many different types of pagodas such as round, square, intricate, and simple.

I am particularly fascinated by pagodas because of all of the different types of Chinese architecture, this type of construction did not actually originate in China, but China adopted the style of building and made it their own. The pagodas that began to be created in China were less flashy than the Indian pagodas, but much more detailed and intricate. The shape of the roofs of Chinese pagodas has a very distinct shape which is to expel rainfall from the roof more efficiently, but also for looks. Chinese pagodas range from wooden to iron and many are decorated with either beautiful carvings or colorful tiles which make the pagodas stand out as a landmarks and are frequent tourist attractions. I hope to one day be able to visit a famous pagoda such as the wooden pagoda in Yinxian county, Shangxi province because it was built 1000 years ago, is 70m high, is the olden and highest wooden pagoda still in existence, and has remained perfectly still and intact through seven earthquakes. Ancient buildings such as this are very fascinating to me because it is amazing what type of architectural accomplishments could be made at the beginning of time when not much was known about construction and there were not many tools to help one build.

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Ancient China has introduced various different styles and types of construction to the art of architecture throughout history, such as lou (multistoried buildings), tai (terraces), ting (pavilions), ge (two-story pavillions), etc. All of these architectural forms were recorded in early documents of Chinese history. However, pagodas did not appear until relatively late in Chinese history.

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As the U.S. government debuts a new $100 bill on Apr. 21 — this one will be redesigned to ward against digital copying and counterfeiting — TIME traces the history of banknotes from ancient China to modern cocaine dens. Here are 10 tidbits about money that may surprise you

Keren Su / CORBIS

Paper bills were first used by the Chinese, who started carrying folding money during the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907) — mostly in the form of privately issued bills of credit or exchange notes — and used it for more than 500 years before the practice began to catch on in Europe in the 17th century. While it took another century or two for paper money to spread to the rest of the world, China was already going through a fairly advanced financial crisis: the production of paper notes had grown until their value plummeted, prompting inflation to soar. As a result, China eliminated paper money entirely in 1455 and wouldn't adopt it again for several hundred years. Another not-so-well-known fact: the word cash was originally used to describe the type of round bronze coins with square holes commonly used in the Tang Dynasty, called kai-yuans.

Read "China's Plans for Replacing the Dollar."

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Top 10 Things You Didn't Know About Money - TIME

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As the U.S. government debuts a new $100 bill on Apr. 21 - this one will be redesigned to ward against digital copying and counterfeiting - TIME traces the history of banknotes from ancient China to modern cocaine dens.

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Ancient Chinese Seismometer Used Dragons and Toads

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Ancient Chinese Seismometer Used Dragons and Toads

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In 132 AD, Chinese astronomer Zhang Heng created a seismometer, a device that detects the ground's movement during an earthquake. It couldn't predict quakes but it did show what direction they were coming from - even when they were hundreds of miles away!

Zhang was also a mathematician and mechanical engineer who constructed many practical devices, including a cart for measuring the Chinese mile, and an early armillary sphere, or globe-shaped model of the heavens. His seismometer, the first known instrument built to detect earthquakes, was important, because devastating quakes happened in many remote regions of China. So a detection device helped the emperor know when and where to send timely aid from the capital.

The bronze device featured eight metal dragons attached to what looked like a big coffee urn. Each dragon's head pointed in a different direction (north, south, east, west, northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest), and each had a copper ball in its mouth. Below the dragons' mouths were eight copper toads with their mouths upraised.

Scientists think the mechanism inside the device was a type of pendulum system that was very sensitive to vibrations. When an earthquake happened, an observer could tell which direction it came from because the mouth of the dragon facing that way would open and drop the ball into the mouth of the toad below.

For example, one day the dragon facing west dropped its ball. Soon a messenger arrived from a village 400 miles to the west with news of a bad quake in his hometown. In 2006, Chinese scientists studying historical records of earthquakes figured out that this quake was magnitude 7 on the Richter scale, a pretty big shaker!

Zhang's seismometer was lost to history, but replicas exist, including one in the Museum of Chinese History in Beijing and another in an exhibit at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California.

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Ancient Chinese Seismometer Used Dragons and Toads - Kids Discover

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In 132 AD, Chinese astronomer Zhang Heng created a seismometer, a device that detects the ground's movement during an earthquake. It couldn't predict quakes but it did show what direction they were coming from - even when they were hundreds of miles away!

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China During TheMiddle Ages (500 –1650 C.E.)

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China During TheMiddle Ages (500 –1650 C.E.)

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A Visual Sourcebook for Chinese Civilization

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A Visual Sourcebook for Chinese Civilization

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Asia for Educators | Columbia University

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Asia for Educators (AFE) is designed to serve faculty and students in world history, culture, geography, art, and literature at the undergraduate and pre-college levels.

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Ancient Chinese were innovative and determinant. They ameliorated daily necessity, by creating and innovating some of the prestigious things in the human history. Ancient Chinese inventions were dated back from the Paleolithic period. They were always ahead of the world for creating valuable things. Chinese have bestowed the four greatest inventions in the world - compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing, which is celebrated as the four greatest Chinese invention even till today in the Chinese culture. There are lots of other inventions of Chinese that are marvelous. Here is the list of Top 18 (including 2 medieval period) inventions by Chinese that own numerous accolade.

16. Paper Making 50 AD - 121)

Humans had used different material like wood, stone, bone for writing. Around 2,200 BC Egyptian discovered a type of reed, which could be used for writing by overlapping thin strips that had to be soaked in the water for a long time. The Egyptian called the Reed "Papyrus".

The Paper was derived from the word Papyrus, which was invented in ancient China around 105 A.D during the reign of Han Emperor Ho-DI. The inventor of paper was Ts'ai Lun (or Chai Lun), an official of the Imperial Court. However, recent archeological survey indicates that the paper was already invented 200 years earlier, and was used by the ancient Chinese military. Ts'ai Lun used the bark of mulberry tree in fiber and pounded them into a sheet. Later, he discovered that the quality of the paper could be improved by adding rags hemp and old fish nets to the pulp. Soon, paper became the new mode of writing. Over the few years of the invention of the paper, it was widely in use all over the China. Later, the paper was carried out throughout the world via the Silk Road.

