The Technology of Ancient China Free

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One of the most advanced ancient civilizations in recorded history, was the one that thrived in ancient China. The legacy of that civilization is that many scientific ideas, inventions, and technology of ancient China is still being used by the whole world today. Ancient Chinese civilization claims credit for many discoveries and invention of technologies like discovery of gunpowder or technology of manufacturing paper. Some of the other rare technologies that were invented in ancient China were firearms, seismoscope device used to detect earthquakesthat was made by Zhang Heng and was named as Houfeng Didong Yi. Four Chinese inventions that are regarded as the greatest technologies developed by Chinese civilization are; compass, technology of paper making, printing and gunpowder. Compass was one of the most important technological developments in ancient China, as it promoted and aided exploration that was initiated by Chinese rulers. The development of compass made China the first imperial power in the world. Chinese empire indeed was termed as an imperial power till the end of monarchy in China and the royal place was also known as Imperial Palace. Origins of manufacturing compass can be traced to 4th century BC, China. The first properly developed compass that was made from lodestone, probably appeared during Song dynasty. Records from the dynasty dated between AD, describing the device made from lodestone as a direction finder. This device or rather the The Technology of Ancient China compass made from lodestone, was shaped like a small fish and was kept on a piece of wood, floating in a bowl of water. Chinese explorers used this compass for many centuries, facilitating trade with far off lands bringing prosperity to Chinese merchants. The compass was also widely used in land explorations. The basic principle was same, however a dry compass did not float in a bowl of water but was hung in a wooden box. Though the dry compass was convenient to use, it was The Technology of Ancient China and expensive to manufacture. The Technology of Ancient China wet compass hence remained in use till Europeans introduced the dry compass. The exact era or dynasty during which the Chinese invented technology of paper manufacturing, is uncertain. But the technology certainly led to many more advancements as it facilitated scholars, philosophers and writers of Chinese civilization. Paper that was invented in ancient China was not only used as a medium of writing, but creative Chinese innovators also used it as a raw material for manufacturing bags as well as paper currency. History of paper making can be traced to Han dynasty, which ruled from BC to AD, when court official Cai Lun set to the task of making paper. He deployed mulberry, bast fibers, waste material such as old rags and hemp waste. He also made use of fishing nets to bind the materials together. Some archaeological findings however, suggests The Technology of Ancient China paper in ancient China may have been invented during the 8th century BC. Initially this crude form of paper was The Technology of Ancient China used for writing. It was deployed as a means of wrapping and padding. By the end of 3rd century AD, it had become a popular medium of writing, and by 6th century it was even used as toilet papers. During this time, paper was used to make bags for tea storage, that helped preserve the flavor and smell of the tea. The invention of printing is regarded as one of the most important inventions, due to the fact that it made books cheaper. Cheaper books ensured an educated society. Many dynasties, The Technology of Ancient China and scholars from ancient China contributed to the development of printing press. Printing technology started evolving from some time around BC, with the printing of the first The Technology of Ancient China book the Diamond Sutra. The book was printed with the help of the wood block printing. It had become a very advanced technology by the end of the Song dynasty. Writer Shen Kuo, who was also a courtier of Songs, promoted the use of printing for the spread of knowledge. Bi Sheng, who was an artisan, invented the movable ceramic printing. Inventors like Hua Sui also attempted to invent the metal castings and rollers for movable printing. One of the few destructive inventions of ancient Chinese civilization was that of gunpowder. Discovery of gunpowder led to invention of firearms and revolutionized battlefields in Asian Continent. Chinese alchemists who were searching for an elixir of life, accidentally discovered the explosive property of gunpowder, some time around 9th century AD. By the end of the 10th century Asian powers had introduced grenades, crude bombs and firearms on battlefields. Among the technologies of ancient China, gunpowder and firearms is regarded as most useful, popular and also most destructive. Many more inventors and scientists have played significant roles in development of many different technologies of ancient China. The Chinese have displayed their technological capabilities in many other disciplines like manufacture of arms, agriculture, textile industry, civil engineering, medicine and even archeology. Many of these technologies have been lost with advancement of time. