Ancient China Research Paper
Ancient Chinese Contributions
Kenneth Russell
Strayer University
Prof. Michael Briere
Hum. 111
March 3rd, 2014
Ancient Chinese Contribution
To win a trip to China, you enter to determine the four (4) most useful contributions or inventions created by the ancient Chinese.
China Ancient Culture, a term often compared with “China modern culture” which means the culture of tradition, and was the introduction of Western influences. China has always been known for exchanging with other cultures, and had assimilated many influences from various neighboring countries, especially those coming via the Silk Road (China absolute tours, 2012). Identify eight to ten of these useful inventions or contributions
The ancient Chinese …show more content…
Gun powder, known as the “Blazing Medicine” in Chinese, is made up of three kinds of ancient folk medicine: Saltpeter, Sulfur, and Charcoal. Since the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206 BC), saltpeter and sulfur are used to make drugs by ancient alchemist to achieve immortality. The first true application of the gun powder occurred in the Three Kingdom Period (220AD-280 AD). Late Tang Dynasty (618 AD-907 AD) saw Gun Powder applied in military field. During Song Dynasty (960AD-1279AD) and Yuan Dynasty (1206 AD-1368 AD), ancient Chinese had already mastered the skills to make reasonable ratio of various ingredients and invented various gun power weapons, such as artillery, guns, rockets, mines and bombs. In the 13th century, Gun Powder reached Arab and after the 14th century and it was transmitted to Europe (China Absolute Tours, …show more content…
In the 12th century, the Europeans began to adopt this technique.
And last, printing is another great invention and contribution. During the Sui Dynasty, printing is accomplished by mean of a knife cut laterally reversed characters on wooden boards, paint ink on it, and then print the characters on the paper. However, the wooden board can be used once, because the boards are specially made for the printing of the book. Therefore, to print a book was a very painstaking task at that time and to print a book of different content, another batch of boards should be made.
The difficulty was solved in the 11th century. A lettering worker, Bi Sheng spent 40 years to make type of the Chinese characters. He used lime cement as material, molded into square columns, carved a laterally reversed Chinese character on the bottom of one column, and then baked to hard in a furnace. These columns could be arranged according to the contents of the book to be printed, so the type could be reused unlimited times. This technique is the rudiment of modern printing. Wang Zheng, a mechanist in the Yuan Dynasty, created a wooden type and typesetting. Years later, he created a metal type which improved the quality of printing tremendously. The technique was introduced to Japan during the 15th century during the Tang Dynasty. When Sui Dynasty (581AD-618) gave way to Tang Dynasty (618AD-907AD),
Kenneth Russell
Strayer University
Prof. Michael Briere
Hum. 111
March 3rd, 2014
Ancient Chinese Contribution
To win a trip to China, you enter to determine the four (4) most useful contributions or inventions created by the ancient Chinese.
China Ancient Culture, a term often compared with “China modern culture” which means the culture of tradition, and was the introduction of Western influences. China has always been known for exchanging with other cultures, and had assimilated many influences from various neighboring countries, especially those coming via the Silk Road (China absolute tours, 2012). Identify eight to ten of these useful inventions or contributions
The ancient Chinese …show more content…
Gun powder, known as the “Blazing Medicine” in Chinese, is made up of three kinds of ancient folk medicine: Saltpeter, Sulfur, and Charcoal. Since the Qin Dynasty (221BC-206 BC), saltpeter and sulfur are used to make drugs by ancient alchemist to achieve immortality. The first true application of the gun powder occurred in the Three Kingdom Period (220AD-280 AD). Late Tang Dynasty (618 AD-907 AD) saw Gun Powder applied in military field. During Song Dynasty (960AD-1279AD) and Yuan Dynasty (1206 AD-1368 AD), ancient Chinese had already mastered the skills to make reasonable ratio of various ingredients and invented various gun power weapons, such as artillery, guns, rockets, mines and bombs. In the 13th century, Gun Powder reached Arab and after the 14th century and it was transmitted to Europe (China Absolute Tours, …show more content…
In the 12th century, the Europeans began to adopt this technique.
And last, printing is another great invention and contribution. During the Sui Dynasty, printing is accomplished by mean of a knife cut laterally reversed characters on wooden boards, paint ink on it, and then print the characters on the paper. However, the wooden board can be used once, because the boards are specially made for the printing of the book. Therefore, to print a book was a very painstaking task at that time and to print a book of different content, another batch of boards should be made.
The difficulty was solved in the 11th century. A lettering worker, Bi Sheng spent 40 years to make type of the Chinese characters. He used lime cement as material, molded into square columns, carved a laterally reversed Chinese character on the bottom of one column, and then baked to hard in a furnace. These columns could be arranged according to the contents of the book to be printed, so the type could be reused unlimited times. This technique is the rudiment of modern printing. Wang Zheng, a mechanist in the Yuan Dynasty, created a wooden type and typesetting. Years later, he created a metal type which improved the quality of printing tremendously. The technique was introduced to Japan during the 15th century during the Tang Dynasty. When Sui Dynasty (581AD-618) gave way to Tang Dynasty (618AD-907AD),