The invention of silk was dated back to the 4th millennium BCE during the Neolithic period. Apart from clothing, Silk was widely used in a variety of sectors including writing, fishing, and musical instruments. Silk was dominantly used by emperors and high-class society. Later, it became a part of Chinese society. During the Han dynasty, silk became more than a commodity. It was used as a reward for a worthy Chinese citizen or a government official.

Silk became the important part of the Chinese economy. Japan and the Middle East starts cultivating silk around 300 CE. The Crusades brought the concept of silk product in Western Europe and export it to rest of the Europe that resulted in an economic boom. Chinese silk started to degrade in value and there was the decrease in export. However, they dominate the luxury silk market till today.

14. Tea Production 2,737 BC

Tea was discovered in Ancient China by the Chinese emperor Shennong in 2737 BCE. Shennong liked to drink hot water. One day during his trip, he and his army stopped to rest. His servant prepared a hot boiling water for him. The brown leaf fell down into the water and the color of the water was changed into brown. The servant presents it to the emperor. He drank it and found it refreshing.

During the Han Dynasty (206 BCE-220 CE), Tea was used as a medicine. It was used as a beverage drink on social occasions from Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE). Tea was prepared differently in Ancient china than today's world. Tea leaves were processed and compressed into cake form. The dried teacake known as brick tea was ground in a stone mortar. The out coming powdered from the teacake was then boiled in a kettle or hot water was added to it. It was then served as a hot beverage. The white tea (compressed tea) was produced during Tang Dynasty. The white tea was harvested in the early spring, where the leaves of the tea were silver needles which were used to make the compressed (white) tea.

The Chinese were ahead than the rest of the world to produce silk. They took an advantage of it and built resilient bamboo for the lightweight framework and high tensile strength silk for flying line. The first kite was appeared in Ancient china in the 5th century BC from the Chinese philosophers Lu Ban and Mozi. By 549 A.D, paper kites were used to carry a message for a rescue mission. During the medieval period, the Chinese used kites for testing the wind, measuring distance, communication for military purpose.

See Also,
Top 10 Ancient Chinese Mythology
12. The Seed Drill 250 BC

Babylonians in the Ancient Mesopotamia invented the single tube drills around 1500 BC. It never reached to Europe or Asia. Chinese farmer generally used hand to plan the seed, which wasn't effective. Most of the seeds will never germinate because of the lack of a combination of pests and elements. Ancient Chinese find an alternative to this problem. During the reign of Zhou dynasty, they discovered an alternate planting practice that helped to grow crops more rapidly without interfering with each others.However, in the 2nd Century BC, Chinese invented a multi-tube iron seed drills that help them to produce food for larger populations.

11. Deep Drilling (2nd century BC)

The Chinese developed a drilling technology to extract brine under the earth's surface. It was developed in the landlocked province of Szechuan, around 1,200 miles from the sea to get salt from the boreholes. The deep drilling boreholes technology slowly improved and the ancient Chinese were able to extract natural gas from the boreholes. It was carried by a bamboo pipe to the destination, which was used as the fuel. By the 11th century, the Chinese were able to drill boreholes exceeding 3,000 feet in depth. The same technology was used to drill the first petroleum well in California in the 1860s

10. Porcelain

Porcelain was not the sudden inventions. The ancient prototype of porcelain exists dated from the reign of Shang Dynasty (1600 -1046 BC).However, it was perfected during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) and was exported to the Middle East. During the Song Dynasty (960-1279 A.D), the manufacturing of Porcelain was highly organized. It reached its new height. By the time of Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 AD) Porcelains were exported to the Europe, Africa and Asia via the Silk Road.

The Chinese considered south their cardinal direction. The original compass created by the Chinese using Lodestone point towards the south and was often called south pointers. Lodestone is a type of mineral magnetite that aligns itself with an Earth's magnetic field. Ancient Chinese discovered that the suspended lodestone could turn freely, and points towards magnetic poles. During Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD), it was mainly used for Geomancy and fortune telling. In the 11 th century, during the Song Dynasty period, Chinese figure out that the loadstone that was primarily used as a divination tool could also be used to indicate a direction for travelers. In the book "The Shorter Science and Civilization in China, Volume 3 written by Needham, Joseph", it is stated that the Chinese began to use compass for navigation between 9th to 11th centuries

An Archeological survey in 2002 at the Lajia site of the Qijia culture discovered the 4000 years noodle made of grains from millet grass. The 50 cm long, yellow strands noodle was predicted to be 4,000 years old. Prior to this period, the earliest noodle was a food during the Han Dynasty. There was a huge controversy whether the Arabs, Italians or Chinese invented it first.

See Also,
Top 10 traditional Chinese foods
7. Alcoholic beverage

The consumption of the beer was started in ancient China around 9,000 years ago from the period of Neolithic people. They used rice, hawthorn, honey, and grapes to create the beer. The 4% to 5% alcoholic content beer was extremely popular during Yi Di and Du Kang of the Xia Dynasty .The various bronze vessels preserved from the Shang dynasty indicate that they consumed a warm alcohol.

6. Iron and steel smelting

During Paleolithic period, the Chinese had used bows and arrows, made of stone for fishing and farming. During the Neolithic period, the conflict started to emerge among different groups. The Chinese started to modify the tools that were used for farming and fishing to the deadliest war weapon for the battlefield. During Shang and Zhou periods, bronze melting was perfected to create different weapons, and tools for farming.

An Iron Age began in Ancient China during the Zhou dynasty (1050 BC－256 BC). Iron was heavily used for creating war weapons, farming tools, and household products. During the Han Dynasty (202 BC－220 AD), private iron making was abolished. The state start monopolized the iron smelting industry.

Chinese has used different techniques for creating Iron and steel weaponry. Their innovative techniques lead to the rapid growth of the iron and steel industry in China. They invented various casting process like crude iron technique, cast iron technique, wrought iron technique, tempering technique, wrought steel technique that made them ahead of other civilization at that time.

5. Wheelbarrow

There was an archaeological evidence of wheelbarrows in ancient China from Han Dynasty, Hui's tomb murals and brick tomb reliefs. However, the invention of wheelbarrow was credited to Prime Minister Zhuge Liang (181-234 AD) of Shu Han from 197-234. Liang created the wheelbarrow to carry the military weapons and to transfer injured and dead soldiers from the battlefield.

There were two types of Wheelbarrow that were common: Front wheeled wheelbarrows and centrally mounted the wheel. The Centrally mounted wheel didn't require a huge amount of energy to pull the wheelbarrow, the total weight was distributed equally between the wheels and pullers that made it convenient to use. The wheelbarrows were used heavily by the builder, soldiers, traders, farmers.