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information. Any The Technology of Ancient China that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Skip to primary navigation Skip to main content Skip to primary sidebar Skip to footer The Technology Used in Ancient China Was Truly Mind- boggling One of the most advanced ancient civilizations in recorded history, was the one that thrived in ancient China. Get Updates Right to Your Inbox Sign up to receive the latest and greatest articles from our site automatically each week give or take If you are human, leave this field blank. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Cookie settings Accept. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are The Technology of Ancient China for the working of basic functionalities of the website. 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The earliest scrap of paper still in existencea crude material made mostly from hemp fiber found in a tomb in China indates back to sometime between and 87 B. But Cai Lun, a eunuch in the Han court in A. An undated photograph of a Chinese built suspension bridge, with boats docked at a pier in foreground, in the Szechwan Province, China. But by 90 A. Han Dynasty salt miners in the First Century B. The technique they developed was the forerunner of modern oil and gas exploration. A model of a Chinese wheelbarrow. It can accommodate a much larger wheel, thus reducing the rolling resistance, and by having the wheel almost directly under the load it reduced the weight on the user's arms. The wheelbarrow was developed in China perhaps as early as B. C, according to this article by M. Lewis in the journal T echnology and Culture. The Chinese astronomer, mathematician and seismologist, Zhang Heng A. Arriving shock waves displace a pendulum linked to a mechanism which opens the jaws of the dragon facing the direction of The Technology of Ancient China earthquake. A ball falls from the dragon's teeth into the mouth of a toad below to record the event. Zhang Hengan early Chinese scientist, explored fields ranging from astronomy to clock-making. Its design was simple—an urn equipped with a pendulum. When it picked up a vibration, it dropped a ball from the mouth of a metal dragon into a metal frog, creating a loud clang. The first time that happened, nobody in the court reportedly felt anything, but a few days later, a The Technology of Ancient China from a village miles away arrived to inform the emperor that an earthquake had occurred there. Right around the beginning of the Han Dynasty in the early s B. According to Temple, The Technology of Ancient China First Century B. Chinese used a tool somewhat similar to the one used by plumbers and tinkerers, in which a sliding caliper gauge allowed the pieces to be adjusted. Modern wrenches have a worm screw, a different mechanism, but the function is the same. Initially, the devices seem to have been used for measuring, rather than loosening and tightening lug nuts or pipes. But a couple of hundred years later, some ingenious Han inventor came The Technology of Ancient China with the kuan, also known as the moldboard plow. The tool had a central piece that ended in a sharp point, and wings to push the soil away and reduce the friction. The Technology of Ancient China new plow helped the Chinese practice contour plowing, in which they followed the shapes of the hills, to reduce soil erosion. An illustration of a man on a horse dating back 2, years during the Han Dynasty. Ancient horsemen had to let their legs dangle as they rode, though the Romans rigged a hand-hold on saddles to help them stay on the horse when things got rough. A Han Dynasty inventor made things a lot easier by making cast iron or bronze devices that a rider could slip his foot into, according to Temple. It was such a revolutionary invention that it spread over the next several centuries across Asia to Europe, where it made it possible for medieval knights to ride their steeds in heavy armor without tumbling off. The Chinese developed the device for steering a ship in the First Century A. The rudder enabled ships to steer without using oars, making it a lot easier to navigate. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Twice a The Technology of Ancient China we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Live TV. This Day In History. History at Home. The Invention of Paper. Ancient China for Kids: Inventions and Technology

The Tang dynasty — of ancient China witnessed many advancements in Chinese science and technologywith various developments in woodblock printingtimekeeping, mechanical engineering, medicine,and structural engineering. The popularization of woodblock printing during the Tang dynasty made the written word available to greater audiences. As a result of the much wider distribution and circulation of reading materials, the general populace were for the first time able to purchase affordable copies of texts, which correspondingly led to greater literacy. Of this, he said:. We have an extensive penny literature at home, but the English cottager cannot buy anything like the amount of printed matter for his penny that the Chinaman can for even less. A penny Prayer-book, admittedly sold at a loss, cannot compete in mass of matter with many of the books to be bought for a few cash in China. When it is considered, too, that a block has been laboriously cut for each leaf, the cheapness of the result is only accounted for by the wideness of sale. Although Bi Sheng later invented the movable type system in the 11th century, Tang dynasty style woodblock printing would remain the dominant mode of printing in China until the more advanced printing press from Europe became widely accepted and used in East Asia. Playing cards may have been invented during the Tang dynasty around the 9th