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China has been the source of many innovations, scientific discoveries and inventions.[1] This includes the Four Great Inventions: papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, and printing (both woodblock and movable type). The list below contains these and other inventions in ancient and modern China attested by archaeological or historical evidence, including prehistoric inventions of Neolithic and early Bronze Age China.

The historical region now known as China experienced a history involving mechanics, hydraulics and mathematics applied to horology, metallurgy, astronomy, agriculture, engineering, music theory, craftsmanship, naval architecture and warfare. Use of the plow during the Neolithic period Longshan culture (c. c. BC) allowed for high agricultural production yields and rise of Chinese civilization during the Shang dynasty (c. c. BC).[2] Later inventions such as the multiple-tube seed drill and the heavy moldboard iron plow enabled China to sustain a much larger population through improvements in agricultural output.

By the Warring States period (403221 BC), inhabitants of China had advanced metallurgic technology, including the blast furnace and cupola furnace, while the finery forge and puddling process were known by the Han dynasty (202 BCAD 220). A sophisticated economic system in imperial China gave birth to inventions such as paper money during the Song dynasty (960). The invention of gunpowder in the mid 9th century during the Tang dynasty led to an array of inventions such as the fire lance, land mine, naval mine, hand cannon, exploding cannonballs, multistage rocket and rocket bombs with aerodynamic wings and explosive payloads. Differential gears were utilized in the south-pointing chariot for terrestrial navigation by the 3rd century during the Three Kingdoms. With the navigational aid of the 11th century compass and ability to steer at sea with the 1st century sternpost rudder, premodern Chinese sailors sailed as far as East Africa.[3][4][5] In water-powered clockworks, the premodern Chinese had used the escapement mechanism since the 8th century and the endless power-transmitting chain drive in the 11th century. They also made large mechanical puppet theaters driven by waterwheels and carriage wheels and wine-serving automatons driven by paddle wheel boats.

For the purposes of this list, inventions are regarded as technological firsts developed in China, and as such does not include foreign technologies which the Chinese acquired through contact, such as the windmill from the Middle East or the telescope from early modern Europe. It also does not include technologies developed elsewhere and later invented separately by the Chinese, such as the odometer, water wheel, and chain pump. Scientific, mathematical or natural discoveries made by the Chinese, changes in minor concepts of design or style and artistic innovations do not appear on the list.

Four Great Inventions

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The following is a list of the Four Great Inventionsas designated by Joseph Needham (), a British scientist, author and sinologist known for his research on the history of Chinese science and technology.[6]

Fragments of hemp wrapping paper dated to the reign of Emperor Wu of Han (14187 BC) The Diamond Sutra, the oldest printed book, published in AD 868 during the Tang dynasty (618907)

Paper

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This sub-section is about paper making; for the writing material first used in ancient Egypt, see papyrus.

Although it is recorded that the Han dynasty (202 BC  AD 220) court eunuch Cai Lun (50 AD  AD 121) invented the pulp papermaking process and established the use of new materials used in making paper, ancient padding and wrapping paper artifacts dating to the 2nd century BC have been found in China, the oldest example of pulp papermaking being a map from Fangmatan, Tianshui;[7] by the 3rd century, paper as a writing medium was in widespread use, replacing traditional but more expensive writing mediums such as strips of bamboo rolled into threaded scrolls, strips of silk, wet clay tablets hardened later in a furnace, and wooden tablets.[8][9][10][11][12] The earliest known piece of paper with writing on it was discovered in the ruins of a Chinese watchtower at Tsakhortei, Alxa League, where Han dynasty troops had deserted their position in AD 110 following a Xiongnu attack.[13] In the paper making process established by Cai in 105, a boiled mixture of mulberry tree bark, hemp, old linens and fish nets created a pulp that was pounded into paste and stirred with water; a wooden frame sieve with a mat of sewn reeds was then dunked into the mixture, which was then shaken and then dried into sheets of paper that were bleached under the exposure of sunlight; K.S. Tom says this process was gradually improved through leaching, polishing and glazing to produce a smooth, strong paper.[10][11]

Printing

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For the separate invention of movable type printing in medieval Europe, see printing press and Johannes Gutenberg

