Inventions which made their first appearance in late
Bronze Age China after the
Neolithic era, specifically during and after the
Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1050 BC), and predating the era of
modern China that began in 1912, are listed below in alphabetical order.
A of the
Sui dynasty (581–618) showing the twelve divisions of the
Chinese zodiac, the latter of which goes back to the
Warring States period (403–221 BC) in China •
Acupuncture: Acupuncture, the
traditional Chinese medicinal practice of inserting needles into specific points of the body for therapeutic purposes and relieving pain, was first mentioned in
Huangdi Neijing compiled from the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC (
Warring States period to Han dynasty). The oldest known acupuncture sticks made of
gold, found in the tomb of
Liu Sheng (), date from the Western Han (203 BC – AD 9); the oldest known stone-carved depiction of acupuncture was made during the
Eastern Han (AD 25–220). •
Armillary sphere, hydraulic-powered: Poet
Eratosthenes (276–194 BC) is credited as the first to invent the armillary sphere representing the
celestial sphere. The Chinese astronomer Geng Shouchang of the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) invented it separately in China in 52 BC, and the Han dynasty polymath
Zhang Heng (78–139 AD) was the first to apply motive power using a set of complex gears rotated by a
waterwheel which was powered by the constant
pressure head of an inflow
clepsydra clock, the latter of which he improved with an extra compensating tank between the reservoir and the inflow vessel.
B (c. 300 BC), recording part of a commentary on the
Classic of Poetry , issued in 1160 , 1313 AD, during the
Yuan dynasty (960–1127) artist Wang Juzheng. The Chinese invented the
belt drive by the 1st century BC for silk
quilling devices. •
Banknote: Paper currency was
first developed in China. Its roots were in merchant
receipts of deposit during the Tang dynasty, as
merchants and
wholesalers desired to avoid the heavy bulk of
copper coinage in large commercial transactions. During the Song dynasty (960–1279), the central government adopted this system for their
monopolized salt industry, but a gradual reduction in copper production—due to the closing of mines and an enormous outflow of Song-minted copper currency into the Japanese,
Southeast Asian,
Western Xia and Liao economies—encouraged the Song government in the early 12th century to issue government-printed paper currency alongside copper to ease the demand on their state mints and debase the value of copper. In the early 11th century, the Song dynasty government authorised sixteen private
banks to issue notes of exchange in central China, but in 1023 the government commandeered this enterprise and set up an agency to supervise the manufacture of banknotes there. The earliest paper currency was limited to certain regions and could not be used outside specified bounds, but once paper was securely backed by gold and silver stores, the Song dynasty government initiated a nationwide paper currency, between 1265 and 1274. •
Bellows, hydraulic-powered: Although it is unknown if metallurgic bellows (i.e. air-blowing device) in the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) were of the leather bag type or the wooden fan type found in the later Yuan state (1279–1368), the Han dynasty mechanical engineer and politician
Du Shi (d. 38 AD) applied the use of rotating
waterwheels to power the bellows of his
blast furnace smelting
iron, a method which continued in use in China thereafter, as evidenced by subsequent records; it is a significant invention in that iron production yields were increased and it employed all the necessary components for converting rotary motion into
reciprocating motion. •
Belt drive: The mechanical belt drive, using a
pulley machine, was first mentioned in the text the
Dictionary of Local Expressions by the Han dynasty philosopher, poet, and politician
Yang Xiong (53–18 BC) in 15 BC, used for a
quilling machine that wound
silk fibers on to
bobbins for
weavers' shuttles. The belt drive was not only used in textile technologies, it was also applied to hydraulic powered bellows dating from the 1st century AD. and were made with bronze, iron, gold, and jade. •
Biological pest control: The first report of the use of an insect species to control an insect pest comes from
Nanfang caomu zhuang (;
Plants of the Southern Regions; c. 304 AD), attributed to
Western Jin dynasty botanist Ji Han (, 263–307), in which it is mentioned that "
Jiaozhi people sell ants and their nests attached to twigs looking like thin cotton envelopes, the reddish-yellow ant being larger than normal. Without such ants, southern citrus fruits will be severely insect-damaged". The ants used are known as (
huang 'yellow' +
gan 'citrus') ants (
Oecophylla smaragdina). The practice was later reported by Ling Biao Lu Yi (late
Tang dynasty or Early
Five Dynasties), in
Ji Le Pian by Zhuang Jisu (
Southern Song dynasty), in the
Book of Tree Planting by Yu Zhen Mu (
Ming dynasty), in the book
Guangdong Xing Yu (17th century),
Lingnan by Wu Zhen Fang (Qing dynasty), in
Nanyue Miscellanies by Li Diao Yuan, and others. •
Blast furnace: Although
cast iron tools and weapons have been found in China dating from the 5th century BC, the earliest discovered Chinese blast furnaces, which produced
pig iron that could be remelted and refined as cast iron in the
cupola furnace, date from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, and the vast majority of early blast-furnace sites discovered date from the Han dynasty (202 BC – AD 220), immediately following 117 BC with the
establishment of state monopolies over the salt and iron industries during the reign of
Emperor Wu of Han (r. 141 – 87 BC); most ironwork sites discovered dating from before 117 BC acted merely as
foundries to make castings for iron that had been smelted in blast furnaces elsewhere, in remote areas, far from population centres. •
Bomb: The first accounts of bombs made of cast iron shells packed with explosive gunpowder—as opposed to earlier types of casings—were written in the 13th century in China. The term was coined for this bomb (i.e. "thunder-crash bomb") during a
Jin dynasty (1115–1234) naval battle of 1231 against the
Mongols. The
History of Jin (compiled by 1345) states that in 1232, as the Mongol general
Subutai (1176–1248) descended on the Jin stronghold of
Kaifeng, the defenders had a "thunder-crash bomb" which "consisted of gunpowder put into an iron container ... then when the fuse was lit (and the projectile shot off) there was a great explosion the noise whereof was like thunder, audible for more than a hundred
li, and the vegetation was scorched and blasted by the heat over an area of more than
half a mou. When hit, even
iron armour was quite pierced through." The significance of this, Needham states, is that a "high-nitrate gunpowder mixture had been reached at last, since nothing less would have burst the iron casing." •
Borehole drilling: By at least the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), the Chinese used deep borehole drilling for mining and other projects; The British sinologist and historian
Michael Loewe states that borehole sites could reach as deep as . K. S. Tom describes the drilling process: "The Chinese method of deep drilling was accomplished by a team of men jumping on and off a beam to impact the drilling bit while the boring tool was rotated by buffalo and oxen." This was the same method used for extracting
petroleum in
California during the 1860s (i.e. "Kicking Her Down"). A Western Han dynasty bronze foundry discovered in Xinglong,
Hebei had nearby
mining shafts which reached depths of with spacious mining areas; the shafts and rooms were complete with a timber frame, ladders and iron tools. By the first century BC, Chinese craftsmen cast iron drill bits and drillers were able to drill boreholes up to deep. By the eleventh century AD, the Chinese were able to drill boreholes up to 3000 feet in depth. Drilling for boreholes was time-consuming and long. As the depth of the holes varied, the drilling of a single well could take up to nearly one full decade. The Chinese breast harness became known throughout
Central Asia by the 7th century, introduced to Europe by the 8th century. The breeching strap acted as a brake when a cart tries to run forward when moving downwards on a slope and also make it possible to maneuver the cart in the reverse direction. •
Brine mining: About 500 BC, the ancient Chinese dug hundreds of brine wells, some of which were over in depth. Large brine deposits under the earth's surface were drilled by drilling boreholes. Bamboo was used for ropes, casing, and derricks since it was salt resistant. Iron wedges were hung from a bamboo cable tool attached to a lever on a platform constructed atop the tower. The derricks required two to three men jumping on and off the lever that moved the iron wedge pounded into the ground to dig a hole deep enough into the ground to hit the brine. In accordance with the Library of Congress website, scholar John Bowman also writes that the bristle toothbrush using pig bristles was invented in China during the 1490s. Bonnie L. Kendall agrees with this, and adds that a precursor existed in
Ancient Egypt, in the form of a twig frayed at the end. '', by
Zhang Zeduan (1085–1145), Song dynasty •
Bulkhead partition: The 5th century book
Garden of Strange Things by Liu Jingshu mentioned that a ship could allow water to enter the bottom without sinking, and the Song dynasty author
Zhu Yu (fl. 12th century) wrote in his book of 1119 that the
hulls of
Chinese ships had a bulkhead build; these pieces of literary evidence for bulkhead partitions are confirmed by archaeological evidence of a long Song dynasty ship dredged from the waters off the southern coast of China in 1973, the hull of the ship divided into twelve walled compartmental sections built
watertight, dated to about 1277. Western writers from
Marco Polo (1254–1324), to
Niccolò Da Conti (1395–1469), to
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) commented on bulkhead partitions, which they viewed as an original aspect of Chinese shipbuilding, as Western shipbuilding did not incorporate this hull arrangement until the early 19th century.