4. Acupuncture

There is an archaeological evidence that Acupuncture was practiced in Ancient China dated back from the Paleolithic period. The different crafted material such as stone knives and bamboo or bone needles were used as an instrumental of healing from excavated in China. It was revolutionized during the period of Huang DI, the Yellow Emperor (2697-2597). The earliest book of Chinese medicine called Nei Jing, was written around 305-204 BC consists of dialogue between Huang Di and his physicist Qi Bo about the whole spectrum of the Chinese Medical Arts

3. Seismograph

In 132 AD, Zhang Heng (78-139 AD) of Han Dynasty invented the first Seismograph called Houfeng Didong to measure the movements of Earth and seasonal winds. The seismograph was urn like an instrument, made of copper with a central pendulum. The eight dragons on the surface with each one holding the copper in its mouth points out to the eight different directions - ("east, south, west, north, southeast, northeast, southwest, and northwest"). When there was the earthquake, the closest dragon's mouth from the earthquake direction opened and the ball dropped into the mouth of the frog. When there was the earthquake, the closest dragon's mouth from the earthquake's direction released the ball and fall on the toad producing the sound. It lets people know the direction of an earthquake.

2. Great Wall:

Great Wall of China is one of the rigorous attempt by the mankind in the entire history. The Great Wall of China was built by the first emperor of china, Qin Shi Huang (260-210 BC) to protect from northern invaders. The glutinous rice flour was used as a binding material to bind the bricks. The 5500 miles length walls were built by the slaves, criminals, and peasants. It is estimated that more than millions of people worked to build the Great wall over 1000 years. Most of the great walls that we see today were built in the Ming Dynasty period.

Silk Road was an ancient trade route used by different merchants, traders, urban dwellers that linked Asia Continent and Mediterranean seas during various periods of time. The history of the Silk Road was predated from the Han Dynasty (207 BCE - 220 CE). The name "Silk road" came into existences from a lucrative silk industry that was exported all the world. With 6,400 miles Silk Road was considered as one of the major development in the Chinese history that makes china prosperous.
Final Conclusion:
Ancient Chinese inventions revolutionize many industries that we take it for granted today. Without paper, there wouldn't be books that we read today. Without a compass, traveling might have been a ghost story. Without printing, there won't be an availability of books on a large scale or a money. Perhaps, the world wouldn't be like the present.
Chinese Inventions during Medieval Period:
The Chinese invented lots of other things in the medieval period. All the inventions in the above list were from ancient china. However, there are few other things that shouldn't be missed. Although these things weren't invented in the ancient period, it carried a significant importance to the modern world.

The first chemical explosive known as a Gunpowder or black power is sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Gunpowder wasn't the sudden inventions. Chinese had used Saltpeter since mid-1st century AD in various medical treatments. The Gunpowder was invented during the Tang Dynasty in the 9th century. However, the earliest recorded formula was discovered during the Song Dynasty in the 11th century. The Chinese had used gunpowder and gunpowder-based weapon widely by the military force to prevent the invasion.

Movable-type printing

The major revolution in the history of printing came after an invention of movable clay type printing by Bi Sheng (990-1051 during the Northern Song Dynasty (960－1127). The printing consist of the four stages: making the types, composing the text, printing and retrieving the movable types. Later, In 1298, it was re-invented by the Wang Zen, during Yuan dynasty. He produced the book Jingde County that was printed 100 copies with more than 30,000 wooden movable types. The book consists of more than 60,000 Chinese characters. A metal movable type printing was invented during the Jin (1115-1234) and Southern Song (1127-1279) in the 12th century. Mostly large bronze was used to print the money.

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Top 18 Ancient Chinese Inventions - AncientHistoryLists

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Ancient Chinese were innovative and determinant. They ameliorated daily necessity, by creating and innovating some of the prestigious things in the human history. Ancient Chinese inventions were dated back from the Paleolithic period. They were always ahead of the world for creating valuable things.

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At Ancient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exists countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained.

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At Ancient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exists countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained.

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Kids learn about the inventions and technology of Ancient China to Europe such as paper, the compass, printing, and gunpowder.

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Smith College Museum of Ancient Inventions​

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Smith College Museum of Ancient Inventions​

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Smith College Museum of Ancient Inventions: Museum Directory

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Technology is a core component of the human experience. We have been creating tools to help us tame the physical world since the early days of our species.

Any attempt to count down the most important technological inventions is certainly debatable, but here are some major advancements that should probably be on any such list (in chronological order):

1. FIRE - it can be argued that fire was discovered rather than invented. Certainly, early humans observed incidents of fire, but it wasn't until they figured out how to control it and produce it themselves that humans could really make use of everything this new tool had to offer. The earliest use of fire goes back as far as two million years ago, while a widespread way to utilize this technology has been dated to about 125,000 years ago. Fire gave us warmth, protection, and led to a host of other key inventions and skills like cooking. The ability to cook helped us get the nutrients to support our expanding brains, giving us an indisputable advantage over other primates.

2. WHEEL - the wheel was invented by Mesopotamians around 3500 B.C., to be used in the creation of pottery. About 300 years after that, the wheel was put on a chariot and the rest is history. Wheels are ubiquitous in our everyday life, facilitating our transportation and commerce.
Circa 2000 BC, Oxen drawing an ancient Egyptian two-wheeled chariot. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
3. NAIL - The earliest known use of this very simple but super-useful metal fastener dates back to Ancient Egypt, about 3400 B.C. If you are more partial to screws, they've been around since Ancient Greeks (1st or 2nd century B.C.).

4. OPTICAL LENSES - from glasses to microscopes and telescopes, optical lenses have greatly expanded the possibilities of our vision. They have a long history, first developed by ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians, with key theories of light and vision contributed by Ancient Greeks. Optical lenses were also instrumental components in the creation of media technologies involved in photography, film and television.

5. COMPASS - this navigational device has been a major force in human exploration. The earliest compasses were made of lodestone in China between 300 and 200 B.C.
Circa 1121 BC, An ancient Chinese magnetic chariot. The figure, pointing to the south, moves in accordance with the principle of the magnetic compass. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
6. PAPER - invented about 100 BC in China, paper has been indispensible in allowing us to write down and share our ideas.

7. GUNPOWDER - this chemical explosive, invented in China in the 9th century, has been a major factor in military technology (and, by extension, in wars that changed the course of human history).

