List of Chinese inventions
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China is said to be the source of some of the world's great 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 appearance in China are listed below (Table 56, pgs. 176-180 in Needham's Volume 4 Part 2, Science and Civilization in China).
- Abacus Chinese Calculator
- Paper money
- Battens in sails
- Belt drive
- Blast furnace
- The cannon
- Cast iron
- Chain drive
- Chinese cuisine: Tofu, Noodles, Ramen, Sushi
- Chinese clothing: Qipao, Hanfu
- Chopsticks
- Bituminous coke for the iron and steel industry
- Compass
- Crank, hand-operated
- Crossbow and 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)
- Pound lock
- Printing (woodblock printing and movable type)
- Rockets: Fire Arrow, Multistage rocket
- Rotary fan
- 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
- Vaccination
- 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
- 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
- Camera obscura
- Cardan Suspension
- Chain pumps
- Chinese calendar
- Drydock
- The Flamethrower
- Flash lock
- Early explosive grenades
- Odometer (also by Archimedes and Heron of Alexandria)
- Paddle wheel, for boats
- Parachutes
- Pontoon bridge
- Porcelain
- Postal system
- Scissors
- Steel
- Suspension bridge
- Star catalogue
- Stirrups
- Tea
- Umbrella
- 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.