C and
celadon-glazed pitcher from the Song dynasty (960–1279); the spout is in the form of a
fenghuang head. from
Su Song's book of 1094 describing his
clock tower (r. 1425–1435) playing
chuiwan with his
eunuchs from the 2nd century BC, Han dynasty •
Cannon: The earliest known depiction of a cannon is a sculpture from the
Dazu Rock Carvings in
Sichuan dated to 1128; but the earliest archaeological samples and textual accounts do not appear until the 13th century. The primary extant specimens of cannons from the 13th century are the
Wuwei Bronze Cannon, dated to 1227; the
Heilongjiang hand cannon, dated to 1288; and the
Xanadu Gun, dated to 1298. Only the Xanadu gun contains an inscription bearing a date of production, so it is considered the earliest confirmed extant cannon. The Xanadu Gun is 34.7 cm long and weighs 6.2 kg. The other cannons are dated using contextual evidence. The oldest representation of a
bombard can be found in the Chinese town of Ta-tsu. In 1985, a Canadian historian, Robin Yates, saw a sculpture on the wall of a Buddhist cave temple, depicting a demon holding a hand-held bombard. The muzzle seems to have a blast and flames coming from it, which some believe is proof of a super gun. Yates examined the cave and believed the drawings dated from the late 12th century. •
Cast iron: Confirmed by archaeological evidence, cast iron, made from melting
pig iron, was developed in China by the early 5th century BC during the Zhou dynasty (1122–256 BC), the oldest specimens found in a tomb of Luhe County in
Jiangsu province; despite this, most of the early
blast furnaces and
cupola furnaces discovered in China date from after the establishment, in 117 BC, of the state iron monopoly under
Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BC), during the Han dynasty (202 BC – AD 220); Donald Wagner states that a possible reason why no ancient Chinese
bloomery process has been discovered is that the iron monopoly, which lasted until the 1st century AD, when it was abolished for private entrepreneurship and local administrative use, wiped out any need for continuing the less efficient bloomery process, which continued in use in other parts of the world. Cast iron is comparatively brittle and is not suitable for purposes where a sharp edge or flexibility is required. An important Chinese innovation was the development of
malleable iron in the 4th century BC, which enhanced the mechanical properties of cast iron through an
annealing process. Furthermore, Wagner states that most iron tools in ancient China were made of cast iron in consideration of the low economic burden of producing cast iron, whereas most
iron military weapons were made of more costly
wrought iron and steel, signifying that "high performance was essential" and preferred for the latter. •
Celadon: Named after
a pale-tinted spring green colour, Chinese archaeologist
Wang Zhongshu (1982) asserts that shards having this type of
ceramic glaze have been recovered from the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 AD) tomb excavations in
Zhejiang; he also asserts that this type of ceramic became well known during the
Three Kingdoms (220–265). Richard Dewar (2002) disagrees with Wang's classification, stating that true celadon—which requires a minimum furnace temperature, a preferred range of , and reduced firing—was not created until the beginning of the
Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). The unique grey or green celadon glaze is a result of
iron oxide's transformation from
ferric to
ferrous iron (Fe2O3 → FeO) during the firing process. •
Censer: The earliest known censers can be traced back to the
Warring States period in the mid-fifth to late fourth centuries BCE. In modern
Chinese, the term for "censer" is
xianglu (香爐, "incense burner"), a
compound of
xiang ("incense, aromatics") and
lu (爐, "brazier; stove; furnace"). Another frequently used term is
xunlu (熏爐, "a brazier for fumigating and perfuming"). Initial designs of Chinese censers, typically crafted as a round, single-footed stemmed basin, are thought to have evolved from
ritual bronzes, such as the
dou 豆 sacrificial chalice. •
Chain drive, endless power-transmitting: The Greek
Philo of Byzantium (3rd or 2nd century BC) described a chain drive and
windlass used in the operation of a
polybolos (a repeating
ballista), "but the chain drive did not continuously transmit power from shaft to shaft and hence they were not in the direct line of ancestry of the chain-drive proper". A continuously driven chain drive first appeared in 11th century China. Perhaps inspired by
chain pumps which had been known in China since at least the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) when they were mentioned by the Han dynasty philosopher
Wang Chong (27 – c. 100 AD), the endless power-transmitting chain drive was first used in the gearing of the
clock tower built at
Kaifeng in 1090 by the Song Chinese politician, mathematician and astronomer
Su Song (1020–1101). •
Chopsticks: The Han dynasty historian and writer
Sima Qian (145–86 BC) wrote in the
Records of the Grand Historian that
King Zhou of Shang was the first to make chopsticks out of
ivory, in the 11th century BC; the oldest archaeological find of a pair of chopsticks, made of bronze, comes from Shang Tomb 1005 at Houjiazhuang,
Anyang, dated to about 1200 BC. By 600 BC, the use of chopsticks had spread to
Yunnan (Dapona in
Dali), and
Töv Province by the 1st century. The earliest known textual reference to the use of chopsticks comes from the
Han Feizi, a philosophical text written by writer and philosopher
Han Fei (c. 280–233 BC) in the 3rd century BC. •
Chuiwan:
Chuiwan, a game similar to the Scottish-derived sport of
golf, was first mentioned in China by Song dynasty writer Wei Tai (fl. 1050–1100) in his
Dongxuan Records (); it was popular amongst men and women in the Song (960–1279) and Yuan dynasties (1279–1368), and among urban men in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), in much the same way that
tennis was for
early urban Europeans during the
Renaissance (according to Andrew Leibs). In 1282, the writer Ning Zhi published the
Book of Chuiwan, which described the rules, equipment, and playing field of
chuiwan, as well as included commentary of those who mastered its tactics. •
Civil service: During the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), the
xiaolian system of recruiting government officials through formal recommendations was the chief method of filling bureaucratic posts, although there was an
Imperial Academy to train potential candidates for office and some offices required its candidates to pass formal written tests before appointment. However, it was not until the
Sui dynasty (581–618) that
civil service examinations became open to all adult males not belonging to the
merchant class (although civil service examinations was a path to social advancement in Imperial Chinese society to candidates regardless of wealth, social status, or family background) and were used as a universal prerequisite for appointments to office, at least in theory. The civil service system was implemented on a much larger scale during the Song dynasty (960–1279), when an elite core of dynastic-founding and professional families lost their majority in government to a broad strata of lesser
gentry families from throughout the country. The civil examination system was later adopted by China's other East Asian neighbors Japan and Korea. The imperial examination system attracted much attention and greatly inspired political theorists in the Western World, and as a Chinese institution was one of the earliest to receive such foreign attention. The Chinese examination system was introduced to the Western world in reports by
European missionaries and diplomats, and encouraged the
British East India Company to use a similar method to select prospective employees. After the initial success in that company, the British government adopted a similar testing system for screening civil servants in 1855. Other European nations, such as France and Germany, followed suit. Modeled after these previous adaptations, the United States established its own testing program for certain government jobs after 1883. •
Co-fusion steel process: Although Needham speculates that it could have existed beforehand, the first clear written evidence of the fusion of
wrought iron and cast iron to make steel comes from the 6th century AD in regards to the
Daoist swordsmith Qiwu Huaiwen, who was put in charge of the arsenal of
Northern Wei general
Gao Huan from 543 to 550 AD. The Tang dynasty (618–907)
Newly Reorganized Pharmacopoeia of 659 also described this process of mixing and heating wrought iron and cast iron together, stating that the steel product was used to make
sickles and
Chinese sabers. In regards to the latter text,
Su Song (1020–1101) made a similar description and noted the steel's use for
making swords. •
Coke, fuel: By the 11th century, during the Song dynasty (960–1279), the demands for
charcoal used in the
blast and
cupola furnaces of the iron industry led to large amounts of
deforestation of prime timberland; to avoid excessive deforestation, the Song dynasty Chinese began using coke made from
bituminous coal as fuel for their metallurgic furnaces instead of charcoal derived from wood. •
Color printing: By at least the Yuan dynasty, China had invented color printing for paper. British art historian
Michael Sullivan writes that "the earliest color printing known in China, and indeed in the whole world, is a two-color frontispiece to a Buddhist sutra scroll, dated 1346". •
Counting rods: Counting rods are instruments used for performing calculations, which uses a grid of cells to represent a
decimal position system. Each digit (0–9) appears as a tally of rods with red rods designated as positive numbers and black rods designated as
negative numbers. Archaeological evidence of counting rods dates from the 2nd century BC. The earliest pictorial depiction of counting rods appears on
Warring States period ceramics excavated in
Dengfeng in Henan. The oldest surviving counting rods are bamboo rods discovered in a Han dynasty tomb at
Fenghuangshan in Hubei, which dates from the reign
Emperor Wen of Han. The first explicit textual description of counting rods is recorded in the
Book of Han, compiled by
Ban Gu from about AD 60; but there has been speculation about textual references as early as the 3rd century BC. For example, one passage in the
Tao Te Ching mentions that "a person good at
shu [calculations] does not use bamboo tallies and bamboo slips." •
Crossbow and
repeating crossbow: According to British art historian Matthew Landruss and Gerald Hurley, Chinese crossbows may have been invented as far back as 2000 BC; Anne McCants, an American historian at the Massachusetts institute of Technology, speculates that they existed about 1200 BC. In China bronze
crossbow bolts dating from as early as the mid 5th century BC were found at a
State of Chu burial site in Yutaishan,
Hubei. The earliest handheld crossbow stocks with bronze trigger, dating from the 6th century BC, comes from Tomb 3 and 12 found at
Qufu,
Shandong, capital of the
State of Lu. Other early finds of crossbows were discovered in Tomb 138 at Saobatang,
Hunan, dated to the mid 4th century BC.
Repeating crossbows, first mentioned in the
Records of the Three Kingdoms, were discovered in 1986 in Tomb 47 at Qinjiazui, Hubei, dated to about the 4th century BC. The earliest textual evidence of the handheld crossbow
used in battle dates from the 4th century BC. Handheld crossbows with complex bronze trigger mechanisms have also been found with the
Terracotta Army in the tomb of
Qin Shihuang (r. 221–210 BC) that are similar to specimens from the subsequent Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD); crossbowmen described in the Han dynasty learned drill formations, some were mounted as
cavalry units, and Han dynasty writers attributed the success of numerous
battles against the Xiongnu to massed crossbow fire. •
Cuju (football): The game of
football known as
cuju was first mentioned in China by two historical texts; the
Zhan Guo Ce (compiled from the 3rd to 1st centuries BC) and the
Records of the Grand Historian (published in 91 BC) by
Sima Qian (145–86 BC). Both texts recorded that during the
Warring States period (403–221 BC) the people of
Linzi city, capital of the
State of Qi, enjoyed playing
cuju along with partaking in many other pastimes such as
cockfighting. Donald B. Wagner writes that some
iron ore melted in the
blast furnace may have been
cast directly into molds, but most, if not all, iron smelted in the blast furnace during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) was remelted in a cupola furnace; it was designed so that a
cold blast injected at the bottom traveled through
tuyere pipes across the top where the charge (i.e. of
charcoal and scrap or
pig iron) was dumped, the air becoming a
hot blast before reaching the bottom of the furnace where the iron was melted and then drained into appropriate molds for casting.
