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The basic umbrella was invented more than 4,000 years ago. There is evidence of umbrellas in the ancient art and artifacts of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and China.

These ancient umbrellas or parasols were first designed to provide shade from the sun. The Chinese were the first to waterproof their umbrellas for use as rain protection. They waxed and lacquered their paper parasols in order to use them for rain.

Origins of the Term Umbrella

The word "umbrella" comes from the Latin root word "umbra," meaning shade or shadow. Starting in the 16th century the umbrella became popular in the western world, especially in the rainy climates of northern Europe. At first, it was considered only an accessory suitable for women. Then the Persian traveler and writer Jonas Hanway (1712-86) carried and used an umbrella publicly in England for 30 years. He popularized umbrella use among men. English gentleman often referred to their umbrellas as a "Hanway."

James Smith and Sons

The first all umbrella shop was called "James Smith and Sons." The shop opened in 1830 and is still located at 53 New Oxford Street in London, England.

The early European umbrellas were made of wood or whalebone and covered with alpaca or oiled canvas. The artisans made the curved handles for the umbrellas out of hardwoods like ebony and were well paid for their efforts.

English Steels Company

In 1852, Samuel Fox invented the steel ribbed umbrella design. Fox also founded the "English Steels Company" and claimed to have invented the steel ribbed umbrella as a way of using up stocks of farthingale stays, the steel stays used in women's corsets.

After that, compact collapsible umbrellas were the next major technical innovation in umbrella manufacture, which arrived over a century later.

Modern Times

In 1928, Hans Haupt invented the pocket umbrella. In Vienna, she was a student studying sculpture when she developed a prototype for an improved compact foldable umbrella for which she received a patent in September 1929. The umbrella was called "Flirt" and was made by an Austrian company. In Germany, the small foldable umbrellas were made by the company "Knirps," which became a synonym in the German language for small foldable umbrellas in general.

In 1969, Bradford E Phillips, the owner of Totes Incorporated of Loveland, Ohio obtained a patent for his "working folding umbrella."

Another fun fact: Umbrellas have also been crafted into hats as early as 1880 and at least as recently as 1987.

Golf umbrellas, one of the largest sizes in common use, are typically around 62 inches across but can range anywhere from 60 to 70 inches.

Umbrellas are now a consumer product with a large global market. As of 2008, most umbrellas worldwide are made in China. The city of Shangyu alone had more than 1,000 umbrella factories. In the U.S., about 33 million umbrellas, worth $348 million, are sold each year.

As of 2008, the U.S. Patent Office registered 3,000 active patents on umbrella-related inventions.

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Did You Know Umbrellas Are 4,000 Years Old?

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The basic umbrella was invented more than 4,000 years ago. There is evidence of umbrellas in the ancient art and artifacts of Egypt, Assyria, Greece, and China. These ancient umbrellas or parasols were first designed to provide shade from the sun. The Chinese were the first to waterproof their umbrellas for use as rain protection.

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As the human race exited Stone Age, advancements in technology and culture enabled our ancestors to improve their lifestyle, change environment around them and expand. One of the tools that enabled them to live more easily and comfortably was umbrella and parasol, which slowly managed to evolve from exclusive use by wealthy and royalty to one of the most commonly used objects in the modern world. As one of the most efficient means of protecting the person from sun and rain, umbrellas received countless upgrades over the millennia's.

The first recorded use of sun protecting parasol comes from Ancient Egypt, over 3500 years ago. Initially used with simple configurations of palm leaves attached to a stick, Egyptian parasols soon evolved into an object that was used by nobles, religious leaders and royalty. In those times, umbrellas were seen as a sign of ran and nobles enforced a culture of pale skin that was untouched by sun. Several hieroglyphic paintings found in ancient Egyptian ruins depicted the life of royalty and gods, which all had parasols over their heads. Neighboring kingdom of Assyria practiced tradition where only the kings had the right of being protected with elaborate made parasols.

