). Chinese
junks are described as very large, three- or four-masted ships. Among the engineering accomplishments of early China were
matches,
dry docks, the double-action
piston pump,
cast iron, the
iron plough, the
horse collar, the multi-tube
seed drill, the
wheelbarrow, the
suspension bridge, the
parachute,
natural gas as fuel, the
raised-relief map, the
propeller, the
sluice gate, and the
pound lock. The
Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) and
Song dynasty (AD 960–1279) in particular were periods of great innovation. In the 7th century, book-printing was developed in China, Korea and
Japan, using delicate hand-carved wooden blocks to print individual pages. The 9th century
Diamond Sutra is the earliest known printed document. Movable type was also used in China for a time, but was abandoned because of the number of characters needed; it would not be until
Johannes Gutenberg that the technique was reinvented in a suitable environment. In addition to gunpowder, the Chinese also developed improved delivery systems for the
Byzantine weapon of
Greek fire,
Meng Huo You and
Pen Huo Qi first used in China
c. 900. Chinese illustrations were more realistic than in Byzantine manuscripts, Trade flourished both within China and overseas, and the encouragement of technology allowed the mints at
Kaifeng and
Hangzhou to gradually increase in production.
Archaeology During the early half of the
Song dynasty (960–1279), the study of
archaeology developed out of the
antiquarian interests of the
educated gentry and their desire to revive the use of ancient vessels in state rituals and ceremonies. This and the belief that ancient vessels were products of 'sages' and not common people was criticized by Shen Kuo, who took an
interdisciplinary approach to archaeology, incorporating his archaeological findings into studies on metallurgy, optics, astronomy, geometry, and ancient
music measures. In accordance with the beliefs of the later
Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886), some Song gentry—such as
Zhao Mingcheng (1081–1129)—supported the primacy of contemporaneous archaeological finds of ancient inscriptions over historical works written after the fact, which they contested to be unreliable in regard to the former evidence. Hong Mai (1123–1202) used ancient Han dynasty era vessels to debunk what he found to be fallacious descriptions of Han vessels in the
Bogutu archaeological catalogue compiled during the latter half of
Huizong's reign (1100–1125). Shen also wrote that since petrified bamboos were found underground in a dry northern climate zone where they had never been known to grow, climates naturally shifted geographically over time.
Chemistry Until the Song dynasty, Chinese medicine classified drugs under the system of the
Zhenghe bencao (Herbal of the Zhenghe Era): • Superior drugs, associated with immortality, were used for the realization of vital powers • Medium drugs that enrich one's nature • Inferior drugs were those used to treat diseases These early forms of drugs were made using primitive methods, usually just simple dried herbs, or unprocessed minerals. They were developed into combinations known as "elixirs of immortality". These early magical practices, supported by the imperial courts of
Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BCE) and
Emperor Wu (156–87 BCE) eventually led to the first observations of chemistry in ancient China. Chinese alchemists searched for ways to make
cinnabar, gold and other minerals
water soluble so they could be ingested, such as using a solution of
potassium nitrate in vinegar . Solubilzation of cinnabar was found to occur only if an impurity (
chloride ion) was present. Gold also was soluble when
iodate was present in crude niter deposits.
Mongol transmission Mongol rule under the
Yuan dynasty saw technological advances from an economic perspective, with the first mass production of paper
banknotes by
Kublai Khan in the 13th century. Numerous contacts between Europe and the Mongols occurred in the 13th century, particularly through the unstable
Franco-Mongol alliance. Chinese corps, expert in siege warfare, formed an integral part of the Mongol armies campaigning in the West. In 1259–1260 military alliance of the Franks knights of the ruler of
Antioch,
Bohemond VI and his father-in-law
Hetoum I with the
Mongols under
Hulagu, in which they fought together for the conquests of Muslim
Syria, taking together the city of
Aleppo, and later
Damascus.