D '' brackets for figure
weaving, from the Chinese
Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia published by Ming dynasty encyclopedist and scientist
Song Yingxing in 1637 , China •
Dental amalgam: Dental amalgam were used in the first part of the Tang dynasty (618–907 A.D.). Evidence of a dental amalgam first appears in the medical text
Hsin Hsiu Pen Tsao written by Su Kung in 659, manufactured from tin and silver. •
Diabolo: Archaeologists theorize that diabolos (or Chinese yo-yo) originated from Chinese spinning top. In the
Hemudu Excavation, wooden tops were excavated. To extend the spinning time of the tops, whips were used to spin them. It was believed that poet
Cao Zhi in the
Three Kingdoms period had composed the poem "Rhapsody of Diabolos" (), making it the first record of the diabolo in history. However, the authenticity of the poem requires further research and proof. By the medieval Tang dynasty, the Chinese diabolo became widespread as a toy. A Taiwanese scholar Wu Shengda 吳盛達 argues that records of diabolos only appeared during late
Ming dynasty's
Wanli period, with its details well recorded in the book
Dijing Jingwulue, referring to diabolos as
Kong Zhong ( ). The first mention of a diabolo in the Western World was made by a missionary,
Father Amiot, in Beijing in 1792 during
Lord Macartney's ambassadorship, after which examples were brought to Europe, as was the
sheng (eventually adapted to the
harmonica and
accordion). •
Dominoes: The Ming dynasty (1368–1644) writer Xie Zhaozhe (1567–1624) initiated the legend that
dominoes were first presented to the imperial court in 1112. However, the oldest confirmed written mention of dominoes in China comes from the
Former Events in Wulin (i.e. the capital
Hangzhou) written by the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) author Zhou Mi (1232–1298), who listed
pupai (gambling plaques or dominoes) as well as
dice as items sold by peddlers during the reign of
Emperor Xiaozong of Song (r. 1162–1189). Dominoes first appeared in Italy during the 18th century, and although it is unknown how
Chinese dominoes developed into the modern game, it is speculated that Italian missionaries in China may have brought and introduced the game to Europe. •
Dougong: A
dougong is a
building bracket which is unique to
Chinese architecture. Since at least the
Western Zhou dynasty (c. 1050–771 BC), they were placed between the top of a column and a crossbeam to support the concave roofs of beam-in-tier buildings which were archetypal of Chinese architecture. Each dougong is formed by double bow-shaped arms (拱,
gong) supported by a wooden block (斗,
dou) on each side. •
Drawloom: The earliest confirmed drawloom fabrics come from the
State of Chu and date from about 400 BC. Most scholars attribute the invention of the drawloom to the ancient Chinese, although some speculate an independent invention from ancient
Syria since drawloom fabrics found in
Dura-Europas are thought to date from before AD 256. Dieter Kuhn states that an analysis of texts and textiles from the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) proves that the figured fabrics of that era were also crafted with the use of a drawloom. The drawloom was certainly known in
Persia by the 6th century AD. Mary Carolyn Beaudry disagrees, stating that it was used in the medieval Italian silk industry. Iron bits were fastened to long bamboo poles, which were centered within a bamboo
derrick. The poles were repeatedly hoisted, using cables woven from bamboo fiber. With the assistance of levers, very heavy bits could be raised, of sufficient weight to percussively bore through rock when repeatedly dropped. An escapement mechanism for clockworks was later developed by the Buddhist monk, court astronomer, mathematician and engineer
Yi Xing (683–727) of the Tang dynasty (618–907) for his water-powered celestial globe in the tradition of the Han dynasty polymath and inventor
Zhang Heng (78–139), and could be found in later Chinese clockworks such as the
clock towers developed by the military engineer
Zhang Sixun (fl. late 10th century) and polymath inventor
Su Song (1020–1101). Yi Xing's escapement allowed for a bell to be rung automatically every hour, and a drum beaten automatically every quarter-hour, essentially a
striking clock. Unlike the modern escapement which employs a suspended oscillating
pendulum resting and releasing its hooks on a small rotating gear wheel, the early Chinese escapement employed the use of
gravity and
hydraulics. In Su Song's clock tower, scoop containers fixed to the spokes of a vertical
waterwheel (which acted like a gear wheel) would be filled one by one with siphoned water from a
clepsydra tank. When the weight of the water in the scoop filled to an excess, it overcame a counterweight that in turn tripped a lever allowing the scoop to rotate on a pivot and drain its water. •
Exploding cannonball: The
Huolongjing military manual compiled by the Ming dynasty military official
Jiao Yu (fl. 14th to early 15th century) and the Ming dynasty military strategist and philosopher
Liu Bowen (1311–1375) in the mid 14th century described the earliest known exploding cannonballs, which were made of cast iron with a hollow core packed with gunpowder. Jiao and Liu wrote that when fired, they could set enemy camps ablaze. The earliest evidence for exploding cannonballs in Europe date from the 16th century. The
Huolongjing also specified the use of poison and blinding gunpowder filled into exploding shells; the effects of this
chemical warfare were described thus: "Enemy soldiers will get their faces and eyes burnt, and the smoke will attack their noses, mouths, and eyes."
F . in the Chinese book
Yuanxi Qiqi Tushuk Luzui (Collected Diagrams and Explanations of the Wonderful Machines of the Far West), by German Jesuit
Johann Schreck and Wang Zheng, 1627 ''. A stationary arrow launcher that carries one hundred fire arrows. It is activated by a trap-like mechanism, possibly of
wheellock design. , featuring the oldest known depiction of a
fishing reel from the
Wujing Zongyao manuscript of 1044, Song dynasty period •
Field mill: In the
Yezhongji ('Record of Affairs at the Capital Ye of the Later Zhao Dynasty') written by Lu Hui (fl. 350 AD), various mechanical devices are described which were invented by two
Later Zhao (319–351) engineers known as Xie Fei, a palace officer, and Wei Mengbian, Director of the Imperial Workshops. One of these is the field mill, which was essentially a cart with
millstones placed onto the frame; these were mechanically rotated by the movement of the cart's terrain wheels in order to grind wheat and other cereal crops. A similar vehicle these two invented was the
pounding cart, which had wooden statues mounted on the top which were actually mechanical figures who operated real
tilt hammers in order to
hull rice; again, the device only functioned when the cart was moved forward and the wheels turned. It was featured in a treatise by the Italian engineer and writer
Vittorio Zonca in 1607, and then in a
Chinese book of 1627 (concerning European technology) that was compiled and translated by the German
Jesuit polymath
Johann Schreck (1576–1630) and the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) Chinese author Wang Zheng (; 1571–1644), although by then it was considered by the Chinese to be an original Western contraption. •
Finery forge: In addition to accidental lumps of low-carbon
wrought iron produced by excessive injected air in Chinese
cupola furnaces, the ancient Chinese also created wrought iron by using the finery forge at least by the 2nd century BC, the earliest specimens of
cast and
pig iron fined into wrought iron and
steel found at the early Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) site at Tieshenggou. Pigott speculates that the finery forge existed in the previous
Warring States period (403–221 BC), because there are wrought iron items from China dating from that period and there is no documented evidence that the
bloomery was ever used in China. The fining process involved liquifying cast iron in a fining hearth and
removing carbon from the molten cast iron through
oxidation. •
Fire arrow: One of the earliest weaponized forms of gunpowder was the fire arrow which received its name from the translated Chinese term
huǒjiàn (火箭), which literally means fire arrow. In China a
fire arrow referred to a gunpowder projectile consisting of a bag of incendiary gunpowder attached to the shaft of an arrow from the 9th century onward. Later on solid fuel
rockets utilizing gunpowder were used to provide arrows with propulsive force and the term
fire arrow became synonymous with
rocket in the
Chinese language. In other languages such as
Sanskrit,
fire arrow (
agni astra) underwent a different semantic shift and became synonymous with
cannon. Fire arrows are the predecessors of
fire lances, the first
firearm. •
Firecracker: The predecessor of the firecracker was a type of heated bamboo, used as early as 200 BC, that exploded when heated continuously. The Chinese name for firecrackers, , literally means 'exploding bamboo'. After the invention of gunpowder, gunpowder firecrackers had a shape that resembled bamboo and produced a similar sound, so the name "exploding bamboo" was retained. •
Fire lance: The fire lance was a proto-gun developed in the 10th century with a tube of first bamboo and later on metal that shot a weak
gunpowder blast of flame and shrapnel; its earliest representation comes from
a painting found at
Dunhuang. The earliest confirmed employment of the fire lance in warfare was by Song dynasty forces against the Jin in 1132 during the
siege of De'an (modern
Anlu,
Hubei Province), where they were used to great effect against wooden
siege towers called "sky bridges": "As the sky bridges became stuck fast, more than ten feet from the walls and unable to get any closer, [the defenders] were ready. From below and above the defensive structures they emerged and attacked with fire lances, striking lances, and hooked sickles, each in turn. The people [i.e., the porters] at the base of the sky bridges were repulsed. Pulling their bamboo ropes, they [the porters] ended up drawing the sky bridge back in an anxious and urgent rush, going about fifty paces before stopping." The surviving porters then tried once again to wheel the sky bridges into place but Song soldiers emerged from the walls in force and made a direct attack on the sky bridge soldiers while defenders on the walls threw bricks and shot arrows in conjunction with trebuchets hurling bombs and rocks. The sky bridges were also set fire to with incendiary bundles of grass and firewood. Li Heng, the Jin commander, decided to lift the siege and Jin forces were driven back with severe casualties. •
Fireworks: Fireworks first appeared in China during the Song dynasty (960–1279), in the early age of gunpowder. The common people in the Song era could purchase simple fireworks from market vendors; these were made of sticks of
bamboo packed with gunpowder, although grander displays were known to be held. Rocket propulsion was soon applied to warfare, and by the time of the mid 14th century there were many types of rocket launchers available. •
Fishing reel: In literary records, the earliest evidence of the fishing reel comes from a 4th-century AD work entitled
Lives of Famous Immortals. The earliest known depiction of a fishing reel comes from a
Southern Song (1127–1279) painting done in 1195 by Song dynasty painter
Ma Yuan (c. 1160–1225) called "Angler on a Wintry Lake", showing a man sitting on a small
sampan boat and casting out his
fishing line. Another fishing reel was featured in a painting by the Yuan dynasty painter
Wu Zhen (1280–1354). the 10th-century Chinese flamethrower, or
Pen Huo Qi, boasted a continuous stream of flame by employing double
piston syringes (which had been known since the Han dynasty) spouting
Greek fire which had been imported from China's maritime trade contacts in the Middle East. It was first used in battle 932 during the
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960), and the earliest illustration is found in the early Song dynasty military manuscript
Wujing Zongyao of 1044, which also described the device in full. Unlike the Greek model which employed a furnace, the
Pen Huo Qi was ignited by an incendiary
gunpowder fuse. These soft-shelled bombs, timed to explode in mid-air, were used to send messages to a detachment of troops far in the distance. Another mention of the signal bomb appears in a text dating from 1293, requesting their collection from those still stored in
Zhejiang. •
Folding screen: The folding screen is a type of furniture consisting of several frames or panels. Screens date from China during the Eastern
Zhou dynasty period (771–256 BC). These were initially one-panel screens in contrast to folding screens. Folding screens were invented during the Han dynasty (206 BC - AD 220). Depictions of those folding screens have been found in Han dynasty era tombs, such as one in Zhucheng, Shandong Province. In a murder case of 1235, a villager was stabbed to death and authorities determined that his wounds were inflicted by a
sickle; this was a tool used for cutting rice at harvest time, a fact which led them to suspect a fellow peasant worker was involved. •
Free reed aerophone: The musical
pipe organ employing metal piston bellows had a long history in the Western world, dating from the
Hellenistic period. However, the Western pipe organ did not make use of
the reed, which the ancient Chinese
mouth organ employed. The latter instrument, called a
sheng and made traditionally of
bamboo pipes, was first mentioned in the
Shi Jing of the Zhou dynasty (c. 1050–256 BC). The Chinese sheng is considered the ancestor of the
harmonica,
harmonium,
concertina,
accordion, and
all other reed organ instruments. A free
reed organ was invented in the
Arab world in the 13th century, and the German organ builder
Heinrich Traxdorf (fl. 15th century) of
Nuremberg built one about 1460. It is thought that the classical Chinese sheng travelled west through Russia during the 19th century, as it was described then in
Saint Petersburg. •
Fuse: Documented evidence suggests that the earliest fuses were first used by the Chinese between the 10th and 12th centuries. After the Chinese had invented gunpowder, they began adapting its explosive properties for use in military technology. By 1044 they were using gunpowder in simple grenades, bombs, and flamethrowers, all of which required a fuse to be lit before being thrown at the enemy.
