Ancient China: history, culture, and society

Ancient China

The Ancient Chinese were quite adept at scientific and technological innovations -- long before many were available in Europe. Some of these inventions include: iron casting, the compass, gunpowder, geological mining techniques, mechanical clocks, row farming in agriculture, silk farming and processing, and porcelain.

Overview of Important Inventions -One of the most amazing facts about Ancient China is that as early as 2300 years BP the Chinese had mastered the art of casting large objects in iron, something that was not done to the same level until the 1600s in Europe. The Chinese, and later Japan, mastered the art of iron to the degree that they reduced carbon and made steel, some of the finest even made. The compass was invented in Ancient China as well, from the use of naturally occurring magnets, called lodestones, to magnetize an iron pointer. This, of course, aided in navigation, cartography, and the ability to establish regular trade routes. Gunpowder developed out of the experiments of Chinese shamans throwing mineral powers into a fire to produce special effects. They Chinese used gunpowder for fireworks and entertainment, but learned to use it as a weapon with Western contact. The Chinese developed a very strong technology of what we would now term geology. In the search for salt wells, the Ancient Chinese developed a technology of driving bamboo poles into the earth, which also tapped natural gas, causing a technology of a new fuel source. Through astrology, the Chinese developed accurate mechanical clocks, and, because of cultural and religious views, was refined. An intrusting side note on this technology -- One Marco Polo came to China and took the clock technology back to Europe, it caught on immeasurably back in Europe. When the Jesuits presented clocks to the Chinese emperors closer to the 16th and 17th centuries, the technology had been lost, and the Chinese did not realize that they had actually invented the mechanical clock. In agriculture, the Chinese developed row crop farming, effectively allowing irrigation and weeding to increase crop yields. The discovery that the cocoons of silk works could be unwound and the filaments used to weave a light, strong and beautiful cloth increased trade and contact with the West, and brought in millions of dollars in economic surplus. The thin technology of porcelain also contributed to this drive for Chinese products by the increasingly wealth European middle and upper classes (Craughwell, 2008; The Science and Technology, 2004).

Top Invention- The world we know now is based on the Industrial Revolution. The technological developments after feudalism - With the advent of steam power and machinery, especially in the 18th and 19th century, major changes in agriculture, mining, manufacturing and transportation literally revolutionized Europe and changed the socioeconomic and cultural conditions within almost every European country. Indeed, the onset of the Industrial Revolution impacted daily life for almost every individual, and changed the course of history, too (More, 2000).

This is the impact that metallurgy and the crafting of iron and steel had on the West and modern cultures are immeasurable. China had the technology of achieving high temperatures and casting iron at least 2,000 years prior to Europe; and even understood how to refine molten pig iron into wrought iron. By the 3rd and 4th century AD, the Chinese had learned to refine metal production using the blast furnace, steel production, and different processes for the use of various metal blending for specific applications (Wagner, 2001).