Woodblock printing: The earliest specimen of woodblock printing is a single-sheet dharani sutra in Sanskrit that was printed on hemp paper between 650 and 670 AD; it was unearthed in from a Tang tomb near Xi'an.[14] A Korean miniature dharani Buddhist sutra discovered in , bearing extinct Chinese writing characters used only during the reign of China's only self-ruling empress, Wu Zetian (r. 690705), is dated no earlier than 704 and preserved in a Silla Korean temple stupa built-in 751.[15] The first printed periodical, the Kaiyuan Za Bao was made available in AD 713. However, the earliest known book printed at regular size is the Diamond Sutra made during the Tang dynasty (618907), a 5.18 m (17.0 ft) long scroll which bears the date 868 AD.[16] Joseph Needham and Tsien Tsuen-hsuin write that the cutting and printing techniques used for the delicate calligraphy of the Diamond Sutra book are much more advanced and refined than the miniature Dharani sutra printed earlier.[16]

Yuan dynasty banknote with its printing wood plate . An illustration published in Wang Zhen's (fl. ) book of AD showing movable type characters arranged by rhyme scheme in round table compartments

Movable type: The polymath scientist and official Shen Kuo () of the Song dynasty (960) was the first to describe the process of movable type printing in his Dream Pool Essays of . He attributed the innovation of reusable fired clay characters to a little-known artisan named Bi Sheng (990).[17][18][19][20] Bi had experimented with wooden type characters, but their use was not perfected until to with the model of the official Wang Zhen (fl. ) of the Yuan dynasty (), who also arranged written characters by rhyme scheme on the surface of round table compartments.[18][21] It was not until with the printed works of Hua Sui () of the Ming dynasty () that the Chinese perfected metal movable type characters, namely bronze.[22][23] The Qing dynasty () scholar Xu Zhiding of Tai'an, Shandong developed vitreous enamel movable type printing in .[24]

Gunpowder

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Earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Wujing Zongyao of AD.

Evidence of gunpowder's first use in China comes from the Tang dynasty (618907).[25] The earliest known recorded recipes for gunpowder were written by Zeng Gongliang, Ding Du and Yang Weide in the Wujing Zongyao, a military manuscript compiled in during the Song dynasty (960). Its gunpowder formulas describe the use of incendiary bombs launched from catapults, thrown down from defensive walls, or lowered down the wall by use of iron chains operated by a swape lever.[26][27][28] Bombs launched from trebuchet catapults mounted on forecastles of naval ships ensured the victory of Song over Jin forces at the Battle of Caishi in , while the Mongol Yuan dynasty () used gunpowder bombs during their failed invasion of Japan in and .[27] During the 13th and 14th centuries, gunpowder formulas became more potent (with nitrate levels of up to 91%) and gunpowder weaponry more advanced and deadly, as evidenced in the Ming dynasty () military manuscript Huolongjing compiled by Jiao Yu (fl. 14th to early 15th century) and Liu Bowen (). It was completed in , a long while after Liu's death, with a preface added by the Jiao in its Nanyang publication.[29]

Compass

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A model in Kaifeng of a Chinese ladle-and-bowl type compass used for geomancy in the Han dynasty (202 BC  220 AD); the historical authenticity of the model has been questioned by Li Shu-hua ().[30] Chinese geomantic compass c. from the National Maritime Museum in London

Although an ancient hematite artifact from the Olmec era in Mexico dating to roughly BC indicates the possible use of the lodestone compass long before it was described in China, the Olmecs did not have iron which the Chinese would discover could be magnetised by contact with lodestone.[31] Descriptions of lodestone attracting iron were made in the Guanzi, Master Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals and Huainanzi.[32][33][34] The Chinese by the Han dynasty (202 BC  220 AD) began using northsouth oriented lodestone ladle-and-bowl shaped compasses for divination and geomancy and not yet for navigation.[35][36][37] The Lunheng, written by Han dynasty writer, scientist, and philosopher Wang Chong (27  c. 100 AD) stated in chapter 52: "This instrument resembles a spoon and when it is placed on a plate on the ground, the handle points to the south".[38][39] There are, however, another two references under chapter 47 of the same text to the attractive power of a magnet according to Needham (),[40] but Li Shu-hua () considers it to be lodestone, and states that there is no explicit mention of a magnet in Lunheng.[30] The Chinese polymath Shen Kuo () of the Song dynasty (960) was the first to accurately describe both magnetic declination (in discerning true north) and the magnetic needle compass in his Dream Pool Essays of , while the Song dynasty writer Zhu Yu (fl. 12th century) was the first to mention use of the compass specifically for navigation at sea in his book published in .[19][36][41][42][43][44][45] Even before this, however, the Wujing Zongyao military manuscript compiled by described a thermoremanence compass of heated iron or steel shaped as a fish and placed in a bowl of water which produced a weak magnetic force via remanence and induction; the Wujing Zongyao recorded that it was used as a pathfinder along with the mechanical south-pointing chariot.[46][47]

Prehistoric China

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Ancient and Imperial China

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Inventions which made their first appearance in late Bronze Age China after the Neolithic era, specifically during and after the Shang dynasty (c. BC), and which predate the era of modern China that began with the fall of the Qing dynasty (), are listed below in alphabetical order.