8. PRINTING PRESS - invented in 1439 by the German Johannes Gutenberg, this device in many ways laid the foundation for our modern age. It allowed ink to be transferred from the movable type to paper in a mechanized way. This revolutionized the spread of knowledge and religion as previously books were generally hand-written (often by monks).
1511, Printing Press, from the title page of 'Hegesippus' printed by Jodocus Badius Ascensius in Paris. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
9. ELECTRICITY - utilization of electricity is a process to which a number of bright minds have contributed over thousands of years, going all the way back to Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece, when Thales of Miletus conducted the earliest research into the phenomenon. The 18th-century American Renaissance man Benjamin Franklin is generally credited with significantly furthering our understanding of electricity, if not its discovery. It's hard to overestimate how important electricity has become to humanity as it runs the majority of our gadgetry and shapes our way of life. The invention of the light bulb, although a separate contribution, attributed to Thomas Edison in 1879, is certainly a major extension of the ability to harness electricity. It has profoundly changed the way we live, work as well as the look and functioning of our cities.

10. STEAM ENGINE - invented between 1763 and 1775 by Scottish inventor James Watt (who built upon the ideas of previous steam engine attempts like the 1712 Newcomen engine), the steam engine powered trains, ships, factories and the Industrial Revolution as a whole.
circa 1830: An early locomotive hauling freight. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
11. INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE - the 19th-century invention (created by Belgian engineer Etienne Lenoir in 1859 and improved by Germany's Nikolaus Otto in 1876), this engine that converts chemical energy into mechanical energy overtook the steam engine and is used in modern cars and planes. Elon Musk's electric car company Tesla, among others, is currently trying to revolutionize technology in this arena once again.

12. TELEPHONE - although he was not the only one working on this kind of tech, Scottish-born inventor Alexander Graham Bell got the first patent for an electric telephone in 1876. Certainly, this instrument has revolutionized our ability to communicate.

13. VACCINATION - while sometimes controversial, the practice of vaccination is responsible for eradicating diseases and extending the human lifespan. The first vaccine (for smallpox) was developed by Edward Jenner in 1796. A rabies vaccine was developed by the French chemist and biologist Louis Pasteur in 1885, who is credited with making vaccination the major part of medicine that is it today. Pasteur is also responsible for inventing the food safety process of pasteurization, that bears his name.

14. CARS - cars completely changed the way we travel, as well as the design of our cities, and thrust the concept of the assembly line into the mainstream. They were invented in their modern form in the late 19th century by a number of individuals, with special credit going to the German Karl Benz for creating what's considered the first practical motorcar in 1885.
Karl Benz (in light suit) on a trip with his family with one of his first cars, which was built in 1893 and powered by a single cylinder, 3 h.p. engine. His friend Theodor von Liebig is in the Viktoria. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
15. AIRPLANE - invented in 1903 by the American Wright brothers, planes brought the world closer together, allowing us to travel quickly over great distances. This technology has broadened minds through enormous cultural exchanges-but it also escalated the reach of the world wars that would soon break out, and the severity of every war thereafter.

16. PENICILLIN - discovered by the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming in 1928, this drug transformed medicine by its ability to cure infectious bacterial diseases. It began the era of antibiotics.

17. ROCKETS - while the invention of early rockets is credited to the Ancient Chinese, the modern rocket is a 20th century contribution to humanity, responsible for transforming military capabilities and allowing human space exploration.

18. NUCLEAR FISSION - this process of splitting atoms to release a tremendous amount of energy led to the creation of nuclear reactors and atomic bombs. It was the culmination of work by a number of prominent (mostly Nobel Prize-winning) 20th-century scientists, but the specific discovery of nuclear fission is generally credited to the Germans Otto Hahn and Fritz Stassmann, working with the Austrians Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch.
Austrian nuclear physicist Lise Meitner (1878 - 1968) congratulates German chemist Otto Hahn (1879 - 1968) on his 80th birthday, Gottingen, Germany, 8th March 1959. The pair collaborated for 30 years in the study of radioactivity, work which culminated in the discovery of nuclear fission. (Photo by Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
19. SEMICONDUCTORS - they are at the foundation of electronic devices and the modern Digital Age. Mostly made of silicon, semiconductor devices are behind the nickname of "Silicon Valley", home to today's major U.S. computing companies. The first device containing semiconductor material was demonstrated in 1947 by America's John Bardeen, Walter Brattain and William Shockley of Bell Labs.

20. PERSONAL COMPUTER - invented in the 1970s, personal computers greatly expanded human capabilities. While your smartphone is more powerful, one of the earliest PCs was introduced in 1974 by Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems (MITS) via a mail-order computer kit called the Altair. From there, companies like Apple, Microsoft, and IBM have redefined personal computing.

(BONUS) 21. THE INTERNET - while the worldwide network of computers (which you used to find this article) has been in development since the 1960s, when it took the shape of U.S. Defense Department's ARPANET, the Internet as we know it today is an even more modern invention. 1990s creation of the World Wide Web by England's Tim Berners-Lee is responsible for transforming our communication, commerce, entertainment, politics, you name it.
Cover photo: a drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci

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Technology is a core component of the human experience. We have been creating tools to help us tame the physical world since the early days of our species. Any attempt to count down the most important technological inventions is certainly debatable, but here are some major advancements that should probably be on any such list (in chronological order): 1.

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DK Find Out! | Fun Facts for Kids on Animals, Earth, History and more!

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Visit DK Find Out! to learn about dinosaurs, space, animals, nature & more. Fun learning activities for kids with videos, quizzes & galleries at DKFindOut.com

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Printing, paper money, porcelain, tea, restaurants, gunpowder, the compass-the number of things that Chinese of the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1280) gave to the world is mind-boggling. This vibrant period in Chinese history was marked by economic prosperity and remarkable technological innovation. In this interview, China expert Robin D. S. Yates, Professor of History and East Asian Studies at McGill University, describes this exceptional era and how it influenced the course of world history.

a cosmopolitan culture

NOVA: Let's begin by providing a worldwide context for the Song Dynasty. In 1271, the Italian merchant Marco Polo is believed to have visited China. What was his impression of this very different world?

Robin Yates: Well, there's a debate as to whether Marco Polo ever did, in fact, visit China. However, assuming Polo's account is real, what comes across most obviously is that he was utterly astonished at the size of the cities and the extent of commercial activity in China. The number of ships on Chinese canals and rivers far exceeded what Polo was familiar with in the cities of Italy, such as Venice or Genoa.