century AD as a result of the usage of woodblock printing technology. It describes Princess Tongchang, daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tangplaying the "leaf game" in with members of the clan of Wei Baohengthe family of the princess' husband. It received commentary by writers of subsequent dynasties. Other games revolving around alcoholic drinking involved using playing cards of a sort from the Tang dynasty onward. However these cards did not contain suits or numbers. Instead, they were printed with instructions The Technology of Ancient China forfeits for whoever drew them. The earliest dated instance of a card game involving cards with suits and numerals occurred on 17 July when "Yan Sengzhu and Zheng Pig-Dog were caught playing cards [zhi pai] and that wood blocks for printing them had been impounded, together with nine of the actual cards. William Henry Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which doubled as both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for, [13] similar to trading card games. Using paper money was inconvenient and risky so they were substituted The Technology of Ancient China play money known as "money cards". One of the earliest games in which we know the rules is Madiaoa trick-taking gamewhich dates to the Ming Dynasty — Fifteenth century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38 "money cards" divided into four suits : 9 in coins9 in strings of coins which may have been misinterpreted as sticks from crude drawings The Technology of Ancient China, 9 in myriads of coins or of stringsand 11 in tens of myriads a myriad is 10, The two latter suits had Water Margin characters instead of pips on them [18] : with Chinese characters to mark their rank and suit. The suit of coins is in reverse order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card. Technology during the Tang period was built also upon the precedents of the past. The mechanical gear systems of Zhang Heng and Ma Jun fl. Its design was improved c. They provided a steelyard balance that allowed seasonal adjustment in the pressure head of the compensating tank and could then control the rate of flow for different lengths of day and night. There were many other mechanical inventions during the Tang era. This included a 0. Midway up the southern side of the mountain was a dragon If he was slow in draining the cup and returning it to the leaf, the door of a pavilion at the top of the mountain opened and a mechanical wine server, dressed in a cap and gown, emerged with a wooden bat in his hand. As soon as the guest returned the goblet, the dragon refilled it, the wine server withdrew, and the doors of the pavilion closed Although the use of a teasing mechanical puppet in this wine-serving device was certainly ingenious, the use of mechanical puppets in China date back to the Qin dynasty — BC [29] while Ma Jun in the 3rd century had an entire mechanical puppet theater operated by the rotation of a waterwheel. There are many stories of automatons used in the Tang, including general Yang Wulian's wooden statue of a monk who stretched his hands out to collect contributions; when the amount of coins reached a certain weight, the mechanical figure moved his arms to deposit them in a satchel. The Chinese of the Tang era were also very interested in the benefits of officially classifying all of the medicines used in pharmacology. InEmperor Gaozong of Tang r. In the realm of technical Chinese architecturethere were also government standard building codes, outlined in the early Tang book of the Yingshan Ling National Building Law. In the realm of cartographythere were further advances beyond the map-makers of the Han dynasty. When the Tang chancellor Pei Ju was working The Technology of Ancient China the Sui dynasty as a Commercial Commissioner inhe created The Technology of Ancient China well-known gridded map with a graduated scale in the tradition of Pei Xiu Despite this, the earliest extant terrain The Technology of Ancient China of China come The Technology of Ancient China the ancient State of Qin ; maps from the 4th century BC that were excavated in The Chinese of the Tang period employed complex chemical formulas for an array of different purposes, often found through experiments of alchemy. These included a waterproof and dust-repelling cream or varnish for clothes and weapons, fireproof cement for glass and porcelain wares, a waterproof cream applied to silk clothes The Technology of Ancient China underwater diversa cream designated for polishing bronze mirrors, and many other useful formulas. Ever since the Han dynasty BC - ADthe Chinese had drilled deep boreholes to transport natural gas from bamboo pipelines to stoves where cast iron evaporation pans boiled brine to extract salt. The inventor Ding Huan fl. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Main article: Chinese playing cards. American Anthropologist. VIII 1 : 61— Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. Journal of the Graduates Sun Yat-sen University. Cambridge University Press. Adshead, S. Tang dynasty topics. Flying cash Woodblock printing Yi Xing. Kaiyuan Tongbao Salt Commission. Categories : Tang dynasty History of engineering History of science and technology in China 7th century in science 8th century in science 9th century in science 10th century in science Technology in the Middle Ages. Hidden categories: Harv and Sfn no-target errors. Namespaces The Technology of Ancient China Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file. 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