Ancient Chinese Contributions

Ancient Chinese Contributions

Introduction

China has been home to an ancient and glorious history. Their style of governance hjas ranged from the feudal periods all the way to the current Communist system. The feudal era in China ended in 222 BC. Then we saw three Imperial and Intermediate eras which lead us to the Modern Era. Interestingly China was ruled by some dynasty or another for about 4000 years.

Keeping their ancient tradition and legacy in mind China was also home to many useful and significant inventions. These inventions range from gunpowder to spaghetti. These inventions are still very much of relevance in the current times. However, due to China's isolationist stance, these inventions did not reach Europe or America for many centuries. In the paper, we are to list about ten such inventions. Picking from a huge list of Ancient Chinese inventions is difficult, but we will try and focus on the ones that are the most useful and current according to our times. Let us list down the ten most useful Chinese inventions.

1.Gunpowder

2.Paper

3.Compass

4.Printing - movable type

5.Silk fabric

6.Noodles

7.Porcelain

8.Acupuncture

9.Deep drilling

10.Iron Plows

Looking at the list we may have noticed that this list not only includes certain objects that were invented from scratch, but also concepts that were introduced by them. This leads us to the second part of the paper. We are going to select four of the most important inventions among these and evaluate their importance.

Discussion

The four inventions that we are going to discuss are; paper, iron plow, gunpowder and printing- movable type.

Paper

Paper was invented during the period of the Han dynasty. It could be made from a paste like mixture made from fabrics like rice or hemp. The person behind the invention was Ts'ai-Lun, and some researchers say it was done earlier than him. What is certain is the fact that it was a Chinese invention during the Han period. Ts'ai showed it to the Han emperor in the year 105 A.D. Paper was an extremely useful invention of the time, and as we have seen during the later ages paper was solely responsible for mass dissemination of information. People got to know about what was happening around them through the newspaper. The school children even today carry text books made out of paper. It can be safely said that this invention is behind the building of a nation (Gill, N.S 2011).

Deep Drilling

The Chinese had developed the basic mechanism for deep drilling boreholes by the first century BC. A few of these boreholes reached a depth of around 4800 feet. The technology that was employed would be recognizable by an engineer as well as a common person. The Derricks would rise upto 180 feet above the borehole. The Chinese stacked pieces of rock with holes in their center and the stack would reach the deepest layer to act like a guide for the drills. Once again, the technology is quite similar to the one we see today. They used ropes and cables made of bamboo or hemp ...