William of Rubruck, an ambassador to the Mongols in 1254–1255, a personal friend of
Roger Bacon, is also often designated as a possible intermediary in the transmission of
gunpowder know-how between the East and the West. The
compass is often said to have been introduced by the Master of the
Knights Templar Pierre de Montaigu between 1219 and 1223, from one of his travels to visit the Mongols in
Persia.
Chinese and
Arabic astronomy intermingled under Mongol rule.
Muslim astronomers worked in the Chinese
Astronomical Bureau established by Kublai Khan, while some Chinese astronomers also worked at the
Persian Maragha observatory. Before this, in ancient times,
Indian astronomers had lent their expertise to the Chinese court.
Theory and hypothesis '', written by
Liu Hui in the 3rd century As Toby E. Huff notes, pre-modern Chinese science developed precariously without solid
scientific theory, while there was a lacking of consistent systemic treatment in comparison to contemporaneous European works such as the
Concordance and Discordant Canons by
Gratian of
Bologna (
fl. 12th century). This drawback to Chinese science was lamented even by the mathematician
Yang Hui (1238–1298), who criticized earlier mathematicians such as
Li Chunfeng (602–670) who were content with using methods without working out their theoretical origins or principle, stating: Despite this, Chinese thinkers of the Middle Ages proposed some hypotheses which are in accordance with modern principles of science. Yang Hui provided theoretical proof for the proposition that the complements of the
parallelograms which are about the diameter of any given parallelogram are equal to one another. Shen believed that rays of sunlight refracted before reaching the surface of the Earth, hence the appearance of the observed Sun from Earth did not match its exact location. Shen supported and expanded upon beliefs earlier proposed by
Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) scholars such as
Jing Fang (78–37 BCE) and
Zhang Heng (78–139 CE) that
lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth obstructs the sunlight traveling towards the Moon, a
solar eclipse is the Moon's obstruction of sunlight reaching Earth, the Moon is spherical like a ball and not flat like a disc, and moonlight is merely sunlight reflected from the Moon's surface. Shen also explained that the observance of a full moon occurred when the Sun's light was slanting at a certain degree and that crescent
phases of the moon proved that the Moon was spherical, using a metaphor of observing different angles of a silver ball with white powder thrown onto one side. Although the Chinese accepted the idea of spherical-shaped heavenly bodies, the concept of a
spherical Earth (as opposed to a
flat Earth) was not accepted in Chinese thought until the works of Italian Jesuit
Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) and Chinese astronomer
Xu Guangqi (1562–1633) in the early 17th century.
Pharmacology There were noted advances in
traditional Chinese medicine during the Middle Ages.
Emperor Gaozong (reigned 649–683) of the
Tang dynasty (618–907) commissioned the scholarly compilation of a
materia medica in 657 that documented 833 medicinal substances taken from stones, minerals, metals, plants, herbs, animals, vegetables, fruits, and cereal crops. In his
Bencao Tujing ('Illustrated Pharmacopoeia'), the scholar-official
Su Song (1020–1101) not only systematically categorized
herbs and
minerals according to their pharmaceutical uses, but he also took an interest in
zoology. For example, Su made systematic descriptions of animal species and the environmental regions they could be found, such as the freshwater
crab Eriocher sinensis found in the
Huai River running through
Anhui, in waterways near
the capital city, as well as reservoirs and marshes of
Hebei.
Horology and clockworks Although the
Bencao Tujing was an important pharmaceutical work of the age, Su Song is perhaps better known for his work in
horology. His book
Xinyi Xiangfayao (新儀象法要; lit. 'Essentials of a New Method for Mechanizing the Rotation of an Armillary Sphere and a Celestial Globe') documented the intricate mechanics of his
astronomical clock tower in
Kaifeng. This included the use of an
escapement mechanism and world's first known
chain drive to power the rotating
armillary sphere crowning the top as well as the 133 clock jack figurines positioned on a rotating wheel that
sounded the hours by banging drums, clashing gongs, striking bells, and holding plaques with special announcements appearing from open-and-close shutter windows. While it had been Zhang Heng who applied the first
motive power to the armillary sphere via
hydraulics in 125 CE, it was
Yi Xing (683–727) in 725 CE who first applied an escapement mechanism to a water-powered celestial globe and striking clock. The early Song dynasty horologist
Zhang Sixun (fl. late 10th century) employed
liquid mercury in his astronomical clock because there were complaints that water would freeze too easily in the clepsydra tanks during winter.