Because of desert like environment of northern Africa and Middle East, Egyptian and Assyrians never found a need to waterproof their parasols and create umbrellas. This invention however happened in China in 11th century BC, where first silk and waterproof umbrellas started being used by nobility and royalty. As a sign of power influential people carried multi-tiered umbrellas, with Chinese Emperor himself being protected with four tiers of very elaborate parasol. Similar tradition spread across the region, and rulers of Siam and Burma used parasols with eight to 24 layers.

During 1st millennia BC, umbrellas came to Ancient Greece and Rome where they were viewed as a luxurious female accessory. It was recorded that both Greek and Roman women had umbrellas that could open and close, and were often carried not by noble women but by slaves and servants, sometimes mounted on horses or carriages. Men however, viewed umbrellas as female only item and only effeminate Roman men openly joined women under the protective shade of umbrella.

After the fall of Roman Empire in 5th century AD, use of umbrella almost totally disappeared from Europe. It was only with the arrival of Renaissance that umbrella returned into popularity, most commonly by the nobility and royalty in late 16thand 17thcentury France, Italy and England (probably under the influence of China). By that time umbrellas were made from silk and other expensive materials that did not provide lasting protection from rain, but their general shape and design (reinforced with modern technology that enabled easier opening and closing) closely resembled those that were used by Roman and Greece women in 4th century BC.

As the centuries went, umbrellas slowly spread across entire Europe and after "Age of Discovery" over to the Northern America, but tradition of female use continued to be strong until mid-18th century. This finally changed when the will of Jonas Hanway, founder of English Magdalen Hospital, dared to appear in public carrying an umbrella in almost all occasions. Openly ridiculed at first, male population of England finally accepted the use of umbrella by 1790s when many more reinforced and heavier umbrellas started being made and advertised. As the decades went on, umbrellas slowly become accepted by everyone as general item and technical advancements enabled creation of modern day umbrella. Most notable inventions that shaped umbrella into modern state were Hans Haupt's introduction of pocket umbrellas in 1928, and 1969 Bradford E Phillips' introduction of modern folding mechanism. Umbrellas even found their way into religious ceremonies of Catholic Church (as a part of part of the papal regalia) and oriental Orthodox Churches where umbrellas are used to honor important person or holy object.

Advancements of umbrella technology and manufacture continue to be refined to this day, with many patents being submitted on every year (for example umbrella design that can withstand storm winds of up to 100km/h and can't be turned inside out). As of 2008, majority modern of umbrella production comes from several provinces of China which are home to thousands umbrella companies.

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History of Umbrella - Who Invented Umbrella?

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As the human race exited Stone Age, advancements in technology and culture enabled our ancestors to improve their lifestyle, change environment around them and expand. One of the tools that enabled them to live more easily and comfortably was umbrella and parasol, which slowly managed to evolve from exclusive use by wealthy and royalty to one of the most commonly used objects in the modern world.

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Top 20 Inventions of the Chinese to know

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Top 20 Inventions of the Chinese to know

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This is a quick resource from USC that also contains some links for further information.

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This article points out that we think it was invented during the Tang Dynasty. As most of you probably remember from or Islam unit, it is also claimed that the prophet Muhammad invented the toothbrush as well.

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Watch Or Stream Documentaries Live & Online | Foxtel

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Be prepared to have your mind blown and discover what the world has to offer with Foxtel's range of docos. Check out the great selection live and On Demand.

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Tofu is an extremely popular food throughout almost the all of Asia. Tofu was first used in China over 2000 years ago and experts believe that it's production began sometime during the Han dynasty (206-220BC). From China, tofu was introduced into Korea and reached Japan around the eight century A.D.

According to one Chinese legend, tofu was invented when a cook decided to experiment with flavoring a batch of cooked soybeans with the compound nagari. He ended up making bean curd (tofu) and Nagari is frequently used in the production of tofu today.

