Chinese Inventions

A while ago I read a wonderful book called The Man Who Loved China, by Simon Winchester. It details the life of Richard Needham, who spent most of his life studying and documenting the history of Chinese culture. Originally from England, he moved to New York to study, and there met a Mandarin-speaking Chinese woman. With her help, he learned to read, speak and write Mandarin in a year (as one attempting to learn Mandarin, I can attest to how formidable accomplishment this is). During World War II, he moved to China, originally to help the Chinese army to fend off Japan by touring the country and finding out what materiel was needed. Said materiel was then shipped to India and from there transported overland into China. Everywhere he went, Needham visited universities, monasteries and technical facilities, gathering every nugget he could about Chinese history and culture. He managed to persuade a publisher to publish what was intended to be a book on the subject, to be delivered within a year. Eventually the material was published -- in a set consisting of 16 volumes! Even today, Needham is regarded as the world's foremost scholar of Chinese culture.

The Man Who Loved China closes with an appendix listing Chinese inventions and their date of appearance (or first mention; in some cases the mentions post-date the inventions). This list is quite shocking to most Westerners, as is the narrow-mindedness of many Western historians. (Fortunately, this is changing.)  Sometimes even the terminology reveals this. For example, see "Pasteurization" in the list below.

I have taken the liberty of typing the list in from the book. I'm quite sure that at least a few entries will shock and surprise you, especially when you realize how many centuries earlier the Chinese invention was than the European "invention". Here it is.