The Chinese had a very cultured and civilized society. Song Dynasty silks, for example, were remarkably advanced. The Chinese were using very sophisticated looms with up to 1,800 moving parts. China was simply far more developed technologically and culturally than any state in the West.

But one wonders whether Polo had actually visited, because of the things that he doesn't write about at all. He doesn't mention paper money and the bank note, which were both invented during the Song Dynasty. You would have thought that if he'd lived there for 20 years, he might have noticed it, because Western Europe didn't have it.

What are some of the things that made these large, bustling Chinese cities unique in their time?

There is a strong connection between the increasing urbanization and the burgeoning commercialization of Chinese culture at this time. Merchants traveled from one place to another, and a new group of scholar-officials was appointed to administer the country. The traveling merchants and officials wanted to eat the cuisine that they were used to in their local region. And people with some extra wealth in the urban centers also wanted to try food from different regions. So what developed was a new urban type of culture that included eating out in restaurants and the drinking of tea.

It was really in the Song Dynasty that tea reached its cult status. It was drunk out of very beautiful, extraordinarily exquisite tea bowls made from porcelain, one of the glories of the Song Dynasty. The word "china" is appropriate for porcelain, because the Chinese developed the technology for its production. The Song Dynasty ceramic industry was basically the first commercialized industry. They produced the pieces in mass quantities for the imperial palace, but also for this newly arisen class of scholar-officials and an urban elite and for these restaurants. Eventually, two of the main products the West wanted in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries were porcelain and tea, so much of the trade between East and West was based on those items.

With restaurants, common folk could eat out very, very cheaply on food such as fried noodles, which, it is said, Marco Polo introduced to the West. Although there's a lot of debate about that, the idea of spaghetti probably comes from China at about the time of the Song, possibly carried across the ocean by Arab traders, who are known to have established themselves in ports such as Canton by the ninth century.

the power of gunpowder

Tea and restaurants are certainly two important gifts the Song people gave to the world. What were some of the other Chinese inventions of this period that had a profound influence on the course of civilization?

Gunpowder completely transformed the way wars were waged and contributed to the eventual establishment of might over right. In my own research, I have been able to refute the common notion that the Chinese invented gunpowder but only used it for fireworks. I'm sure that they discovered military uses for it. I have found the earliest illustration of a cannon in the world, which dates from the change-over from the Northern Song to the Southern Song around 1127, which was 150 years before the development of the cannon in the West. The Song also used gunpowder to make fire lances - actually flame throwers - and many other gunpowder weapons, such as anti-personnel mines, which are thankfully now being taken out of general use.

Needless to say, the cannon was used by the kings of Europe to fundamentally alter the social structure of the European world. It enabled kings to destroy the castles of the feudal lords. And it enabled, therefore, the centralized nation-state to develop.

By the end of the Song Dynasty, the Chinese invented multiple-stage rockets. If we hadn't had that, maybe we would not have been able to put a man on the moon. It was that fundamental an idea. Joseph Needham, an historian of Chinese science and technology, also argues that the notion of an explosion in a self-contained cylinder also permitted the development of the internal combustion engine and the steam engine. Our basic modes of transportation would not have been possible without this Chinese invention.

How did the Chinese invention of gunpowder move from East to West?

Although scholars often consider the Song Dynasty to have been very weak, its use of gunpowder was the reason it was able to hold off the Mongols for many decades. Eventually, the Mongols were able to capture Chinese artisans and use the latest gunpowder technology against the Chinese. The Mongols used those people who had a special knowledge of technology and employed them in their own armies as engineers. They carried that technology to the West very rapidly because it was very helpful in their conquests.

What was interesting with this transfer of technology is that it goes both ways. After the introduction of the cannon and gunpowder to the West, Westerners very quickly became expert with cannons. They cast bronze cannons that were eventually much better than those the Chinese could produce. The Western bronze cannon was then brought back to China by the Jesuits in the 16th and 17th centuries. The Ming Dynasty, which fought the Manchus, employed Jesuit priests to cast cannons that were more advanced than the Chinese had at that time.

impact of the printed word

You've made a strong case for the impact of gunpowder all over the world. But were there major non-military inventions during the Song Dynasty that had an impact worldwide?

Printing and movable type were certainly two of them. Printing was actually invented by the Buddhists in the eighth century for dissemination of religious images and texts. But in the Song Dynasty, the government promoted the publication of the Confucian texts called "The Canons." These texts had to be studied by examination candidates. Once you passed the examinations you were eligible to become an official. So many copies of the Confucian texts were published at this time. In addition, the government popularized the use of printing for the dissemination of technical manuals, such as agricultural manuals and works on medicine. Eventually, private printing presses started, which fundamentally altered the world of letters and dissemination of knowledge.

In the 11th century, a famous literary artist by the name of Shen Gua records the invention of movable-type printing by a man by the name of Bi Sheng. It was this invention that was eventually taken over to the West and used by Gutenberg for the printing of the Bible. Needless to say, this had a profound effect on the nature of knowledge and the development of literature. So this is probably the number-one invention of the Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty was a time of remarkable change in so many different ways.

Did the development of printing change China the way it would change Europe?

The effect of printing was different in East and West because of the nature of the Chinese language. The Chinese language, when it is written, uses characters or graphs, sort of like ideograms. It is not an alphabet like we know it. As a consequence, there are literally thousands of Chinese characters. Obviously for most types of writing, you don't need the 48,000 different Chinese characters. You only need to use 3,000 to 10,000, something like that.

Movable-type printing was more practical, with a very limited number of symbols, such as the letters used in European alphabetic languages. In Chinese writing, you had to have a very large number of characters, each individually carved to set in the press. So even though they invented movable type, it actually was never as useful as wood-block printing-carving the blocks of each page separately and independently. So that was the reason why there were some books printed using movable type, but it never really replaced wood-block printing in the way it did in the West.

Was movable type another example of technology moving from East to West, or was it an example of an innovation developing in the East and West simultaneously?

It's very unclear, but it does appear that there was a transfer from East to West. The Mongol invaders of China were able to use their highly developed organization and cavalry to conquer all of Central Asia, including parts of India, the Middle East, and Europe. So the invention was probably transferred to the West as a result of the opening up of the trade routes and the lines of communication established by the Mongols. I'm not saying that Gutenberg actually had access to a Chinese press; that's highly unlikely. Rather, he probably got wind of the idea of printing through some unknown and lost source. It's rather ironic that Gutenberg was recently voted the man of the millennium, when it was the Chinese who actually invented the technology.

