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.  

What is the Location of Ur of the Chaldees?

In recent years the question has arisen "where was the Ur of the Chaldees mentioned in the Book of Abraham located?"  Historically it was always thought to be the site of Ur in southern Iraq, the site excavated by Leonard Woolley in about 1922.  But recently, some have claimed to have located another biblical Ur in Turkey, near the site of Harran (Haran).  This article will argue for the original southern Iraq site at the mouth of the Tigris and Euphates rivers, and adjacent to the Persian Gulf.

From Hoskisson

In the Book of Abraham (in the Pearl of Great Price) we read Abraham's account about the land and city of Ur; "In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers, I, Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence (Abr. 1:1).  What was the reason he needed to leave?  He was to have been sacrificed, on the order of Nimrod the king,  by an Egyptian priest on an altar that "was in the land of Ur, of Chaldea (1:20)".  The Lord was displeased with this threat against Abraham and caused a severe famine to come upon the land.  It was so severe that Abraham's brother Haran died, and Abraham was commanded to take his family, leave Ur and go to Canaan.  On his way he stopped in south eastern Turkey for some time and named this spot Haran (apparently after his dead brother);  then later took up his journey, at the Lord's command, southwestward to Canaan (2:1-5).  This was not the shortest route from Ur to Canaan, which would have been due west from the southern Ur, but seemed to follow the trade routes  NNW along the rivers, and then southward along the Mediterranean coast.

The proposed northern Ur is located in south east Turkey at the head of the Euphrates 

Gobekli Tepe (Courtesy Wikipedia)

River.  It is near a town called Sanliurfa (the latter part of the name being Urfa, which it is thought refers to the ancient name Ur).  There is an ancient ruin named Göbekli Tepe which is an ancient sanctuary located about 15 km northeast of the city of Sanliurfa.  It does not show evidence of a zuggurat as was characteristic of Sumerian cities, and is actually dated much earlier than Abraham's time (10,000 BC).  Although  I do not think that this date is accurate, it seems to place it outside Abraham's time frame.  Although there are traditions about Abraham at Urfa, I don't feel that they are as convincing as the southern ones.  As a result I do not think Urfa is a valid candidate for the Pearl of Great Price city of Ur. 

I will now focus on six points which seem to validate a southern location for the city of Ur.

1.  Chaldea and the land of the Chaldeans

Courtesy Wikipedia

In the scriptures Abraham is associated with Chaldea and the Chaldeans.  This is a very strong link.  Chaldea was located at the head of the Persian Gulf, at the mouths of the Tigris and Euphates rivers.  If Ur was located in Chaldea, it could not have been at the suggested site in southeastern Turkey.  Some of the scriptural references from the Book of Abraham will be of use here.

Abr 1:1  In the land of the Chaldeans, at the residence of my fathers, I, Abraham, saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence.  (Here we have Abraham located at his father's residence in the land of the Chaldeans.)

Abr 1:8  it was the custom of the priest of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, to offer up upon the altar which was built in the land of Chaldea;  (The altar where Abraham was to have been sacrificed was in Chaldea, therefore the adjacent Ur would have been in Chaldea as well.  See Abraham and Nimrod.)

Abr 1:20  Behold, Potiphar’s Hill [where Abraham was scheduled to be killed] was in the land of Ur, of Chaldea. And the Lord broke down the altar of Elkenah, and of the gods of the land, and utterly destroyed them, and smote the priest that he died; and there was great mourning in Chaldea, and also in the court of Pharaoh.  (Potiphar's Hill, or the location of the Egyptian altar, was in Chaldea, and the hill was also located there.)  

Abr 1:30  Accordingly a famine prevailed throughout all the land of Chaldea, and my father was sorely tormented because of the famine.  (The famine severely affected the residents of Chaldea, and the land of Ur, forcing many to flee.  Abraham and his family fled north to the upper Euphrates.  This would have been a long distance.  Fleeing 20 miles or so [the distance from Harran to Urfa, the suggested northern Ur, would not have changed the effects of the famine much.)