Apart from this story about the origin of tofu, there are also so many different kinds of stories about how tofu was invented. One example and a favorite is about a man who loved his parents much but they had turned old and lost the function of their teeth. They could only eat soft food so the man decided to cook some soybeans for his parents. Since his parents' teeth were useless, he blended the soybeans and made them like a soup.

His parents tasted a bit of the soybean soup and spat it out because there were too many soybean crumbs in the soup. It didn't taste very nice so he passed the soybean soup through some muslin squares. His parents still didn't like soup because they thought it was tasteless.

So he added some salt into the soybean soup and heated it up again. Because the soup was too hot he left it to cool down and after it had cooled down he discovered it had become "jelly" like. He was very curious so he had a taste and was completely surprised by the taste and texture. He served some of this "soybean jelly" to his parents, they loved it and this is how tofu was invented.

In the West, there is quite a lot of stigma against tofu. Many people don't know how to cook tofu correctly and indeed my husband had little experience with tofu before meeting him. His parents thought tofu sounded disgusting but the right tofu prepared correctly can be absolutely delicious.

Tofu contains barely any calories, so in the East many ladies like to eat lots of tofu in their diet to help them to lose weight. Tofu also contains high levels of protein and is high in both iron and magnesium.

There are many different kinds of tofu products including Douhua (豆花) which is one of my favorite desserts in Chinese cuisine. There is also soft or silken tofu which is usually used to make soups and salads. Firm tofu is ideal for both stir-frying and deep-frying. Other types of tofu include extra firm tofu, fermented tofu, stinky tofu, dried tofu, frozen tofu, tofu puff and tofu skin. I'm sure there are many other different kinds of tofu products but these are the ones we mainly use in the East.

The process by which tofu is made has a lot in common with making cheese. A coagulant is used to curdle soy milk and the curds are then pressed into a solid block. Several types of coagulant are used, from the above-mentioned nagari to calcium sulfate.

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Tofu is an extremely popular food throughout almost the all of Asia. Tofu was first used in China over 2000 years ago and experts believe that it's production began sometime during the Han dynasty (206-220BC). From China, tofu was introduced into Korea and reached Japan around the eight century A.D.

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This was a huge section, so if it jumps around, it's because I edited out what you don't need.

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Chapter 12 China in the Middle Ages (2).pdf

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https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/article/song-dynasty/

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Receive emails about upcoming NOVA programs and related content, as well as featured reporting about current events through a science lens.

This detail of a Song Dynasty painting called An Elegant Party shows a small banquet hosted by the emperor for scholar-officials.

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.

Tea drinking in China dates back to at least the Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220), when its medicinal use was recorded, but it reached new heights during the Song Dynasty.

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.

A Song Dynasty porcelain box with a flower design, now preserved at the Nanjing Museum in Jiangsu Province, China

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.

The Chinese used gunpowder for more than mere entertainment. In addition to fireworks, it fueled weapons of war during the Song Dynasty.

© Anton Zagorulko/iStockphoto

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.

The Pen ts'ao, printed with wood block and dated to 1249, is an illustrated book that describes Chinese herbal medicine. Printing not only enabled the spread of cultural wisdom but also allowed Chinese officials to distribute important documents.

public domain/Wikimedia Commons

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.

Then, as now, rice was the staple of the Chinese diet. Faster growing rice distributed during the Song Dynasty helped prevent famine.

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.

This Rainbow Bridge, built by a NOVA team of experts, was modeled after one designed during the Song Dynasty.

© WGBH Educational Foundation

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.

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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.

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Cuju was an ancient Chinese sport with similarities to soccer, featuring several significant variations in scoring and play style. It was played in a rectangular field often defined by thread or low walls, with typically one or two goals positioned in the middle of the field. It was a very popular sport in medieval China, pervasive among all classes and enjoyed by intellectuals, peasants, royalty, and soldiers alike.

The sport enjoyed a reign of popularity for over a millennium, even spreading out from China into other countries, before fading away around the 16th century.

If you want to play cuju today, you'll need a standard soccer ball (or, even better, an antique-style leather ball) and a custom goal. See Play Today! below for a full explanation.