What influence did these printing innovations have on Chinese history?

Well, that's a question that brings us into the political realm. One of the major social changes that took place in the Song Dynasty was that the old aristocratic order ended and the nature of the social elite changed dramatically.

Specifically, a new class of scholar-officials came to the fore. To a large extent, they were chosen on the basis of their success in the official examinations. The scholars had to be very familiar with the Confucian classical texts, which were originally produced more than 1,000 years earlier. As a consequence, political power and social dominance were dependent upon knowledge of the written text. Printing allowed books to be very much more widely disseminated and therefore allowed political power to be shared on a much broader scale than it had been in the past. The class of so-called literary or scholar-officials that evolved basically dominated China until the 20th century with the founding of the Republic in 1911.

Was it a type of meritocracy?

That's right. Official status was open to individuals who studied hard and passed the examination. A very important development that Joseph Needham points out is that doctors were tested on their medical knowledge. It would be impossible to measure people's ability and skill and knowledge without examinations. Could you imagine education without examinations?

Without exams, you might be out of a job.

Yes. And our society would not be able to survive. We depend on this Chinese examination system that was brought to the West. Before the introduction of examinations and the bureaucratic system that came from China, society was very much hierarchical and dependent upon who you were, in what family or occupation you were born into, and your social status. In democratic systems, you know, your status ideally depends upon equality of opportunity, and that's really one of the things that the Song ultimately gave to the rest of the world, along with all these other technologies.

a booming economy

Did printing play a role in the economic boom of the Song Dynasty?

A major role. The Chinese political philosophy held that the emperor and his officials were responsible for the welfare of the people - and that included the country's economic welfare. With that in mind, they took the agricultural innovations being made in one small region of China and disseminated printed texts about it across the entire Empire.

One of the major agricultural innovations that we talk about in the NOVA documentary is that a new type of rice was introduced from Vietnam that grew faster. It prevented famine and allowed people to grow a double crop of rice each year, giving them a surplus that they could sell on the open market. This led to more wealth in the rural sector.

They became more than subsistence farmers and began growing crops they could sell in the open market for cash. This spurred on the development of a commercial and agricultural economy, and also fed the increased urbanization that Marco Polo is reputed to have seen. So it was a very complex process.

It sounds like these technological innovations and the economic boom went hand in hand.

That's right. In order for the markets to develop and the circulation of goods to be achieved, for example, you needed a good system of communication. So one of the other major developments in the Song Dynasty was the rapid expansion of the canal and of the waterway system, which was particularly true in the southeast and southern parts of China.

To move goods from place to place in the open seas the Song developed the mariner's compass. Originally, the compass had been developed for divination purposes, a sort of magnetic spoon going back as early as the Han Dynasty 1,000 years before. The Song began to trade with Southeast Asia, because in the north they were cut off from the Silk Road by other empires. So they started to use the compass for navigational purposes to help them know the direction in which to sail.

Gradually the Chinese people traveled to Southeast Asia and into Taiwan, of course, and into the Philippines and places like that. In the early part of the Ming Dynasty, after the Mongols, the Chinese Admiral Zheng He led several significant expeditions around to India and even as far as Africa. Chinese porcelains have been found as far south as Zanzibar and Tanzania. This was just before the Age of Exploration in the West.

Accompanying the invention of the compass were other inventions, such as the development of new types of locks along the canals. The Chinese previously had invented the sternpost rudder, actually in the Han Dynasty, but the sternpost rudder was very, very important for controlling a vessel. They'd also invented sails that could move. In earlier times, in the Mediterranean, sails were fixed. They had to wait for the wind to change in order to be able to move. But the Chinese invented sails that could be trimmed so that they could travel regardless of which way the wind was blowing. They also developed the structure of the ship's hold, dividing it into different watertight compartments. The result was that if one chamber in the hull sprang a leak, then it wouldn't damage the rest of the cargo.

If all oil tankers had double hulls like this, they wouldn't cause the kind of ecological problems that they've caused. All of these technological developments were interconnected with the commercialization and urbanization.

We can't end our discussion of innovations of the Song Dynasty without mentioning the Rainbow Bridge that the team of NOVA experts reconstructed in "China Bridge."

That's right. During the Song Dynasty, the population of China grew to about 100 million people, which made it a very large country. With the expansion of the waterways, you needed bridges so that people could get from one side of the river to the other in an easy way. So that's why you had the development of the bridge, and specifically the Rainbow Bridge. It was developed in Shandong province, which has mountainous terrain and where previous bridges were often washed away in spring floods.

So a retired prison guard designed a Rainbow Bridge that was built up from the banks. It could span a waterway without having any central pillars that could be washed away by the floods. The bridge that NOVA built was imitating one in Kaifeng, the capital of northern Song China, that was built over the Bian Canal, which was used to bring grain up from the rich rice-growing regions of Southeast China. All of this was connected - transportation, commercialization, technological innovations, and urbanization. The Song Dynasty was a time of remarkable change in so many different ways.

This feature originally appeared on the site for the NOVA program Secrets of Lost Empires.

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Printing, paper money, porcelain, tea, restaurants, gunpowder, the compass-the number of things that Chinese of the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1280) gave to the world is mind-boggling. This vibrant period in Chinese history was marked by economic prosperity and remarkable technological innovation. In this interview, China expert Robin D. S.

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We take a lot of things for granted in the modern world. Fiber optic cables deliver enormous amounts of information at nearly the speed of light. You can hop into your car and shout your destination at your GPS navigation system, and a digitized and disembodied voice issues easy-to-follow directions. We have it pretty sweet here in the 21st century.

As time marches on, it becomes easier to overlook the contributions of those who came before us. Even in the 19th century, Charles Duell, patent commissioner of the United States, reportedly remarked that everything that can be invented already has been invented [source: Idea Finder].

Clearly, if Duell said such a thing, he was way off. The 20th and 21st centuries have seen enormous booms in ingenuity. However, his alleged words also reveal an understanding that seems to have been lost. He understood that humans have experienced flashes of brilliance and made discoveries throughout history. He also understood that these advances have so greatly accelerated human progress that everything following them seems to be built on the foundation provided by these early inventions.