G playing a
guqin,
Northern Wei dynasty (386–534 AD) •
Gas cylinder: The world's first natural gas cylinders were invented in China during the medieval Tang dynasty where the Chinese drilled deep boreholes to retrieve natural gas and used airtight jointed bamboo pipes to collect and transport it for many miles to towns and villages. •
Gas lighting: The ancient Chinese during the Spring and Autumn period made the first practical use of natural gas for lighting purposes about 500 BC where they used bamboo pipelines to transport and carry both brine and natural gas for many miles to towns and villages. •
Gaussian elimination: The Chinese solved a system of linear equations. The rectangle of coefficients was reduced to triangular and then diagonal form, in a process identical to what Europeans would later call Gaussian elimination. •
Go (board game) (): Although ancient Chinese legend (perhaps contrived during the Han dynasty) has it that the
mythological ruler Yao came down to earth
from the Heavens about 2200 BC carrying with him a
go board and stone player's pieces, it is known from existing literature that the
go board game existed since at least the 10th century BC during the Zhou dynasty (c. 1050–256 BC) and was even mentioned in writing by ancient Chinese philosophers
Confucius (551–479 BC) and
Mencius (371–289 BC), although the latter two had a slightly negative opinion of it. •
Goldfish domestication: In ancient China, various species of
carp (collectively known as
Asian carps) were
domesticated and have been reared as
food fish for thousands of years. Some of these normally gray or silver species have a tendency to produce red, orange or yellow color
mutations; this was first recorded in the
Jin dynasty (266–420). During the
Tang dynasty (618–907), it was popular to raise carp in ornamental ponds and
water gardens. A natural genetic mutation produced gold (actually yellowish orange) rather than silver coloration. People began to breed the gold variety instead of the silver variety, keeping them in ponds or other bodies of water. Goldfish were introduced into Europe during the 17th century, and into North America in the 19th century.
H from the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), one of the oldest in the world; the oldest specimen dates from about 1288, when the first textual reference to the hand cannon appears in Chinese literature. (581–618 AD) plough figurine pulled by a
bull •
Hand cannon: The bronze Yuan dynasty gun from
Heilongjiang, which dates from about 1288, is a little over long and weighs . It has a small
touch hole for ignition and an even bore except for the bulbous enlargement around the explosion chamber. It was excavated with a bronze pan, mirror and vase. •
Hand grenade, explosive: Before explosive grenades,
incendiary grenades were used by the
Eastern Roman Empire, incorporating Greek fire. Early prototypes to the modern explosive grenade, according to Needham, appear in the military book,
Wujing Zongyao ("Compilation of Military Classics"), by 1044. During the Song dynasty, weapons known as
Zhen Tian Lei were created when Chinese soldiers packed
gunpowder into ceramic or metal containers and thrown at the enemy. Further descriptions and illustrations of early Chinese hand grenades are provided in the
Huolongjing. •
Hand gun: An early depiction of a hand gun is a sculpture from a cave in
Sichuan, dating from 1128, that portrays a figure carrying a vase-shaped
bombard, firing flames and a cannonball. However, the oldest existent archaeological discovery of a metal barrel hand gun is the Heilongjiang hand cannon from the Chinese
Heilongjiang excavation, dated to 1288. •
Handscroll: The handscroll originated from ancient Chinese text documents. From the
Spring and Autumn period (770–481 BC) through the Han dynasty (206 BC220 AD),
bamboo or wooden slips were bound and used to write texts on. By the time of the
Tang dynasty (618–907), the aesthetic and structural objectives for hanging scrolls were summarized, which are still followed to this day. consequently hanging scrolls were made in many different sizes and proportions. •
Hill censer: The hill censer, a vessel used for burning incense, dates from the Han dynasty (206 BCAD 220). The censers are shaped like mountains and were used for religious rituals. The shape of the hill censer acts as a visual aid for envisioning the sacred mountains that were said to have been inhabited by Daoist immortals. Hill censers were originally designed for Daoist rituals, but were later used by Chinese Buddhists. Hill censers often include carvings of wilds animals and birds. Some censers depict waves at the foundation of the vessel, said to be the waves of the
East China Sea. A hole at the top of the censer releases the smoke of the incense. An earlier painting of the
Sui dynasty (581–618) accurately depicted the horse collar as it is seen today, yet the illustration shows its use on a
camel instead of a horse. •
Horse harness: Throughout the ancient world, the
throat-and-girth harness was used for harnessing horses that pulled
carts; this greatly limited a horse's ability to exert itself as it was constantly choked at the neck. A painting on a
lacquerware box from the
State of Chu, dated to the 4th century BC, shows the first known use of a yoke placed across a horse's chest, with traces connecting to the chariot shaft. The hard yoke across the horse's chest was gradually replaced by a breast strap, which was often depicted in carved reliefs and stamped bricks of tombs from the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). Eventually, the horse collar was invented in China, at least by the 5th century. •
Hygrometer: Prototype hygrometers were devised and developed in the hills during the
Western Han dynasty in Ancient China to elucidate mechanisms of long-range meteorological fluctuations. The Chinese used a bar of charcoal and a lump of earth: its dry weight was taken and then compared with its damp weight after being exposed in the air. The differences in weight was used to tally the humidity level. Other techniques were applied using mass to measure humidity such as when the air was dry, the bar of charcoal would be light while the air was humid, the bar of charcoal would be heavy. By hanging a lump of earth and a bar of charcoal on the two ends of a staff separately and adding a fixated lifting string on the middle point to make the staff horizontal in dry air, an ancient hygrometer was made.
I painting by Ma Lin, dated 1246, using
India ink on
silk •
Incense clock:
Incense clocks originated in China during the 6th century and later made their way to Japan, with one example preserved in the
Shōsōin. The earliest incense clocks, dating from the 6th to the 8th centuries CE, feature
Devanāgarī carvings instead of Chinese seal characters. Historian
Silvio Bedini asserts that these carvings were based on seals referenced in
Tantric Buddhist scriptures, which were translated from Indian scriptures into
Chinese. However, the time-telling associated with these seals was designed and incorporated by the Chinese. •
India ink: Although named after
carbonaceous pigment materials originating from India, India ink first appeared in China; some scholars say it was made as far back as the 3rd millennium BC, and others state it was perhaps not invented until the
Wei dynasty (AD 220–265). •
Inkstone: The inkstone is a stone
mortar used in
Chinese calligraphy for grinding and mixing ink. Other than stone, inkstones are also manufactured from clay, bronze, iron, and porcelain. The device evolved from a rubbing tool used for rubbing dyes, from 6000–7000 years ago. The earliest excavated inkstone is dated to the 3rd century BC, and was discovered in a tomb in modern
Yunmeng, Hubei. Use of the inkstone was popularized during the Han dynasty. •
Inoculation: As Europeans would not begin to
develop vaccinations for
smallpox until 1796, historical Chinese records show that Chinese physicians have been inoculating against the same disease hundreds of years earlier. Needham states that a case of inoculation for smallpox may have existed in the late 10th century during the Song dynasty (960–1279), yet they rely on the book
Zhongdou xinfa () written in 1808 by Zhu Yiliang for this evidence. Wan Quan (1499–1582) wrote the first clear reference to smallpox inoculation in his
Douzhen xinfa () of 1549. from the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), at the
Museum of Chinese History, Beijing •
Jade burial suit: Burial suits
made of jade existed in China during the Han dynasty (202 BC220 AD). Confirming ancient records about Han royalty and nobility buried in jade burial suits, archaeologists discovered in June 1968 the tombs and jade burial suits of Prince
Liu Sheng (d. 113 BC) and his wife
Dou Wan in Hebei province. Liu's suit, in twelve flexible sections, comprised 2,690 square pieces of green jade with holes punctured in the four corners of each piece so that they could be sewn together with gold thread. The total weight of the gold thread used in his suit was . Princess Dou Wan's suit had 2,156 pieces of jade stitched together with of gold thread.