Origins and History

Though the sport was likely played for some time prior, cuju's earlier record lies within the 3rd century BC Zhan Guo Ce, a historical political textbook. China was the birthplace and primary home of the sport, though it appears to have even practiced in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam to some degree.

During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), cuju's popularity exploded. From peasants to royalty, people of all classes enjoyed both playing and watching the sport. With cuju's popularity as a spectator sport increasing, professional players were able to make a career out of it. Its scale during this period was perhaps comparable to the early history of soccer, though this trend did not continue. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), cuju 's popularity decreased sharply, played only by a comparatively small number of people.

How to Play

The traditional style of cuju, called zhuqui, shared some similarities with modern soccer. Two teams of 12-16 players each attempted to score points by kicking the cuju ball through a goal. However, in contrast to soccer, there was one singular goal positioned in the middle of the field. This goal was made of two posts with a stretched net elevated between them, with a hole cut in the middle. Each team would try to kick the ball through this hole from their respective sides. Early in its history, there was also a two-goal version of cuju in which each team had their own goal in the middle of the field, though this was abandoned due to the popularity of the single-goal variation. It is unclear how many goals had to be scored to win a match or whether a time limit was used.

During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), another version of the sport, called baida, came into popularity, particularly among women. A group of 2-10 individual players would take turns attempting to score goals. A judge or judges would award points for skill, style, and ball handling, and could deduct points for poor performance. The player with the highest score by the end of the game won.

Play Today!

To play cuju today, you'll need a ball (either a standard soccer ball or an antique-style leather soccer ball) and a goal. For the goal, get a volleyball set (or just the net if you already have poles) and cut a 2-foot diameter hole in the middle. If you don't want to modify a net, mount a child-size hula hoop to two poles (duct tape will do) 5 to 8 feet off the ground. Once the goal is ready, set it up in the middle of your field.

Team Sport (Zhuqui): Set up two teams of up to 16 players each, one on each side of the field. The object of each team is to pass the ball through the central goal from their side of the field using any part of the body except the hands. Whenever the ball passes through the goal, the team whose side it came from scores a point. Either play to a set number of points or set a time limit like traditional soccer. At the end of the game, whichever team scored the most points wins!

(When in doubt, substitute the rules of soccer as need be.)

Contest of Skill (Baidi): This version of the game turns practice into a competition. Have any number of players take turns trying to score a goal while showing off their skills. Remember that you can touch the ball with any part of the body except the hands, so get creative!

A judge awards points for each goal based on how impressive the shot was (a scale of 1 to 5 points per goal works well) and deducts points for sloppiness. After a set number of attempts for each player, the person who scored the most points wins!

Restrictions

Players were allowed to touch the ball with any part of the body excluding hands. A referee could call fouls and/or deduct points, but it is unclear what constituted a foul, or how this system in its entirety worked.

Equipment

Prior to the Tang Dynasty (618-907), cuju was played with a ball made of two sewn hemispheres of leather stuffed with feathers. As the sport gained popularity, a higher quality ball became the standard. With eight pieces of leather stitched together, the new cuju ball was much more uniformly shaped than its predecessor, and an air-filled animal bladder on the interior gave it a lighter weight for easier maneuvering.

This timeframe also established the goal setup that would become the standard for the following centuries. Typically, two posts would sit in the middle of the field with a net stretched between them with a hole cut in the middle, as illustrated to the right.

During the Song Dynasty (960-1279) cuju balls were crafted with twelve pieces of leather to further round its shape, and a professional standard weight of approximately 21 ounces was established. These improvements in the cuju ball quality and uniformity allowed for greater control of the ball among professional players.

Bibliography

Chennault, C., Knapp, K., Berkowitz, A., & Dien, A. (2015). Early Chinese texts: A bibliographical guide. Institute of East Asian Studies.

Dunmore, T. (2011). Historical dictionary of soccer. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.

Dingming, W. (2014). A Panoramic View of Chinese Culture. Simon and Schuster.