Perhaps no other ancient culture has contributed more to this advancement of human progress than the Chinese. Here are ten of the greatest inventions of the ancient nation, in no particular order.

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We take a lot of things for granted in the modern world. Fiber optic cables deliver en­ormous amounts of information at nearly the speed of light. You can hop into your car and shout your destination at your GPS navigation system, and a digitized and disembodied voice issues easy-to-follow directions.

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1. The Printing Press

Prior to the rise of the Internet, no innovation did more for the spread and democratization of knowledge than Johannes Gutenberg's printing press. Developed around 1440 in Mainz, Germany, Gutenberg's machine improved on already existing presses through the use of a mould that allowed for the rapid production of lead alloy type pieces. This assembly line method of copying books enabled a single printing press to create as many as 3,600 pages per day. By 1500 over 1,000 Gutenberg presses were operating in Europe, and by 1600 they had created over 200 million new books. The printing press not only made books affordable for the lower classes, but it helped spark the Age of Enlightenment and facilitated the spread of new and often controversial ideas. In 1518 followers of the German monk Martin Luther used the printing press to copy and disseminate his seminal work "The Ninety-Five Theses," which jumpstarted the Protestant Reformation and spurred conflicts like the Thirty Years' War (1618-48). The printing press proved so influential in prompting revolutions, religious upheaval and scientific thought that Mark Twain would later write, "What the world is today, good and bad, it owes to Gutenberg."
READ MORE: 7 Ways the Printing Press Changed the World
2. The Compass

Magnetic compasses may have been made somewhat obsolete by satellites and global positioning systems, but their impact on early navigation and exploration was inestimable. Originally invented in China, by the 14th century compasses had widely replaced astronomical means as the primary navigational instrument for mariners. The compass provided explorers with a reliable method for traversing the world's oceans, a breakthrough that ignited the Age of Discovery and won Europe the wealth and power that later fueled the Industrial Revolution. Most importantly, the compass allowed for interaction-both peaceful and otherwise-between previously isolated world cultures.

3. Paper Currency

Throughout much of human history, money took the form of precious metals, coins and even raw materials like livestock or vegetables. The inception of paper money ushered in a bold new era-a world in which currency could purchase goods and services despite having no intrinsic value. Paper currency was widely used in China in the ninth century, but did not appear in Europe until the late 1600s. Spurred on by frequent shortages of coins, banks issued paper notes as a promise against future payments of precious metals. By the late 19th century many nations had begun issuing government-backed legal tender that could no longer be converted into gold or silver. The switch to paper money not only bailed out struggling governments during times of crisis-as it did for the United States during the Civil War-but it also ushered in a new era of international monetary regulation that changed the face of global economics. Perhaps even more importantly, paper currency was the vital first step in a new monetary system that led to the birth of credit cards and electronic banking.

4. Steel

While early human societies made extensive use of stone, bronze and iron, it was steel that fueled the Industrial Revolution and built modern cities. Evidence of steel tools dates back 4,000 years, but the alloy was not mass-produced until the invention of the Bessemer Process, a technique for creating steel using molten pig iron, in the 1850s. Steel then exploded into one of the biggest industries on the planet and was used in the creation of everything from bridges and railroads to skyscrapers and engines. It proved particularly influential in North America, where massive iron ore deposits helped the United States become one of the world's biggest economies.
READ MORE: The Spies Who Launched America's Industrial Revolution
5. The Electric Light

While they are easy to take for granted, all it takes is a short power outage to remind us of the importance of artificial lights. Pioneered in the early 19th century by Humphry Davy and his carbon arc lamp, electric lights developed throughout the 1800s thanks to the efforts of inventors like Warren de la Rue, Joseph Wilson Swan and Thomas Alva Edison. It was Edison and Swan who patented the first long-lasting light bulbs in 1879 and 1880, liberating society from a near-total reliance on daylight. Electric lights went on to be used in everything from home lighting and street lamps to flashlights and car headlights. The complex networks of wires erected to power early light bulbs also helped lead to the first domestic electrical wiring, paving the way for countless other in-home appliances.

6. Domestication of the Horse

Since their domestication some 5,500 years ago, horses have been inextricably tied to human development. They enabled people to travel great distances and gave different cultures the chance to trade and exchange ideas and technology. Equine strength and agility meant that horses could also carry cargo, plow farmland and even clear forests. Perhaps most influential of all, horses changed the nature of war. Nothing was more feared than a horse-drawn chariot or a mounted warrior, and societies that mastered the use of cavalry typically prevailed in battle.

7. Transistors

A criminally underappreciated innovation, the transistor is an essential component in nearly every modern electronic gadget. First developed in late 1947 by Bell Laboratories, these tiny semiconductor devices allow for precise control of the amount and flow of current through circuit boards. Originally used in radios, transistors have since become an elemental piece of the circuitry in countless electronic devices including televisions, cell phones and computers. The amount of transistors in integrated circuits doubles nearly every two years-a phenomenon known as Moore's Law-so their remarkable impact on technology will only continue to grow.

8. Magnifying Lenses

Magnifying lenses might seem like an unremarkable invention, but their use has offered mankind a glimpse of everything from distant stars and galaxies to the minute workings of living cells. Lenses first came into use in the 13th century as an aid for the weak-sighted, and the first microscopes and telescopes followed in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. Figures like Robert Hook and Anton van Leeuwenhoek would go on to use microscopes in the early observance of cells and other particles, while Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler employed the telescope to chart Earth's place in the cosmos. These early uses were the first steps in the development of astonishing devices like the electron microscope and the Hubble Space Telescope. Magnifying lenses have since led to new breakthroughs in an abundance of fields including astronomy, biology, archeology, optometry and surgery.

9. The Telegraph

The telegraph was the first in a long line of communications breakthroughs that later included radio, telephones and email. Pioneered by a variety of inventors in the 18th and 19th centuries, the telegraph used Samuel Morse's famous Morse code to convey messages by intermittently stopping the flow of electricity along communications wires. Telegraph lines multiplied throughout the 1850s, and by 1902 transoceanic cables encircled the globe. The original telegraph and its wireless successors went on to be the first major advancements in worldwide communication. The ability to send messages rapidly across great distances made an indelible impact on government, trade, banking, industry, warfare and news media, and formed the bedrock of the information age.