K •
Kite:The Chinese invented the kite about 3,000 years ago. One reason for this might be that China had many good materials for making kites. The Chinese made silk, which was used for sails.
L ', from the
Huolongjing, 14th century (25–220 AD) tomb statuettes playing the game
liubo , showing Fengshan County of
Taiwan Prefecture, published in 1696; the first known printed map from China comes from a Song dynasty (960–1279) encyclopedia of the 12th century of a
Chinese hall, from the
Yingzao Fashi architectural treatise published by Li Jie in 1103, during the Song dynasty (960–1279); this book explicitly laid out an eight-graded modular system of architecture for timber halls and pavilions of different sizes from the 14th-century military manuscript
Huolongjing, Ming dynasty as depicted in the 11th century book
Wujing Zongyao of the
Song dynasty. The launcher is constructed using basketry. from the
Huolongjing, mid-14th century dated about AD 1400, Ming dynasty '' porcelain dish from the Tang dynasty, 8th century ,
Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia published in 1637, written by
Song Yingxing (1587–1666). writes that the development of the
raised-relief map in China may have been influenced by Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) incense burners and jars such as this, showing artificial mountains as a lid decoration; these were often used to depict the mythical
Penglai Island. ''. '', mid 14th century, compiled by
Liu Bowen and
Jiao Yu ''. The right arrow reads 'fire arrow' (
huo jian), the middle is a 'dragon shaped arrow frame' (
long xing jian jia), and the left is a 'complete fire arrow' (
huo jian quan shi). accompanied by
a smaller boat; notice the large stern-mounted
rudder on the ship shown in the foreground •
Land mine: Textual evidence suggests that the first use of a land mine in history was by a Song dynasty brigadier general known as Lou Qianxia, who used an 'enormous bomb' (
huo pao) to kill
Mongol soldiers invading
Guangxi in 1277. However, the first detailed description of the land mine was given in the
Huolongjing text written by Ming dynasty writer, military strategist and philosopher
Jiao Yu (fl. 14th to early 15th century) and
Liu Bowen (1311–1375) during the late Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) and early Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Jiao and Liu wrote that land mines were spherical, made of
cast iron, and their fuses ignited by a mechanism tripped by enemy movement; although Jiao and Liu did not describe this trip mechanism in full detail, a later text of 1606 revealed that enemy movement released a pin that allowed hidden underground weights to fall and spin a chord around an axle that rotated a spinning wheel acting as a
flint to spark a train of fuses. •
Land sailing: The use of the land sail in China dates from at least as early as the
Northern and Southern dynasties period. The earliest text describing the Chinese use of mounting
masts and
sails on large vehicles is the
Book of the Golden Hall Master written by the Daoist scholar and
crown prince Xiao Yi, who later became
Emperor Yuan of Liang (r. 552–554 AD). Leeboards may have been invented in China as early as the 8th century during the Tang dynasty and are featured shortly after in 9th century engraved artwork found at the
Borobudur monument built during the
Sailendra dynasty of
Central Java (
Indonesia). •
Louche: The louche (耬車) was a mobile animal-drawn agricultural
seed drill invented by the Chinese agronomist Zhao Guo, a Han official in charge of agricultural production during the reign of
Han Wudi in the Han dynasty. According to the records of
Political Commentator by the Eastern Han dynasty writer
Cui Shi, the Louche consisted of three feet and thus was called three-legged Lou. The three legs had three ditch diggers under it used for sowing. The Louche was animal powered and was pulled by an ox and the leg of the Louche directly dug a ditch in the flattened soil, sowed the seeds, covered the seeds, and pressed the land flat at the same time. The machine was known for its utility and efficiency for serving several agricultural uses at the same time, and saving time and effort.
M •
Magic mirrors: In about 800 AD, during the Tang dynasty (618–907), a book entitled
Record of Ancient Mirrors described the method of crafting solid
bronze mirrors with decorations, written characters, or patterns on the reverse side that could cast these in a reflection on a nearby surface as light struck the front, polished side of the mirror; because of this seemingly
transparent effect, they were called 'light-penetration mirrors' by the Chinese. Unfortunately, this Tang era book was lost over the centuries, but magic mirrors were described in the
Dream Pool Essays by the Song dynasty polymath
Shen Kuo (1031–1095), who owned three of them as a family
heirloom. Perplexed as to how solid metal could be transparent, Shen guessed that some sort of
quenching technique was used to produce tiny wrinkles on the face of the mirror too small to be observed by the eye. Although his explanation of different cooling rates was incorrect, he was right to suggest the surface contained minute variations which the naked eye could not detect; these mirrors also had no transparent quality at all, as discovered by British scientist and mathematician
William Bragg in 1932. •
Mahjong: The Dutch journalist and writer Jelte Rep writes that the
gambling game of mahjong (
Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), which employs
a set of over a hundred tiles, was first invented in 1846 by Zhen Yumen, a
Ningpo city diplomatic official. However, Rep traces the origins of the game to a
card game of the Tang dynasty (618–907) which used thirty-two wood or ivory pieces in the shape of cards. This evolved into the forty-card game of
madiao () during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), which had four
suits of cards instead of the three found in modern mahjong. •
Mechanical theater (driven by carriage wheels): The inventors of the field mill mentioned above, Xie Fei and Wei Mengbian of the
Later Zhao (319–351 AD), also invented an intricate mechanical theater mounted on a carriage, its figures operated by motive power (i.e. simply advancing the carriage forward). From 335 to 345 AD, they worked at the court of the ethnic-
Jie emperor
Shi Hu (334–349). •
Mechanical cup-bearers and wine-pourers on automatic-traveling boats: The mechanical engineer Huang Gun served the court of
Emperor Yang Di (r. 604–617) and wrote the book
Shuishi Tujing on his inventions, which his colleague Du Bao enlarged and commented on. Another paddle-wheel ship was commanded by
Wang Zhen'e and was described in his biographies, dated from the
Liu Song dynasty (420–479). side from the partial remains of the
Shuishi Tujing, an account of these 'wine boats' was also preserved by Huang Gun's contemporary
Yan Shigu (581–645). •
Modular system of architecture, eight standard grades: Although other texts preceded it, such as the 'National Building Law' of the Tang dynasty (618–907) which was partially preserved in other texts, the
Yingzao Fashi published in 1103 by the Song dynasty (960–1279) scholar-official
Li Jie (1065–1110) is the oldest known Chinese architectural treatise that has survived fully intact. It contains descriptions and illustrations detailing the
cai fen system (材份制) of eight standard dimensions for
module components of timber architecture and structural
carpentry. The eight standard grades of module timber components in the
Yingzao Fashi, with grade I being the largest and grade VIII the smallest, were used to determine the ultimate proportions and scale of a building as a whole, as all timber hall types—
palaces,
mansions,
ordinary houses, and
pavilions—were hierarchically categorized along the lines of which
cai fen grade was employed. For example, palace-type buildings used only grades I through V, and mansion-type buildings never used components larger than grade III and no less than grade VI. In this system of structural carpentry, the smallest grade of VIII is represented by one
cai; one
cai is equal to the modern equivalent of , and one
cai is also divided into fifteen
fen (hence the title of this modular system). •
Moldboard plow: Although use of the simple
wooden ard in China must have preceded it, the earliest discovered Chinese iron plows date from about 500 BC, during the Zhou dynasty (1122–256 BC) and were flat, V-shaped, and mounted on wooden poles and handles. By the 3rd century BC, improved iron casting techniques led to the development of the heavy moldboard plow, seen in Han dynasty (202 BC220 AD) artwork such as tomb carved bricks. The frame of excavated plowshares from the Warring States period (403–221 BC) were made mostly of perishable wood, the frame of excavated plowshares from the Han dynasty were made entirely of solid iron, with the moldboard attached to the top to turn the soil. •
Multistage rocket: Although there is still some ambiguity as to whether the earliest
rockets of the 13th century were first developed in Europe (i.e. 'ignis volantis in aere' in the work of Marcus Graecus about 1232, although Needham and Davis assert it was most likely a
fire lance), the Middle East (i.e. 'sahm al-Khitāi' or 'arrows of China' as referred to by Hasan al-Rhammāh in 1280) or China (i.e. 'di lao shu' or 'ground rat' mentioned in 1264 or the 'chong'
mortar used by the armies of the Song dynasty and invading
Mongols during the 1270s), during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) the term '
fire arrow' once implied to mean incendiary arrows during the Tang dynasty was then used to describe the true rocket, producing a headache, as Needham says, for historians; the
Huolongjing written by military officer
Jiao Yu (fl. 14th to early 15th century) and the Song dynasty Chinese philosopher and politician
Liu Bowen (1311–1375) during the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644) described several types of rockets, one of them being a multistage rocket known as the 'huo long chu shui' or 'fire dragon issuing from the water' which, despite its name, was not launched from beneath the water from a primitive submarine but rather at near water-level maintaining a flat trajectory; defined as a two-stage rocket, it employed
booster rockets that, when about to burn out of use, ignited a swarm of smaller rocket arrows fired from the front end of the missile shaped as a dragon's mouth. •
Multiple-tube seed drill: The wooden seed drill existed in China by the 3rd century BC, and the multiple-tube iron seed drill was first invented in China by the 2nd century BC, during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). The seed drill allowed for greater speed and regulation of
distributing seeds in lined rows of crops instead of casting them out onto the farm field. The furnaces were potentially heated by natural gas brought by airtight jointed bamboo pipes for miles to towns and villages, yet gas brought up from perhaps below the surface could cause an explosion if it was not properly mixed with oxygen first, so the Han dynasty Chinese possibly built underground
carburetor chambers and siphoned some of the gas off with
exhaust pipes. In 600 BCE, the royal house in the
Zhou dynasty preferred the colors gold and silver. However, red and black eventually replaced these metallic colors as royal favorites. During the
Ming dynasty, nail polish was often made from a mixture that included
beeswax,
egg whites,
gelatin, vegetable dyes, and
gum arabic. •
Naval mine: The
Huolongjing military manuscript written by Ming dynasty military writer, strategist, and philosopher
Jiao Yu (fl. 14th to early 15th century) and Chinese military strategist, philosopher, statesman and poet
Liu Bowen (1311–1375) also describes naval mines used at sea or on rivers and lakes; made of
wrought iron and enclosed in an ox bladder, it was a timed device in that a burning
joss sticks floating above the mine determined when the fuse was to be ignited; the text explicitly mentions that without air and doused in water the fuse would not burn, so the fuse was protected by a long
waterproof tube made out of goat's intestine; a later model shown in Ming Chinese scientist and encyclopedist
Song Yingxing's (1587–1666) encyclopedia of 1637 shows the ox bladder replaced with a
lacquered leather bag while the mine is ignited by a rip cord pulled from the shore to rotate a flint-and-steel firing mechanism. •
Nickel silver: Nickel silver was first known and used in China during the 17th or later centuries. It was "smuggled into various parts of the
East Indies", despite a government ban on the export of nickel silver.