Magnetism and metallurgy Shen Kuo's written work of 1088 also contains the first written description of the magnetic needle
compass, the first description in China of experiments with
camera obscura, the invention of
movable type printing by the artisan
Bi Sheng (990–1051), a method of repeated forging of
cast iron under a cold blast similar to the modern
Bessemer process, and the mathematical basis for
spherical trigonometry that would later be mastered by the astronomer and engineer
Guo Shoujing (1231–1316). While using a sighting tube of improved width to correct the position of the
pole star (which had shifted over the centuries), Shen discovered the concept of
true north and
magnetic declination towards the
North Magnetic Pole, a concept which would aid navigators in the years to come. In addition to the method similar to the Bessemer process mentioned above, there were other notable advancements in Chinese metallurgy during the Middle Ages. During the 11th century, the growth of the iron industry caused vast
deforestation due to the use of
charcoal in the smelting process. To remedy the problem of deforestation, the Song Chinese discovered how to produce
coke from
bituminous coal as a substitute for charcoal.
Mathematics Qin Jiushao (c. 1202–1261) was the first to introduce the
zero symbol into Chinese mathematics. Before this innovation, blank spaces were used instead of zeros in the system of
counting rods.
Pascal's triangle was first illustrated in China by Yang Hui in his book
Xiangjie Jiuzhang Suanfa (详解九章算法), although it was described earlier around 1100 by
Jia Xian. Although the
Introduction to Computational Studies (算学启蒙) written by
Zhu Shijie (fl. 13th century) in 1299 contained nothing new in Chinese
algebra, it had a great impact on the development of
Japanese mathematics.
Alchemy and Taoism ), excavated from the Takashima shipwreck, October 2011. Excavated bombs contain a opening at the top where the fuse was placed. Once the fuse was lit, the bomb was thrown either by hand or catapult. According to the
Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba scroll, these bombs made a large noise and emitted bright fire upon explosion. Prior to the shipwreck's discovery, observers believed the bombs depicted in the scroll were a later addition. In their pursuit for an
elixir of life and desire to create gold from various mixtures of materials,
Taoists became heavily associated with
alchemy.
Joseph Needham labeled their pursuits as proto-scientific rather than merely
pseudoscience. Experimentation with various materials and ingredients in China during the middle period led to the discovery of many ointments, creams, and other mixtures with practical uses. In a 9th-century Arab work
Kitāb al-Khawāss al Kabīr, there are numerous products listed that were native to China, including waterproof and dust-repelling cream or varnish for clothes and weapons, a
Chinese lacquer, varnish, or cream that protected leather items, a completely fire-proof cement for glass and porcelain, recipes for
Chinese and Indian ink, a waterproof cream for the silk garments of underwater divers, and a cream specifically used for polishing mirrors.
Gunpowder warfare The significant change that distinguished
Medieval warfare to
early Modern warfare was the use of
gunpowder weaponry in battle.
A 10th-century silken banner from
Dunhuang portrays the first artistic depiction of a
fire lance, a prototype of the gun. The
Wujing Zongyao military manuscript of 1044 listed the first known written formulas for gunpowder, meant for light-weight bombs lobbed from catapults or thrown down from defenders behind city walls. By the 13th century, the iron-cased bomb shell,
hand cannon,
land mine, and
rocket were developed. As evidenced by the
Huolongjing of
Jiao Yu and
Liu Bowen, by the 14th century the Chinese had developed the heavy
cannon, hollow and gunpowder-packed
exploding cannonballs, the
two-stage rocket with a
booster rocket, the
naval mine and
wheellock mechanism to ignite trains of fuses. == Jesuit activity in China ==