10. Antibiotics

A giant step forward in the field of medicine, antibiotics saved millions of lives by killing and preventing the growth of harmful bacteria. Scientists like Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister were the first to recognize and attempt to combat bacteria, but it was Alexander Fleming who made the first leap in antibiotics when he accidentally discovered the bacteria-inhibiting mold known as penicillin in 1928. Antibiotics proved to be a major improvement on antiseptics-which killed human cells along with bacteria-and their use spread rapidly throughout the 20th century. Nowhere was their effect more apparent than on the battlefield: While nearly 20 percent of soldiers who contracted bacterial pneumonia died in World War I, with antibiotics-namely Penicillin-that number dropped to only 1 percent during World War II. Antibiotics including penicillin, vancomycin, cephalosporin and streptomycin have gone on to fight nearly every known form of infection, including influenza, malaria, meningitis, tuberculosis and most sexually transmitted diseases.

11. The Steam Engine

Cars, airplanes, factories, trains, spacecraft-none of these transportation methods would have been possible if not for the early breakthrough of the steam engine. The first practical use of external combustion dates back to 1698, when Thomas Savery developed a steam-powered water pump. Steam engines were then perfected in the late 1700s by James Watt, and went on to fuel one of the most momentous technological leaps in human history during the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the 1800s external combustion allowed for exponential improvement in transportation, agriculture and manufacturing, and also powered the rise of world superpowers like Great Britain and the United States. Most important of all, the steam engine's basic principle of energy-into-motion set the stage for later innovations like internal combustion engines and jet turbines, which prompted the rise of cars and aircraft during the 20th century.

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Prior to the rise of the Internet, no innovation did more for the spread and democratization of knowledge than Johannes Gutenberg's printing press. Developed around 1440 in Mainz, Germany, Gutenberg's machine improved on already existing presses through the use of a mould that allowed for the rapid production of lead alloy type pieces.

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The Earliest Umbrella - Chinese Umbrellas

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The Earliest Umbrella - Chinese Umbrellas

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If on your way to a party, you get caught in a spring rain, it would be nice to thank the Chinese for something as common as the umbrella that will protect you from the downpour. If the sun shines so hotly, remember that the umbrella was invented to protect not only from the rain, but from the rays of the sun as well.

Some researchers believe that the umbrella had its beginnings when our ancestors sought protection from the sun's rays and from the rain by tying together leaves and putting that over their heads. Others speculate that the idea came from making the tent portable, enabling people to carry it with them.

Chinese historians trace the beginnings of the parasol to the banners and flags that were used to indicate rank and status during imperial times. While the umbrella was used to protect people from the elements, it also became a symbol of power and wealth. The bigger the umbrella, and the more people are needed to carry it, the higher the status of the person under it.

It is said that when a certain emperor went hunting, 24 people walked in front of him to carry a parasol. Another proof that umbrellas were a symbol of power and rank is that only members of the imperial family were allowed to use red and yellow umbrellas, while the ordinary people used blue.

From parasol to umbrella

The Chinese have used umbrellas and parasols for about two thousand years, and the folding umbrella was invented, according to historical accounts, during the Cao Wei dynasty about 1,700 years ago. The earliest umbrellas were made from silk, and only later was paper used. Umbrellas were treated with wax or lacquer to make them waterproof, while the frame and handle were made from the bark of the mulberry tree or from bamboo. The wooden parts were further treated to protect them from insects and moulds.

The Chinese character for parasol is almost an illustration of a folding umbrella. The simplified version used today is 伞 while the older character looks like this: 傘 (pronounced săn).

The best paper umbrellas are made in Fujian and Hunan provinces, where the handicraft workers are known for their high-level of skill. Making one umbrella takes over 80 steps, and care when choosing the raw materials is also needed. The bamboo used for the handle and frame has to be five years old and taken from a specific region in the northern part of Fujian province.

Today, the Chinese make umbrellas and parasols from many materials -- oil paper, silk, cotton, as well as plastic and nylon. The traditional Chinese parasol now makes its way more to foreign homes as a décor. These parasols were made to be used, and they can be used for the purpose they were made when they no longer match the interior design scheme of a house.
Originally published on 2007-05-18

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Chinese inventions: Umbrellas and parasols

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If on your way to a party, you get caught in a spring rain, it would be nice to thank the Chinese for something as common as the umbrella that will protect you from the downpour. If the sun shines so hotly, remember that the umbrella was invented to protect not only from the rain, but from the rays of the sun as well.

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R ing features a 1.2cm long, 0.7cm wide abacus that sits on the finger

The ring's abacus has seven rods with seven beads on each rod

Due to its size, the beads can only be moved using small tools such as pins

Wearable technology is thought to be the latest trend sweeping the digital world.

But the concept isn't as new as you might think. Back in the 17th century, one pioneering designer in China created a functioning 'smart ring'.

Developed in the Qing Dynasty era (1644-1911), the ring features a 1.2cm long, 0.7cm wide abacus that sits on the finger.

The Zhusuan, or China's abacus, has seven rods with seven beads on each rod. Despite its small size, the rings still works as a counting tool, allowing traders to make quick calculations.

The origins of the ring are unknown. However, the beads are far too small to be moved using fingers, according to ChinaCulture.org.

'It seems that the beads can only be moved by small tools such as pins,' the site writes.

'However, this is no problem for this abacus's primary user - the ancient Chinese lady, for she only needs to pick one from her many hairpins.'

POLYNESIANS USED BINARY CODE FOR TRADING 600 YEARS AGO

The Chinese abacus is thought to have been created by a famous mathematician Cheng Dawei of the Ming Dynasty between 1368 and 1644.

A typical elementary abacus has 10 parallel wires strung between two boards on a frame, with nine beads on each wire.

Each bead has a value of 10, a multiple or sub multiple of 10. For example, all of the beads on a particular wire can have a value of 1.

To represent 155, for instance, five beads on a wire are separated from the others on the tens wire, and one bead on the hundreds wire.

While the abacus ring may not be able to make phone calls, it proves that wearable technology might not be as radical a concept as some people think.

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is this the first wearable 'computer'? 300-year-old chinese abacus ring was used during the qing dynasty to help traders

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300-year-old abacus ring uncovered from the Qing Dynasty in China

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R ing features a 1.2cm long, 0.7cm wide abacus that sits on the finger The ring's abacus has seven rods with seven beads on each rod Due to its size, the beads can only be moved using small tools such as pins Wearable technology is thought to be the latest trend sweeping the digital world.