O •
Open-spandrel segmental arch bridge: The earliest known fully stone open-spandrel segmental arch bridge is the
Zhaozhou Bridge in southern
Hebei province, China, completed in 605 by the
Sui dynasty (581–618) engineer Li Chun. The bridge span is ; the structure weighs relatively little, because of the four semi-circular arch spandrels, which allow flood waters to pass through. Other Chinese bridges would be influenced by this design, such as the open-spandrel
Yongtong Bridge of
Zhao County, Hebei built in 1130, and the simple segmental arch
Lugou Bridge built in 1698 (originally in 1189). The latter, just west of Beijing, has eleven segmental arches. •
Oil refining: The Chinese were among the first civilizations to refine oil. During 512 A.D. and 518 A.D., in the late
Northern Wei dynasty, the Chinese geographer, politician, and writer
Li Daoyuan introduced the process of refining oil intro various lubricants in his famous work
Commentary on the Water Classic. During the first century AD, the Chinese were among the first peoples to refine oil for use as an energy source. •
Oil well: The earliest record of an oil well dates from AD 347, in China. Petroleum was used in ancient China for "lighting, as a lubricant for cart axles and the bearings of water-powered drop hammers, as a source of carbon for
inksticks, and as a medical remedy for sores on humans and
mange in animals." The earliest depiction of an oil well dates from AD 1762. •
Paper lantern: The paper lantern is a lighting device made of paper. Early lanterns in China were constructed with
silk, paper, or animal skin with frames made of bamboo or wood. One of the earliest descriptions of paper lanterns is found in records from
Khotan, which describe a "mounting lantern" made of white paper. •
Pendulum:
Han dynasty scientist
Zhang Heng created a pendulum in the 1st-century for a
seismometer. Its function was to sway and activate one of a series of levers after being disturbed by the tremor of an
earthquake. •
Percussion drilling: Ancient China's principal drilling technique, percussive drilling, was invented during the Han dynasty. The process involved two to six men jumping on a level at rhythmic intervals to raise a heavy iron bit attached to long bamboo cables from a bamboo derrick. Utilizing cast iron bits and tools constructed of bamboo, the early Chinese were able to use percussion drilling to drill holes to a depth of 3,000 ft. The construction of percussion drilling machines took more than two to three generations of workers. The cable tool drilling machines developed by the early Chinese involved raising and dropping a heavy string of drilling tools to crush through rocks into diminutive fragments. In addition, the Chinese also used a cutting head secured to bamboo rods to drill to depths of 915 m. The raising and dropping of the bamboo drill strings allowed the drilling machine to penetrate less dense and unconsolidated rock formations. •
Pig iron: The earliest pig iron dates from the Zhou dynasty. By the 5th century, archaeological evidence indicates that pig iron was melted to produce cast iron. •
Pinhole camera: The ancient
Chinese philosopher
Mozi (c. 470 BC – c. 391 BC)—founder of
Mohism during the establishment of the
Hundred Schools of Thought—is the claimed author of the
Mojing (perhaps compiled by his disciples) which described the pinhole camera. The
Mojing stated that the
collecting place (pinhole) was an empty hole "like the sun and moon depicted on the imperial flags," where an image could be inverted at an intersecting point which "affects the size of the image." since the
Mojing states that the reflected light shining forth from an "illuminated person" becomes inverted when passing through the pinhole, i.e. "The bottom part of the man becomes the top part (of the image) and the top part of the man becomes the bottom part (of the image)." •
Playing cards: The first reference to the card game in world history dates from no later than the 9th century, when the
Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Su E (fl. 880), described the Wei clan (family of Princess Tongchang's husband) of the Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) enjoying the "leaf game" in 868. The
Yezi Gexi was a book on the card came which was allegedly written by a Tang woman and commented on by Chinese scholars in subsequent dynasties. In his
Notes After Retirement, the Song dynasty (960–1279) scholar
Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserted that playing card games existed since the mid Tang dynasty and associated this invention with the simultaneous evolution of the common Chinese writing medium from paper rolls to sheets of paper that could be printed. Playing cards were some of the first printed materials in Europe, appearing by the 14th century (i.e. in Spain and Germany in 1377, in Italy and Belgium in 1379, and in France in 1381) and produced by European
woodblock printing before the innovation of the early modern
printing press by German inventor, printer, publisher and blacksmith
Johannes Gutenberg (c. 1400–1468). During the Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 AD), the Chinese created a very large pontoon bridge that spanned across the width of the
Yellow River. There was also the
rebellion of Gongsun Shu in 33 AD, where a large pontoon bridge with fortified posts was constructed across the
Yangtze River, eventually broken through with
ramming ships by official Han troops under Commander Cen Peng. During the late Eastern Han into the
Three Kingdoms period, during the
Battle of Chibi in 208 AD, the Prime Minister
Cao Cao once linked the majority of his fleet together with iron chains, which proved to be a fatal mistake once he was thwarted with a fire attack by
Sun Quan's fleet. The armies of
Emperor Taizu of Song had a large pontoon bridge built across the Yangtze River in 974 in order to secure supply lines during the
Song dynasty's conquest of the
Southern Tang. •
Porcelain: Although
glazed ceramics existed beforehand, the author and historian Samuel Adrian M. Adshead writes that the earliest type of vitrified, translucent ceramics that could be classified as true porcelain was not made until the Tang dynasty (618–907). Archaeologist Nigel Wood states that true porcelain was manufactured in northern China from roughly the beginning of the Tang dynasty in the 7th century, and true porcelain was not manufactured in southern China until about 300 years later, during the early 10th century. •
Pound lock: Indirect evidence suggests that pound locks may have been used in antiquity by the
Ptolemaic Greeks and the
Romans. In China, although the one gate canal
flash lock existed beforehand, the two-gate pound lock was invented in 984 by an official of
Huainan and engineer named Qiao Weiyo, during the early Song dynasty (960–1279), so that ships could safely travel along canal waterways having gated and segmented chambers where water levels could be regulated. The economic and transport benefits of this innovation were described by the polymath official and inventor
Shen Kuo (1031–1095) in his
Dream Pool Essays. In China,
Zhang Heng (78–139) wrote of plays with artificial fish and dragons, and a 6th-century text
Xijing Zaji states that when Liu Bang (reigned as
Emperor Gaozu of Han from 202 to 195 BC) came upon the treasury of the deceased
Qin Shihuang (r. 221–210) in 206 BC, he found an entire mechanical
orchestra of tall puppets dressed in
silk and playing
mouth organs, all powered by pulling ropes and blowing into tubes. As written in the
Records of the Three Kingdoms, the engineer
Ma Jun (fl. 220–265)—already associated with the
differential gear system of the south-pointing chariot—invented a mechanical theater powered by a rotating wooden
waterwheel for the entertainment of
Emperor Ming's (r. 226–239 AD) court.