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A sample of the Shanghai Museum bamboo slips (c. 300 BC), recording part of a commentary on the Classic of Poetry Huizi currency, issued in An illustration of furnace bellows operated by waterwheels, from the Nong Shu, by Chinese mechanical engineer and inventor Wang Zhen, AD, during the Yuan dynasty. The Spinning Wheel, by Northern Song (960) artist Wang Juzheng. The Chinese invented the belt drive by the 1st century BC for silk quilling devices.[55] A print illustration from an encyclopedia depicting men employing the fining process to make wrought iron and working a blast furnace by smelting iron ore to produce pig iron.

• 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, while the Song dynasty author Zhu Yu (fl. 12th century) wrote in his book of 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 24 m (79 ft) long Song dynasty ship dredged from the waters off the southern coast of China in , the hull of the ship divided into twelve walled compartmental sections built watertight, dated to about .[92][93] Western writers from Marco Polo (), to Niccolò Da Conti (), to Benjamin Franklin () 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.[94][95]

C

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A late 10th century grey sandstone and celadon-glazed pitcher from the Song dynasty (960); the spout is in the form of a fenghuang head. A hand-held, trigger-operated crossbow from the 2nd century BC, Han dynasty[97] A 15th-century Ming dynasty () woodblock print of the Water Margin novel showing a game of cuju football being played Candidates gathering around the wall where the civil service examination results are posted. This announcement was known as "releasing the roll" (). (c. , by Ming dynasty painter Qiu Ying)

D

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Ceramic models of watchtowers from the Han dynasty (202 BC  220 AD) showing use of dougong brackets A giant drawloom for figure weaving, from the Chinese Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia published by Ming dynasty encyclopedist and scientist Song Yingxing in Antique drilling rigs in Zigong, China

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F

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An illustration of a bronze "thousand ball thunder cannon" from the 14th-century Ming dynasty book Huolongjing. The cannon is an early example of medieval mobile battlefield artillery.[193] The field mill 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, The 'divine fire arrow screen' from the Huolongjing. A stationary arrow launcher that carries one hundred fire arrows. It is activated by a trap-like mechanism, possibly of wheellock design. "Angler on a Wintry Lake", painted in by Song dynasty painter Ma Yuan, featuring the oldest known depiction of a fishing reel Chinese flamethrower from the Wujing Zongyao manuscript of , Song dynasty An illustration of a fragmentation bomb from the 14th century Ming dynasty text Huolongjing. The black dots represent iron pellets. Tiger tally of Western Han period

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Rock carving of a bodhisattva playing a guqin, Northern Wei dynasty (386534 AD)

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A bronze hand cannon from the Yuan dynasty (), one of the oldest in the world; the oldest specimen dates to about , when the first textual reference to the hand cannon appears in Chinese literature. A Sui dynasty (581618 AD) plough figurine pulled by a bull

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A Song painting by Ma Lin, dated , using India ink on silk

• India ink: Although named after carbonaceous pigment materials originating from India, Indian ink first appeared in China; some scholars say it was made as far back as the 3rd millennium BC, while others state it was perhaps not invented until the Wei dynasty (220245 AD).[290][291][292][293]
• 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 dating around to years ago.[294] The earliest excavated inkstone is dated from the 3rd century BC, and was discovered in a tomb located in modern Yunmeng, Hubei. Usage of the inkstone was popularized during the Han dynasty.[295]
• Inoculation, treatment of smallpox: As Europeans would not begin to develop vaccinations for smallpox until , historical Chinese records show that Chinese physicians have been inoculating against the same disease hundreds of years earlier.[296] The British scientist, sinologist, and historian Joseph Needham states that a case of inoculation for smallpox may have existed in the late 10th century during the Song dynasty (960), yet they rely on a book Zhongdou xinfa () written in by Zhu Yiliang for this evidence.[297] Wan Quan () wrote the first clear reference to smallpox inoculation in his Douzhen xinfa () of .[298] The process of inoculation was also vividly described by Yu Chang in his Yuyi cao (), or Notes on My Judgment published in , and Zhang Yan in his Zhongdou xinshu (), or New book on smallpox inoculation in . As written by Yu Tianchi in his Shadou jijie () of , which was based on Wang Zhangren's Douzhen jinjing lu () of , the technique of inoculation to avoid smallpox was not widespread in China until the reign of the Longqing Emperor (r.   ) during the Ming dynasty ().[298]