Crowther, N. B. (2007). Sport in ancient times. Westport, CT: Praeger.

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Chinese Cuju (Ancient Soccer) - Health and Fitness History

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Cuju was an ancient Chinese sport with similarities to soccer, featuring several significant variations in scoring and play style. It was played in a rectangular field often defined by thread or low walls, with typically one or two goals positioned in the middle of the field.

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Thought Co: Important Inventions and Discoveries from Ancient China

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Thought Co: Important Inventions and Discoveries from Ancient China

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You can also search this site for more info about some specific inventions.

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Top important ancient Chinese inventions and discoveries for the modern world.

The ancient Chinese are credited with having invented many things that we use today. Since we're dealing with Antiquity here (roughly the Shang to the Chin [c.1600 B.C. - A.D. 265]), rather than the period from the beginning of time through the Middle Ages, I can't simply use a list of the Four Great Chinese Inventions. So, here is my list of the most important inventions from ancient China in terms of western use today. Arguably, gunpowder, even in its ancient form, could be on top, but my choice is one that millions of us drink every day, the most popular drink in the world, and, while initially, people were suspicious of its harmful effects, a lot healthier than the other candidate for top billing.

Tea has been so important in China that even the story of silk includes a probably anachronistic cup of it. Legend says silk was discovered when a cocoon fell from a mulberry bush into a cup of imperial tea. This is similar to the legend of the discovery of tea where an emperor (Shen Nung (2737 B.C.)) drank a cup of water into which leaves from an overhanging Camellia bush had fallen.

Tea, no matter what country it comes from, is from the Camellia sinensis plant. It seems to have been a new beverage in the third century A.D., a time when it was still regarded with suspicion, much as the tomato was when it was first brought to Europe.

Today we refer to beverages as tea even though there is no real tea in them. (Purists call them tisanes.) In the early period, there was confusion, too, and the Chinese for tea was sometimes used to refer to other plants, according to Bodde.

"Early References to Tea Drinking in China"
Derk Bodde
Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Mar., 1942), pp. 74-76.

Paper was another Han invention. Paper could be made from a sludge made from fabrics, like hemp, or rice. Ts'ai-Lun is credited with the invention, although it is thought to have been created earlier. Ts'ai-Lun gets the credit because he showed it to the Chinese emperor c. A.D. 105. Should paper come before silk? Perhaps, but with the decline in newspapers and print books, as well as the use of email for personal communication, it doesn't seem quite so important as it did, say 20 years ago.

Papermaking - From the Guide to Inventors at About.com

Coming from perhaps as early as the Neolithic era, lacquer use, including lacquerware, has been around since the Shang Dynasty. Lacquer produces a hard, protective, insect and water repelling (so it can preserve wood as on boats and repel rain on umbrellas), and decorative surface that can last indefinitely. Created by adding thin layers of the material over each other and onto a core, the resulting lacquerware is lightweight. Cinnabar and iron oxide were commonly used to color the material. The product is the dehydrated resin or sap from the Rhus verniciflua (lacquer tree), harvested by a method similar to mapling.

Source: The Chinese Traditional Art of Lacquer

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The 9 Most Important Ancient Chinese Inventions

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Top important ancient Chinese inventions and discoveries for the modern world. The ancient Chinese are credited with having invented many things that we use today. Since we're dealing with Antiquity here (roughly the Shang to the Chin [c.1600 B.C. - A.D.

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How We Conquered the Deadly Smallpox Virus

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How We Conquered the Deadly Smallpox Virus

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Make sure if you watch this and do this as a topic, you still to what the Chinese did and not the English inoculation that came later. There's info about the Chinese Small Pox inoculation at the end of the first resource listed.

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How we conquered the deadly smallpox virus - Simona Zompi

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The History and Culture of Chinese Kites

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The History and Culture of Chinese Kites

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The History and Culture of Chinese Kites

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Introduction to history and culture of Chinese kites, including construction, Weifang Kite traditions and more.

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You need to use the headings!