Ancient Chinese Inventions and Contributions

Ancient Chinese Inventions and Contributions

Humanities 111

Professor

February 21, 2012

Ancient Chinese four most useful contributions or inventions created are gun powder, the compass, paper making, and printing. These four inventions are very unique in their own way. I will explain why these four are the most useful invented by ancient Chinese.

Gun power is 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, sometime around 9th century AD. By the end of the 10th century Asian powers had introduced grenades, crude bombs and firearms on battlefields. Use of cannons and bigger fire arms also became prevalent.

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.

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. Paper making can be traced to Han dynasty, which ruled from 202 BC to 220 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...