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• Jacob's staff: The Song dynasty (960) polymath Shen Kuo (), an antiquarian who pursued studies of archaeological finds, unearthed an ancient crossbow-like mechanism from a garden in Jiangsu which had on its stock a graduated sighting scale in minute measurements.[299] He wrote that while viewing the whole of a mountain, the distance on the instrument was long, but while viewing a small part of the mountainside the distance was short due to the device's cross piece that had to be pushed further away from the observer's eye, with the graduation starting on the further end.[299] He wrote that if one placed an arrow on the device and looked past its end, the degree of the mountain could be measured and thus its height could be calculated.[299] Shen wrote that this was similar to mathematicians who used right-angled triangles to measure height.[299] British scientist, sinologist, and historian Joseph Needham writes that what Shen had discovered was Jacob's staff, a surveying tool which was not known in Europe until the medieval French Jewish mathematician Levi ben Gerson () described it in .[300]

K

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• Keel: Although the keel was a non-Chinese invention, the adjustable centerboard keel traces its roots to the medieval Chinese Song dynasty. Many Song Chinese junk ships had a ballasted and bilge keel that consisted of wooden beams bound together with iron hoops. Maritime technology and the technological know-how allowed Song dynasty ships to be used in naval warfare between the Southern Song dynasty, the Jin dynasty, and the Mongols.[305][306][307]
• Kite: As written in the Mozi, the Zhou dynasty philosopher, carpenter, and structural engineer Lu Ban (fl. 5th century BC) from the State of Lu created a wooden bird that remained flying in the air for three days, essentially a kite; there is written evidence that kites were used as rescue signals when the city of Nanjing was besieged by Hou Jing (died 552) during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang (r. 502549), while similar accounts of kites used for military signalling are found in the Tang (618907) and Jin () dynasties; kite flying as a pastime can be seen in painted murals of Dunhuang dating to the Northern Wei (386534) period, while descriptions of flying kites as a pastime have been found in Song (960) and Ming () texts.[308][309]
• Ketchup: Derived from the hokkien word kêtsiap - originally a thin soy-sauce made of fermented fish.

L

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The 'self-tripped trespass land mine', from the Huolongjing, 14th century A pair of Eastern Han dynasty (25220 AD) tomb statuettes playing the game liubo Example of a Chinese printed map in a gazetteer, showing Fengshan County of Taiwan Prefecture, published in ; the first known printed map from China comes from a Song dynasty (960) encyclopedia of the 12th century A cross section of a Chinese hall, from the Yingzao Fashi architectural treatise published by Li Jie in , during the Song dynasty (960); this book explicitly laid out an eight-graded modular system of architecture for timber halls and pavilions of different sizes A multistage rocket from the 14th-century military manuscript Huolongjing, Ming dynasty An illustration of a handheld portable multiple rocket launcher as depicted in the 11th century book Wujing Zongyao of the Song dynasty. The launcher is constructed using basketry. A naval mine from the Huolongjing, mid-14th century Chinese playing card dated c. AD, Ming dynasty A sancai porcelain dish from the Tang dynasty, 8th century The puddling process of smelting iron ore to make wrought iron from pig iron, the right half of the illustration (not shown) displays men working a blast furnace, Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia published in , written by Song Yingxing (). The British scientist, historian, and sinologist Joseph Needham 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.[310] A 12th-century illustration of a revolving bookcase for Buddhist scriptures as depicted in Li Jie's architectural treatise the Yingzao Fashi. The 'flying crow with magic fire' winged rocket bomb from the Huolongjing, mid 14th century, compiled by Liu Bowen and Jiao Yu Depiction of rocket arrows, from the Huolongjing. The right arrow reads 'fire arrow' (huo jian), the middle is an 'dragon shaped arrow frame' (long xing jian jia), and the left is a 'complete fire arrow' (huo jian quan shi). A depiction of the 13th Century "long serpent" rocket launcher. The holes in the frame are designed to keep the rockets separate, from the edition of Wujing Zongyao. A Song dynasty painting on silk of two Chinese cargo ships accompanied by a smaller boat; notice the large stern-mounted rudder on the ship shown in the foreground

