List of Chinese inventions
China has been the source of some of the world's most significant inventions, including the Four Great Inventions of
ancient China, a modern term which was coined by the British scholar Joseph
Needham: Paper, the compass,
gunpowder, and printing.
First inventions
China is a country where many inventions made their first appearances. The inventions which made their first appearances in China are listed below (Table 56, pgs. 176-180 in Needham's Volume 4 Part 2, Science and Civilization in China).
- Battens in sails
- Blast furnace
- Cast iron
- Chinese cuisine: Tofu, Ramen, Sushi
- Chinese clothing: Qipao, Hanfu
- Chopsticks
- Crank, hand-operated
- Repeating crossbow
- Escapement mechanism for clocks
- Exploding cannonball
- Fire Arrow
- Gunpowder
- Firearm
- Horse collar
- Hull compartments/bulkheads
- Kite
- Land mines
- Lottery
- Naval mines
- Noodles
- Paper
- Pendulum (Zhang Heng)
- Printing (woodblock printing and movable type)
- Rockets: Fire Arrow, Multistage rocket
- Rudder
Sailing carriage - Seismometer (of Zhang Heng)
- Silk
- South Pointing Chariot (differential gear, of Ma Jun)
- Sluice gates
- Toilet paper
- Traditional Chinese medicine
- Trebuchet (traction)
- Trip hammer
- Winnowing machine
Other inventions
Other things which are considered by various authors to have been first discovered, discovered contemporaneously with other civilizations, discovered separately after other civilizations, or simply used by the Chinese:
- Abacus (first appearance: Mesopotamia, 2400 BC. First certain appearance in China: 12th century AD)
- Armillary sphere (invented by the Greek Eratosthenes), with the world's first water-powered armillary sphere by Zhang Heng.
- Various automata (refer to article on King Mu of Zhou, Mozi, Lu Ban, etc.)
- Bellows
- Belt drive
- Bituminous coke for the iron and steel industry
- Compass
- Camera obscura
- Cardan Suspension
- The cannon
- Chain drive
- Chain pumps
- Chinese calendar
- Crossbow
- Drydock
- The Flamethrower
- Flash lock
- Early explosive grenades
- Odometer (also by Archimedes and Heron of Alexandria)
- Paddle wheel, for boats
- Paper money
- Parachutes
- Pontoon bridge
- Porcelain
- Postal system
- Pound lock
- Scissors
- Steel
- Suspension bridge
- Star catalogue
- Tea
- Umbrella
- Vaccination
- Water clock
- Waterwheel (also of the Greco-Roman tradition)
Wheelbarrow - Windmill
Native traditions
- Acupuncture
- Chinese martial arts
- Confucianism
- Taoism
- Chinese calendar
- Chinese cuisine
- Chinese clothing
- Traditional Chinese medicine
- Chinese astronomy
References
- Robert K. G. Temple, The Genius of China: 3,000 Years of Science, Discovery and Invention, Publisher: Prion (October 1, 1998), ISBN 978-1853752926
- Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
See also
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