R •
Raised-relief map (terrain model): The raised-relief map may have existed in China since the 3rd century BC, if the accounts in the
Records of the Grand Historian (by
Sima Qian, 91 BC) about
Qin Shi Huang's (r. 221–210 BC) tomb prove correct (if it is excavated). Xie Zhuang (421–466) of the
Liu Song dynasty (420–479) created a wooden raised-relief map of the empire (showing mountains and rivers) which could be taken apart and pieced together like a giant
jigsaw puzzle. The Song dynasty polymath
Shen Kuo also created his own raised-relief map using sawdust, wood, beeswax, and wheat paste. •
Restaurant menu: During the early Song dynasty (960–1279), expanding trade and commerce brought money and people to the Song Chinese capital. The first restaurants sprang up and food like dumplings and noodles became available to the masses for a small price. Urban shopkeepers of the
merchant middle class often had little time to eat at home, so they ventured out to eat at a variety of establishments such as temples, taverns, tea houses, food stalls, and
restaurants which provided business for nearby brothels, singing-girl houses, and
drama theaters; this along with
traveling foreigners and Chinese who migrated to urban centers from regions with different cooking styles encouraged a demand for a variety of flavors served at urban restaurants, giving rise to the menu. •
Revolving bookcase: Revolving bookcases, known as
zhuanluntang, have been documented in ancient China, and its invention is credited to Fu Xi in 544. •
Rock paper scissors: is an intransitive hand game, usually played between two people, in which each player simultaneously forms one of three shapes with an outstretched hand. These shapes are
rock (a closed fist),
paper (a flat hand), and
scissors (a fist with the index finger and middle finger extended, forming a
V shape). •
Rockets: The first gunpowder-powered rockets were developed during the Song dynasty and by the 13th century. The Chinese rocket technology was adopted by the Mongols and the invention was spread via the
Mongol invasions to the Middle East and Europe in the mid-13th century. Rockets were used by the Song navy in a military exercise in 1245. Combustion rocket propulsion is mentioned in a reference to 1264, recording that the
ground-rat, a type of
firework, had frightened the Empress-Mother Gongsheng at a feast held in her honor by her son the
Emperor Lizong. Subsequently, rockets are included in the military treatise
Huolongjing, also known as the Fire Drake Manual, written by the Chinese artillery officer
Jiao Yu in the mid-14th century. This text mentions the first known
multistage rocket, the 'fire-dragon issuing from the water' (), thought to have been used by the Chinese navy. •
Rocket bombs, aerodynamic wings and explosive payloads: The first known rockets fitted with aerodynamic wings are described as the 'flying crows with magic fire' in the oldest strata of the
Huolongjing (early-to-mid 14th century), compiled by
Jiao Yu and
Liu Bowen during the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644). The body of the rocket was shaped like a bird (specifically a
crow), packed with
gunpowder, and made of
bamboo laths forming a long basketwork frame that was reinforced with
glued paper. A decorative head and tail were attached to the front and back ends, and the wings were nailed to the sides. •
Rocket boosters: An illustration and description in the 14th century Chinese military treatise
Huolongjing by the Ming dynasty military writer and philosopher
Jiao Yu shows the oldest known multistage rocket with rocket boosters. The
Huolongjing describes and illustrates the oldest known
multistage rocket. It was a two-stage rocket that had carrier or
booster rockets that would automatically ignite a number of smaller rocket arrows that were shot out of the front end of the missile, which was shaped like a dragon's head with an open mouth, before eventually burning out. The British scientist, sinologist, and historian
Joseph Needham points out that the written material and depicted illustration of this rocket come from the oldest stratum of the
Huolongjing, which can be dated roughly to AD 1300–1350. •
Rocket launcher: The earliest rocket launchers documented in imperial China launched
fire arrows with launchers constructed of wood, basketry, and bamboo tubes. The rocket launchers divided the fire arrows with frames meant to keep the arrows separated, and were capable of firing multiple arrow rockets at once. Textual evidence and illustrations of various early rocket launchers are found in the 11th-century
Northern Song dynasty text
Wujing Zongyao. The
Wujing Zongyao describes the "long serpent" rocket launcher, a rocket launcher constructed of wood and carried with a wheelbarrow, and the "hundred tiger" rocket launcher, a rocket launcher made of wood and capable of firing 320 rocket arrows. The text also describes a portable rocket arrow carrier consisting of a sling and a bamboo tube. •
Rotary fan, manual and water-powered: For purposes of
air conditioning, the Han dynasty craftsman and mechanical engineer
Ding Huan (fl. 180 AD) invented a manually operated rotary fan with seven wheels that measured in diameter; in the 8th century, during the Tang dynasty (618–907), the Chinese applied
hydraulic power to rotate the fan wheels for air conditioning; the rotary fan became even more common during the Song dynasty (960–1279). The first rotary fan used in Europe was for mine ventilation during the 16th century, as illustrated by German mineralogist and metallurgist
Georg Agricola (1494–1555). •
Rudder, stern-mounted and vertical axial: Lawrence V. Mott, who defines a steering oar as a rudder, states the
ancient Egyptian use of stern-mounted rudders can be traced back to the
6th dynasty (2350–2200 BC). Mott states that the method of attachment for rudders in the Arab, Chinese, and European worlds differed from each other, leading him to doubt the spread of the Chinese system of attachment by socket-and-jaws or
block and tackle (versus European
pintle-and-
gudgeon invented by c. 1180 AD). Leo Block writes of the use of the steering oar in the ancient
Mediterranean world (specifically in regards to the
Phoenicians, 1550–300 BC): "A single sail tends to turn a vessel in an upwind or downwind direction, and rudder action is required to steer a straight course. A steering oar was used at this time because the rudder had not yet been invented. With a single sail, a frequent movement of the steering oar was required to steer a straight course; this slowed down the vessel because a steering oar (or rudder) course correction acts like a break." The oldest depicted rudders at the back of a ship, without the use of
oars or a steering oar, comes from several ceramic models of Chinese ships made during both the Western and Eastern eras of the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD). According to the scholars Zhang Zunyan and Vassilios Christides, there is literary evidence to suggest that the axial stern rudder existed in China since the 1st century BC; Gang Deng asserts the first reference was made in the
Huainanzi of the 2nd century BC, Jacques Gernet states that, although the Chinese had invented the rudder in the 1st century AD, it was not completely fixed to the sternpost of Chinese ships until the end of the 4th century. The bulkhead ship design of the
junk, which appeared roughly the same time as the rudder, provided the essential vertical components for the hinged axial rudder. Deng points out that an Eastern Han (25–220) model distinctly shows a rudder in its own, separate cabin, suggesting that helmsmanship had already become an established profession.
S 's (78–139 AD)
seismometer that employed a pendulum sensitive to
inertia of ground tremors; while placed in
Luoyang in 133, it detected an
earthquake away in
Gansu , 1745 -glazed horse statue from the Tang dynasty (618–907) showing a rider's
stirrup connected to the
saddle in
Sichuan, an iron-chain suspension bridge with a Xuanfeng traction trebuchet catapult, taken from the
Wujing Zongyao, 1044 AD s, from a Ming dynasty encyclopedia published in 1637 by
Song Yingxing (1587–1666) (d. 621 BC) from the
Spring and Autumn period (722–481 BC) •
Salt well: The Chinese have been using brine wells and a form of salt solution mining as part of their civilization for more than 2000 years. Shaft wells were sunk as early as 220 BC in the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. Many of the wells were sunk deeper than 450 m and at least one well was more than 1000 meters deep. The medieval Venetian traveler to China
Marco Polo reported an annual production in a single province of more than 30,000 tonnes of brine during his time there. •
Seismometer: The Chinese polymath and inventor
Zhang Heng (78–139) of the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) invented the first seismometer in 132, a large metal urn-shaped instrument which employed either a suspended
pendulum or
inverted pendulum acting on inertia (i.e. ground tremors from
earthquakes) to dislodge a metal ball by a lever trip device; this ball would fall out of dragon-shaped metal mouth into the corresponding metal toad mouth indicating the exact cardinal direction of where a distant earthquake had occurred in order for the state to send swift aid and relief to the affected regions; several subsequent recreations of his device were employed by Chinese states up until the Tang dynasty (618–907), when use of the device fell into obscurity, a fact noted by the writer Zhou Mi about 1290, during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368). •
Sky lantern: The Chinese military strategist, politician, writer, and inventor
Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms era is credited with its invention, and reportedly used it during military campaigns. According to the British scientist, historian, and sinologist Joseph Needham, sky lanterns have been used in China since the 3rd century BC. In 1783, the French entrepreneurs and inventors
Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier took part in the first modern manned hot air balloon flight. •
Snow gauge: The first use of snow gauges were precipitation gauges that was widely used in 1247 during the
Southern Song dynasty to gather meteorological data. The Song Chinese mathematician and inventor
Qin Jiushao records the use of gathering rain and snowfall measurements in the Song mathematical treatise
Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections. The book discusses the use of large conical or barrel-shaped snow gauges made from bamboo situated in mountain passes and uplands which are speculated to be first referenced to snow measurement. •
Solid-propellant rocket: The medieval Song dynasty Chinese invented the solid-propellant rocket at a time when bows, arrows, and catapult-based projectile launchers were state of the art military technology in medieval Europe. Illustrations and descriptions in the 14th century Chinese military treatise
Huolongjing by the Ming dynasty military writer and philosopher
Jiao Yu confirm that the Chinese in 1232 used proto-solid propellant rockets then known as "
fire arrows" to drive back the Mongols during the
Siege of Kaifeng. Each arrow took a primitive form of a simple, solid-propellant rocket tube that was filled gunpowder. One open end allowed the gas to escape and was attached to a long stick that acted as a guidance system for flight direction control. The
Book of Song written in the 6th century states that the device was successfully reinvented by the mathematician and astronomer
Zu Chongzhi (429–500) during the
Liu Song dynasty (420–479). The Japanese historical text
Nihon Shoki, compiled by 720, states that the device was crafted and presented as a gift to
Emperor Tenji (661–672) on two different occasions (658 and 666) by the Tang dynasty (618–907)
Chinese Buddhist monks Zhi Yu and Zhi You. The wheeled vehicle device was described in intricate detail in the historical text covering the Song dynasty (960–1279), i.e. the
Song Shi (compiled 1345); for example, it revealed the number of gear teeth on each mechanical gear wheel, the diameter of each gear wheel, and how these gear wheels were properly positioned. •
Soybean oil: Chinese records from before 2000 BC mention the use of cultivated soybeans to produce edible soy oil. Ancient Chinese literature reveals that soybeans were extensively cultivated and highly valued as a use for the soybean oil production process before written records were kept. •
Soy sauce: Soy sauce in its current form was created about 2,200 years ago during the
Western Han dynasty and was soon spread throughout East and Southeast Asia where it is used in cooking and as a condiment. The condiment considered almost as old as
soy paste — a type of fermented paste (Jiang,
酱) obtained from soybeans — which had appeared during the
Western Han dynasty and was listed in the bamboo slips found in the archaeological site
Mawangdui. •
Steel made from cast iron through oxygenation: The earliest known production of steel is a piece of ironware excavated from an
archaeological site in
Anatolia (
Kaman-Kalehoyuk) and is about 4,000 years old. Other ancient steel comes from
East Africa, dating from 1400 BC. In the 4th century BC steel weapons like the
Falcata were produced in the
Iberian Peninsula, and
Noric steel was used by the
Roman military. The Chinese, who had been producing
cast iron from the late
Spring and Autumn period (722–481 BC), produced
steel by the 2nd century BC through a process of
decarburization, i.e. using
bellows to pump large amounts of
oxygen on to molten cast iron. This was first described in the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) book
Huainanzi, compiled by scholars under Prince
Liu An (179–122 BC). For steel, they used both
quenching (i.e. rapid cooling) and
tempering (i.e. slow cooling) methods of
heat treatment. Much later, the American inventor
William Kelly (1811–1888) brought four Chinese metallurgists to
Eddyville, Kentucky in 1845, whose expertise in steelmaking influenced his ideas about air injection to reduce carbon content of iron; his invention anticipated the
Bessemer process of English inventor
Henry Bessemer (1813–1898). •
Stinkpot: The stinkpot was an earthenware incendiary weapon, part of which was filled with sulphur, gunpowder, nails, and shot, while the other part was filled with noxious materials designed to emanate a highly unpleasant and suffocating smell when ignited. The weapon was used in the 19th century during the Qing dynasty, where the British Admiral
Sir William Robert Kennedy recorded the use of the stinkpot in 1856 during the
Second Opium War in his book
Hurrah for the Life of a SailorFifty Years in the Royal Navy. These incendiary weapons were wrapped in calico bags and were then hoisted in a basket to the truck of the mast. When an enemy ship was alongside, one of the crew members would climb up the mast and primed the stinkpots with lighted joss sticks. The ensuing noise, flying debris, and pungent smell it would create, would cause the enemy crew sufficient confusion and blow them into disarray. Although there are no surviving records of Han dynasty stir frying, archaeological evidence of
woks and the tendency to slice food thinly indicate that the technique was likely used for cooking. It was not until the
Ming dynasty that stir frying was popularized as primary cooking method of Chinese cuisine. Stir frying was brought to America by early
Chinese immigrants, and has been used for non-Asian cuisines. •
Suspension bridge using iron chains: Although there is evidence that many early cultures had suspension bridges with cabled ropes, the first written evidence of iron-chain suspension bridges comes from a local history and topography of
Yunnan written in the 15th century, which describes the repair of an iron-chain bridge during the reign of the
Yongle Emperor (r. 1402–1424); although Ming dynasty (1368–1644) Chinese claims that iron-chain suspension bridges had existed since the Han dynasty are questionable, their existence in the 15th century is the earliest known anywhere. K. S. Tom mentions this same repaired Ming suspension bridge described by Needham, and adds that recent research has revealed a document that lists the names of those said to have built an iron chain suspension bridge in Yunnan about AD 600.