Abr 2:1  Now the Lord God caused the famine to wax sore in the land of Ur, insomuch that Haran, my brother, died; but Terah, my father, yet lived in the land of Ur, of the Chaldees.  (It should be noted here that Terah, Abraham's father, was the leader of Nimrod's army.  He temporarily repents of his idolatry and leaves his position of power to go with Abraham north into rural Turkey.  When they settle in the area, they name the place Haran.  It had apparently not been named before.)

Abr 2:4  I (Abraham speaking) left the land of Ur, of the Chaldees, to go into the land of Canaan (by way of Haran).  (This identifies the three separate locations.) 

Abr 2:15  Sarai, whom I took to wife when I was in Ur, in Chaldea, (Referring to the past, he took Sarai as his wife when he previously resided in Ur.  He is now enroute from Haran to Canaan.)

2.  Nimrod (also known as Amraphel or Gilgamesh)

According to the account in the Book of Jasher, Abraham was closely involved with the Sumerian king Nimrod, and this involvement links Ur to the southern location .  It was Nimrod who almost killed him as a baby (Jasher Ch. 8).  It was Nimrod who condemned him to die at the hand of the Egyptian priest.  It was Nimrod who employed his father as his general.  And it was Nimrod who enriched him as he left Ur to travel north.  

Aerial view Ur 1927 (Wikipedia)

Nimrod's base was in Sumer, at the mouth of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.   He founded the cities of Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh.   "And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar (Gen. 10:10)".  Although it isn't mentioned, he undoubtedly founded Ur as well.  He was related, thru his grandfather Cush, to the early Egyptian rulers, which probably explains the presence of the Egyptian priest, and the acceptance of the Egyptian religious practices.  

3.  The Ziggurats

Sumerian religious practices focused on the artificial mountain, or ziggurat.  Major Sumerian cities are all built around, or close to, a prominent pyramid.  The city of Ur undoubtedly had its own ziggurat.  The tower of Babel was likely a ziggurat, and was probably located near the southern Ur.  In other words, the true Ur should evidence archaeological ruins including a ziggurat, royal burials, and ancient libraries (cuniform 

Reconstructed Ziggurat of Ur (Wikipedia)

tablets).

The only archaeological evidence that I can find for Urfa is the ancient city of Gobekli Tepe.  This site is dated at 10,000 BC (much too early), is built of rock and in a rocky environment (Sumer did not have rock and had to rely on clay), did not have a close relationship with Egypt, and is about 15 miles away from Urfa.  There are legends about Abraham in this region, but they are not as strong as the southern ones, and probably relate to Abraham's sojourn in the area.

4.  Leonard Woolley's excavations at Ur

Sir Leonard Woolley began his excavations at the Ur site in 1922.  His findings included what one would expect from a royal tomb complex from that time period.  They included many precious artifacts, exceptional art work, the untouched tomb of the queen (but the kings tomb was empty), the remains of many servants (killed to accompany the dead), and ancient paintings.  This site is near the remains of the Ur ziggurat.

This is only one of a multitude of ancient sites that have been excavated in what was then Sumer.  In

Excavations at Ur (Wikipedia)

addition, thousands of clay tablets have been found containing cuniform script which detail much of the culture of the Sumerian people.  Nothing similar has been found at the archaeological sites near Urfa.

5.  Ur was a center of cultural and commerce.  

Ur was situated at a strategic location near the mouths of the two river and with access to the sea routes to various ancient nations.  As Sumer had few natural resources (other than plentiful harvests of grain) they relied on trade with their neighbors for other necessary goods to maintain and build their civilization.  This would not have been available to the people of the northern Ur (Urfa).  The Sumerians had a history of trade with other countries and a history of navigation to the coasts of distant India and Africa.

Other references
Book of Jasher
Where was Ur of the Chaldees?  An opposing view.
Ur.  From the Ancient History Encyclopedia.
Chaldea.  From Wikipedia.
The Tigris Expedition: In Search of Our Beginnings
Lament for Ur