Chinese Inventions

"The Western world used to know little about China's past, except for the four major inventions.  As a matter of fact, China as an important source of human civilization had given birth to brilliant ancient science and technology and led the world in most of the history of world civilization, and till the mid-19th century its economy was the largest in the world ... The achievements nourished Chinese culture and civilization, and contributed greatly to mankind."  (Ancient Chinese Inventions.  Deng Yenke)

I was recently reading the book Myths and Legends of China (printed 1922) by E T C

Terraced Rice Paddies (Courtesy Wikipedia)

Werner who was British Counsel to China for a number of years.  I found his accounts interesting, but was repulsed by his bias toward the Chinese themselves.  He makes a number of assertions which are very prejudicial, one of the most blatant being that "the inventions of the Chinese can be counted on one hand."  I would like to comment on this last one and refute his false assertion. 

I have discussed in an earlier blog the importance of China in world history (especially from God's perspective, that the Jaradites, and their descendants, would become the greatest nation on the earth).  And as I believe that these Jaredites were the original populators of China, it is logical to assume that their descendants would have contributed an inordinate number of innovations to the culture of the world.  

For example, if we consider the greater Chinese civilization as a whole, it has been, and is the major culture in the world numberwise and is second economically.  In this blog I will present examples of Chinese inventions and developments that support my hypothesis.

The four most outstanding of these Chinese innovations are generally considered to have been paper making, printing, gunpowder, and the compass.  The importance of these innovations is obvious. As for the rest, I have included a long list of Chinese inventions at the end of this article (probably only partially complete) taken from the Historyplex website.  As can be seen, it is a lengthy list and includes many important innovations which have greatly benefited mankind.  So Werner's biased opinion is certainly worthy of the dustbin.

The Lord has certainly blessed the Chinese over the centuries, although there have been periods of accelerated progress, and others of retardation.  Those times when egotistical rulers have destroyed records so that history could begin with their reign were certainly blights on history.  Also those eras in which scientific research was proscribed were to be regretted.  But overall the Chinese have been a great blessing to the world and will continue to be if their politics don't drag them into a period of decline.

My favorite Chinese inventions are paper, fireworks, the plow, the compass, silk and the junk.  What are yours?

From: Historyplex

• Pre-Shang Dynasty Inventions
• Coffin (rect. wooden)
• Dagger-axe
• Drum
• Fork
• Lacquer
• Millet (cultivation)
• Noodle
• Oar (rowing)
• Plastromancy
• Plowshare (triangle)
• Rice (cultivation)
• Salt (use)
• Silk
• Soybean
• Steamer (pottery)
• Treetrunk coffin
• Urn (pottery)

Shang and post Shang inventions

A...

• Acupuncture
• Animal zodiac
• Archeology
• Anti-malarial properties of artemisia
• Armillary sphere, hydraulic-powered
• Automatic opening doors
• Automation

B...

• Banknote
• Beer (high-alcohol)
• Bellows, hydraulic-powered
• Belt drive
• Blast furnace
• Bomb, cast iron
• Borehole drilling
• Bristle toothbrush
• Bulkhead partition

C...

• Chinese calendar (365.2425 days)
• Cast iron
• Caledon
• Chain drive
• Chemical warfare
• Chopsticks
• Chromium (use)
• Chuiwan (Chinese golf)
• Civil service exams
• Co-fusion steel process
• Coke (fuel)
• Contour canal
• Crank handle
• Crossbow, handheld
• Cuju (football)
• Cupola furnace

D...

• Deficiency diseases correction
• Diabetes (recognition and treatment)
• Dominoes (Chinese)
• Duogong (building bracket)
• Drawloom (fabric)

E...

• Endocrinology (isolation of sex and pituitary hormones from urine)
• Escapement (used in clockwork)
• Exploding cannonballs 

F...

• Field mill (carriage)
• Finery forge
• Fire lance
• Fireworks
• Fishing reel
• Flamethrower
• Flare, military signal
• Forensic entomology
• Free reed aerophone

G...

• Gas cylinder
• Gimbal (Cardan suspension)
• Go (board game)
• Guqin (zither instrument)

H - I...

• Hand cannon
• Horse collar
• Horse harness
• Hybrid rice
• India ink
• Inoculation (smallpox treatment)
• Iron plow

J - L...

• Jacob's staff
• Jade burial suit
• Junk (ship)
• Kite
• Land mine
• Leeboard
• Liubo (board game)

M...

• Marine salvage operations
• Makyoh (magic mirrors)
• Magnetic levitation
• Mahjong (gambling game)
• Man-lifting kite
• Match, non-friction
• Mechanical theater
• Modular system of architecture
• Multiple-tube seed drill
• Multistage rocket

N...

• Natural gas (fuel)
• Naval mine
• Negative and non-negative numbers

P...

• Pinhole camera
• Playing cards
• Porcelain
• Pound lock
• Puppet theater, waterwheel-powdered

R...

• Raised-relief map
• Restaurant menu
• Row planting
• Rocket bombs, aerodynamic wings and explosive payloads
• Rotary fan (manual and water-powered)
• Rudder

S...

• Seismometer
• South pointing chariot
• Steel making (from cast iron)
• Stirrup
• Suspension bridge

T...

• Tea
• Thyroid hormones (goiter treatment)
• Tofu
• Toilet paper
• Toothbrush
• Traction trebuchet catapult
• Trip hammer
• Tuned bells

W - Z...

• Wheelbarrow
• Wine server
• Winnowing fan
• Xiangqi (Chinese chess board game)
• Zeotrope (cinemetograph)
• Zhaozhou bridge

Since this blog was originally published I have continued my research into the culture of China by studying the life of Joseph Needham, one of the pre-eminent Sinologists of the past century.  A handy outline of Needham's life and achievements is found in Simon Winchester's book The Man Who Loved China.  After a full life devoted to the study of Chinese history, Needham set the monumental goal of chronicling it all in what he has called Science and Civilization in China.  After many years of effort, by himself and others, he has composed 27 large volumes of detailed history relating all the advances, over the years, of the various Chinese innovators.  It would be a rather daunting task to studying all the original material, but fortunately there is a shorter digest of the whole in a book titled The Genius of China by Robert Temple which gives a comprehensive but concise overview.  I would recommend it.