T •
Tangram: The tangram is a
dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape using all seven pieces, which may not overlap. The game is reputed to have been invented in China during the
Song dynasty, and was popularized in Europe and United States during the 19th century. The word tangram is likely derived from two words, the Chinese word
tang, referring to the medieval
Tang dynasty, and the Greek word
gramma, a synonym of "graph". •
Tea: The tea plant is indigenous to western
Yunnan; it is thought that by the mid 2nd millennium BC, tea was consumed in Yunnan for medicinal purposes, but the earliest physical evidence (discovered in 2016) comes from the tomb of
Emperor Jing of Han, dated to the 2nd century BC. Tea drinking was already an established custom in the daily life in this area as shown by the
Contract with a Slave, written by
Wang Bao in 59 BC, the first source to mention boiling of tea. This written record also reveals that
tea was processed and used as a drink instead of a medicinal herb, emerged no later than the 1st century BC. Early
Chinese tea culture began from the time of Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) to the
Northern and Southern dynasties (420–589) when tea was widely used by Chinese gentry, but only took its initial shape during the Tang dynasty (618–907). •
Teapot: The teapot was invented during the
Yuan dynasty, tea preparation in previous dynasties did not utilize a teapot. In the Tang dynasty, a cauldron was used to boil ground tea, which was served in bowls. Song dynasty tea was made by pouring water boiled using a kettle into a bowl with finely ground tea leaves. A brush was then used to stir the tea. The innovation of the teapot, a vessel that steeps tea leaves in boiling water, occurs during the late Yuan dynasty. Written evidence of a teapot appears in the Yuan dynasty text,
Jiyuan Conghua, which describes a teapot that the author, Cai Shizhan, bought from the scholar Sun Daoming. By the Ming dynasty, teapots were widespread in China. It was not until the 1860 that French physician
Gaspard Adolphe Chatin (1813–1901) linked goiter with the lack of
iodine in soil and water; iodine was discovered in the thyroid gland in 1896 by German chemist
Eugen Baumann, and thyroid extract was used to treat patients in 1890. The Tang dynasty (618–907) physician Zhen Quan (d. 643 AD), in his
Old and New Tried and Tested Prescriptions, stated that the thyroid glands taken from
gelded rams were used to treat patients with goiter; the thyroid hormones could be swallowed in pill form (the body of the pill made from crushed
jujube pulp) or as a solid thyroid gland with the fat taken off. a treatment later recorded in the Western World by Italian practrica
Roger of Palermo in his
Practica Chirurgiae of 1180 AD. •
Tofu: Although both popular tradition and Song dynasty philosophers like
Zhu Xi (1130–1200 AD) credit the invention of
tofu—along with
soymilk— to
Liu An (179–122 BC), a
Han dynasty King of
Huainan, no mention of tofu is found in the extant
Huainanzi (compiled under Liu An). The earliest known mention of tofu was made in
Records of the Extraordinary (
Qingyi lu 清異錄), which reported that tofu was sold at
Qingyang (
Anhui). The earliest explanation of how to make tofu is found in the
Bencao Gangmu, written by the Ming dynasty polymath
Li Shizhen (1518–1593). •
Toilet paper: Toilet paper was first mentioned by the Sui Chinese politician and artist
Yan Zhitui (531–591) in the year 589 during the
Sui dynasty, with full evidence of continual use in subsequent dynasties. By the mid 14th century during the Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), it was written that ten million packages of 1,000 to 10,000 sheets of toilet paper were manufactured annually in
Zhejiang province alone. •
Trip hammer: The ancient Chinese used
pestle and mortar to pound and decorticate grain, which was superseded by the treadle-operated tilt hammer (employing a simple
lever and
fulcrum) perhaps during the Zhou dynasty (1122–256 BC) but first described in a Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) dictionary of 40 BC and soon after by the Han dynasty philosopher and writer
Yang Xiong (53 BC – 18 AD) in his
Fangyan dictionary written in 15 BC; the next stage in this evolution of grain-pounding devices was to apply
hydraulic power, which the Han dynasty philosopher and writer
Huan Tan (43 BC – 28 AD) mentioned in his
Xinlun of 20 AD, although he also described trip hammers powered by the labor of horses, oxen, donkeys, and mules. After Huan Tan's book was written, numerous references to trip hammers powered by
waterwheels were made in subsequent Chinese dynasties and in medieval Europe by the 12th century. However, trip hammers were also attested by both literary (
Pliny,
Natural History 18.97) and archaeological evidence in fairly widespread use in the
Roman Empire by the 1st century AD. •
Tuned bells: The earliest complete set of tuned bells, sixteen in all, were found in Tomb 8 of
Marquis Su of Jin at Qucun, southern
Shanxi. The tomb has been dated by
AMS radiocarbon techniques to 815–786 BC, during the period of the Zhou dynasty. Of the
sixty-four bronze bells found in the
tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng interred by 433 BC, forty-seven of them produce two notes with
minor third intervals and sixteen produce two notes with
major third intervals. •
Tung oil: The tung oil tree originates in southern China and was cultivated there for tung oil, but the date of cultivation remains unknown. During the Song dynasty, tung oil was used for
waterproofing on ships. Tung oil is etymologically derived from the Chinese
tongyou. The earliest references for Chinese use of tung oil is in the writings of Confucius around 500 to 400 BC Petroleum was used in ancient China for "lighting, as a lubricant for cart axles and the bearings of water-powered drop hammers, as a source of carbon for
inksticks, and as a medical remedy for sores on humans and
mange in animals." In ancient China, deep well drilling machines were in the forefront of brine well production by the 1st century BC. The ancient Chinese developed advanced sinking wells and were the first civilization to use a well-drilling machine and to use bamboo well casings to keep the holes open. •
Well-field system: The well-field system was a Chinese land-distribution method used from the ninth century BC (late Western
Zhou dynasty) to about the end of the
Warring States period. Its name comes from
Chinese character (), which means 'well' and looks like the
# symbol; this character represents the theoretical appearance of land division: a square area of land was divided into nine identically sized sections; the eight outer sections () were privately cultivated by serfs and the center section () was communally cultivated on behalf of the landowning aristocrat. •
Wheat gluten: The earliest description of wheat gluten comes from 6th century China. It was widely consumed by the Chinese as a substitute for meat, especially among adherents of Buddhism. The oldest reference to wheat gluten appears in the
Qimin Yaoshu, a Chinese agricultural encyclopedia written by Jia Sixie in 535. The encyclopedia mentions noodles prepared from wheat gluten called . Wheat gluten was known as by the
Song dynasty (960–1279). The painted tomb mural of a man pushing a wheelbarrow was found in a tomb at
Chengdu,
Sichuan province, dated precisely to AD 118. The stone carved relief of a man pushing a wheelbarrow was found in the tomb of Shen Fujun in
Sichuan province, dated about AD 150. And then there is the story of the pious
Dong Yuan pushing his father around in a single-wheel
lu che barrow, depicted in a mural of the Wu Liang tomb-shrine of
Shandong (dated to AD 147). However, there are even earlier accounts than this that date from the 1st century BC and the 1st century AD. The 5th century
Book of Later Han stated that the wife of the once poor and youthful
imperial censor Bao Xuan helped him push a
lu che back to his village during their feeble wedding ceremony, about 30 BC. The winnowing fan was first described by the Tang dynasty writer and linguist
Yan Shigu (581–645), in his commentary on the
Jijiupian dictionary written earlier in 40 BC by Shi Yu; it was also mentioned in a poem by the Song dynasty artist Mei Yaochen in about 1060. The earliest known drawn illustration of the winnowing fan comes from the
Book of Agriculture published in 1313 by Yuan dynasty inventor and politician
Wang Zhen (fl. 1290–1333). •
Wrapping paper and
paper envelope: The use of wrapping paper is first documented in ancient China, where paper was invented in the 2nd century BC. In the
Southern Song dynasty, monetary gifts were wrapped with paper, forming an envelope known as a
chih pao. The wrapped gifts were distributed by the Chinese court to government officials. In the Chinese text
Thien Kung Khai Wu, Sung Ying-Hsing states that the coarsest wrapping paper is manufactured with rice straws and bamboo fiber. Although the Hall brothers Rollie and Joyce Hall, founders of
Hallmark Cards, did not invent gift wrapping, their innovations led to the development of modern gift wrapping. They helped to popularize the idea of decorative gift wrapping in the 20th century, and according to
Joyce Hall, "the decorative gift-wrapping business was born the day Rollie placed those French envelope linings on top of that showcase."
X •
Xiangqi (See also: List of Chinese inventions#L
Liubo): The exact origins of the Chinese chess board game known as
xiangqi are ambiguous. Historian
David H. Li asserts that it was first invented by
Han Xin (d. 196 BC), a renowned military general of the early Han dynasty who fell victim to a purge instigated by
Empress Lü Zhi (d. 180 BC). Li states that it was revived under a different, camouflaged name of
xiangxi by
Emperor Wu of Northern Zhou (r. 561–578), which to this day has made the two terms synonymous and interchangeable for the same game. == Modern (1912–present) ==