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N

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O

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A replica of Zhang Heng's (78139 AD) seismometer that employed a pendulum sensitive to inertia of ground tremors; while placed in Luoyang in 133, it detected an earthquake 400 to 500 km (250 to 310 mi) away in Gansu A depiction demonstrating the use of the Chinese stinkpot shown in the Traité sur les feux d'artifice pour le spectacle et pour la guerre by French pyrotechnician Jean-Charles Perrinet d'Orval, A sancai-glazed horse statue from the Tang dynasty (618907) showing a rider's stirrup connected to the saddle The Luding Bridge in Sichuan, an iron-chain suspension bridge A Chinese Song dynasty naval tower ship with a Xuanfeng traction trebuchet catapult, taken from the Wujing Zongyao, AD Hydraulic-powered trip hammers, from a Ming dynasty encyclopedia published in by Song Yingxing ()

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Chinese rotary fan winnowing machine, from an encyclopedia published in by Song Yingxing

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• Zoetrope: British sinologist, scientist, and historian Joseph Needham described several ancient Chinese devices which he classified as "a variety of zoetrope",[540] but his use of that term appears to have been very broad and unconventional. There is some evidence that a device capable of displaying moving images existed amongst the items of the treasury of the deceased Qin Shi Huang (r. 221210 BC) of the Qin dynasty.[541] A magician named Shao Ong who staged a seance for Emperor Wu of Han (r. 14187 BC) may have used such a device in his performance of 121 BC.[540] Another device that Needham included in the same category comes, according to his dating, from the late Han dynasty, when the engineer and artisan Ding Huan () made a 'nine-storied hill-censer' around 180 AD.[541] This featured figures of birds and other animals which moved when the lamp was lit; the convection of rising hot air currents caused the vanes at the top canopy of the lamp to spin, while the painted figures on paper attached to the side of the cylinder gave the impression that they were in movement.[541]

Modern (present)

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• Artemisinin, Tu Youyou, Project 523, Dihydroartemisinin. Derivative of Qing Hao herb originally identified many years earlier by the ancient Chinese medic - Ge Hong. Tested on Tu Youyou herself during the cultural revolution, shown to be effective against P. falciparum the cause of malaria
• Electronic cigarette: Hon Lik, a Chinese pharmacist, is credited with the invention of the modern electronic cigarette. In , he came up with the idea of using a piezoelectric ultrasound-emitting element to vaporise a pressurized jet of liquid containing nicotine diluted in a propylene glycol solution. This design produces a smoke-like vapour that can be inhaled and provides a vehicle for nicotine delivery into the bloodstream via the lungs. He also proposed using propylene glycol to dilute nicotine and placing it in a disposable plastic cartridge which serves as a liquid reservoir and mouthpiece.[542]
• Non-invasive prenatal diagnostic testing for Down Syndrome: Previously, women underwent invasive testing such as amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling (CVS). This new maternal blood test has the potential to reduce the number of women referred for invasive testing for Down syndrome by 98 percent. Developed by Chinese researchers in Hong Kong in , this is hailed as a breakthrough.[543]
• Passenger drone: The world's first passenger drone, a drone capable of carrying human cargo, Ehang 184 was unveiled at the Computer Electronics Show (CES) by Chinese entrepreneurs.[544][545]
• Synthetic bovine insulin: In , Chinese scientists synthesized bovine insulin, with the "same crystalline form and biological activities as natural insulin."[546][547] The project began in , and is considered one of the "first proteins ever synthesized in vitro".[548]
• Stem cell educator therapy: Chinese and US researchers have produced remarkable results for this new treatment of obtaining stem cells from human cord blood to "re-educate" misbehaving immune cells. This result was published in the open-access journal BMC Medicine in January , and offers hope for Type 1 diabetics and potentially may also be used to treat other auto-immune diseases if the approach lives up to early promise.[549][550]

See also

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A Chinese Chain Pump With Their Singular Method Of Working It

26 x 21 cm (10.25 x 8.25 inches).

China

This original antique engraving is from a work by George Alexander Cooke, Universal Geography, which described voyages, travels and discoveries of great explorers of the era such as Captain James Cook, Furneaux, Magellan, Drake, Anson, Dampier and Wallis. It was made by copper plate engraving in on medium weight, chain-linked cotton rich, paper. It is in very good condition with a few dots of foxing and small unobtrusive marks as shown in the above image.

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