Abacus	AD 190
Acupuncture	580 BC
Advisory vessels	3rd Century BC
Air-conditioning fan	AD 180
Alcohol made from grain by a special fermentation process	15th Century BC
Algorithm for extraction of square and cube roots	1st Century BC
Anatomy	11th Century AD
Anchor, non-folding, stockless	1st Century AD
Anemometer	3rd Century AD
Anti-malaria drugs	3rd Century AD
Arcuballista, multi-bolt	320 BC
Acruballista, multiple-spring	5th Century AD
Asbestos woven into cloth	3rd Century AD
Astronomical clock drive	120 AD
Axial rudder	1st Century AD
Ball Bearings	2nd Century BC
Balloon principle	2nd Century BC
Bean Curd	100 AD
Bell, pottery	3rd millennium BC
Bellows, double-acting piston-turned bronze	6th Century BC
Belt drive	5th Century BC
Beriberi, recognition of	1130 AD
Blast furnace	3rd Century BC
Blood, distinction of arterial and veinous	2nd Century BC
Blood, theory of circulation	2nd Century BC
Boats and ships, paddle-wheel	418 AD
Bomb, cast-iron	1221 AD
Bomb, thrown from a trebucher
Book, printed, first to be dated	868 AD
Book, scientific, printed	847 AD
Bookcase, vertical axis	544 AD
Bookworm repellent
Bowl, bronze, water-spouting	3rd Century BC
Bread, steamed
Bridges, releasable	4th Century BC
Bridges, iron-chain suspension	6th Century AD
Bridges, Li Chun’s Segmental Arch	610 AD
Bronze, high tin for mirror production
Bronze, rainbow teng (camphor still)	1st Century BC
Calipers	9 AD
Camera Obscura, explanation of	1086 AD
“Candan” suspension	140 BC
Cast iron	5th Century BC
Cast iron-malleable	4th Century BC
Cereals, preservation of stored	1st Century BC
Chain drive	976 AD
Chess	4th Century BC
Chimes, stone	9th Century BC
Chopsticks	600 BC
Clocks, sand	1370 AD
Clocks, Su Sung’s	1088 AD
Clockwork Escapement of Yi Xing and Liang Lingzan	725 AD
Coal, as a fuel	1st Century AD
Coal dust, briquettes from	1st Century AD
Coinage	9th Century BC
Collapsible umbrella and other items	5th Century BC
Comet tails, observation of direction of	635 AD
Compass, floating fish	1027 AD
Compass, magnetic needle	1088 AD
Cooking pots, heat economy in	3rd Millennium BC
Crank handle	1st Century BC
Crop rotation	6th Century BC
Crossbow	5th Century BC
Crossbow, bronze triggers	300 BC
Crossbow, grid sight for	1st Century AD
Crossbow, magazine	13th Century AD
Dating of trees by number of rings	12th Century AD
Decimal place value	13th Century BC
Deep drilling and use of natural gas as fuel	2nd Century BC
Diabetes, association with sweet and fatty foods	1st Century BC
Dial and pointer	3rd Century BC
Differential pressure
Disease, diurnal rhythms in	2nd Century BC
Diseases, deficiency	3rd Century AD
Dishing of carriage wheel
Distillation of mercury	3rd Century BC
Dominoes	1120 AD
Downdraft	1st Century BC
Dragon kiln	2nd Century AD
Draw Loom	1st Century AD
Drum carriage	1st Century AD
Diked/poldered fields	1st Century BC
Ephedrine	2nd Century AD
Equal temperament, mathematical formulation of	AD 1584
Equilibrium, theory of	4th Century BC
Erosion and sedimentary deposition, theory of	AD 1070
Esculentist movement (edible plants for time of famine)	AD 1046
Ever-normal granary system	AD 9
Fertilizers	2nd Century BC
Firecrackers	AD 290
Firelance	AD 950
Flame test
Flame-thrower (double-acting force pump for liquids)	AD 919
Folding chairs	3rd Century AD
Free reed	100 BC
Fumigation	7th Century BC
Furnace, reverberatory	1st Century BC
Gabions	3rd Century BC
Gauges, rain and snow	AD 1247
Gear-wheels, chevron-toothed	AD 50
Ginning machine, hand-cranked and treadle	17th Century AD
Gluten from wheat	AD 530
Gold, purple sheen	200 BC
Grafting	AD 806
Gravimetry	AD 712
Great Wall of China	3rd Century BC
Gird technique, quantitative, used in cartography	AD 1130
Guan Xien system	240 BC
Gunpowder, formula for	12th Century AD
Gunpowder, government’s department and monopoly on	14th Century AD
Gunpowder, used in mining	Ming
Handcarts	681 BC
Handgun	AD 1128
Harness, boot strap	250 BC
Harness, collar	AD 477
Helicopter top	AD 320
High temperatures, firing of clay at	2nd Millennium BC
Hodometer	110 BC
Holing irons	AD 584
“Hot streak” test	AD 1596
Hygrometer	120 BC
Indeterminate analysyis
Interconversion of longitudinal and rotary motion	AD 31
Kite	4th Century BC
Knife, rotary disk, for cutting jade	12th Century AD
Lacquer	13th Century BC
Ladders, extendable	4th Century BC
Leeboards and centerboards	AD 751
Lodestone, south-pointing ladle	AD 83
Magic mirrors	5th Century AD
Magic squares	AD 190
Magnetic declination noted	AD 1040
Magnetic thermoremanence and induction	AD 1044
Magnetic variation observed	AD 1436
Magnetism, used in medicine	AD 970
Malt sugar, production of	1st Millennium BC
Mangonel	4th Century BC
Maps, relief	AD 1086
Maps, typographical	3rd Century BC
Masts, multiple	3rd Century AD
Matches (non-striking)	AD 577
Melodic composition	AD 475
Metal amalgams used to fill cavities	AD 659
Metal, to oxides, burning of	5th Century BC
Mill, wagon	AD 340
Mills, edge-runner	200 BC
Mills, edge-runner, water-power applied	4th Century AD
Mining, square sets for	5th Century BC
Mining, differential pressure ventilation	5th Century BC
Mirror, with “light-penetration surface”	11th Century BC
Mold board	2nd Century BC
Mountings, vertical and horizontal	1st Century AD
Mouth-organs	9th Century BC
Moxibustion	3rd Century BC
Multiple-spindle silk-twisting frame	AD 1313
Negative numbers, operations using	1st Century AD
Noodles (filamentous) including bread	AD 100
Nova, recorded observation of	13th Century BC
Numerical equations of higher order, solution of	13th Century AD
Oil lamps, economic	9th Century AD
Paktong (cupronickel)	AD 230
Paper (invention of)	300 BC
Paper, money	9th Century AD
Paper, toilet	AD 589
Paper, wall	16th Century AD
Paper, wrapping	2nd Century BC
Parachute principle	8th Century AD
“Pascal” triangle of binomial coefficients	AD 1100
Pasteurization of wine	AD 1117
Pearl fishing conservancy	2nd Century AD
Pearls in oysters, artificial induction of	AD 1086
“Pi”, accurate estimation of	3rd Century AD
Piece molding for casting bronze	2nd Millennium BC
Place-value number system	13th Century BC
Placenta used as source of estrogen	AD 725
Planispheres	AD 940
Plant protection, biological	AD 304
Planting in rows	3rd Century BC
Playing cards	AD 969
Polar-equatorial coordinates	1st Century BC
Polar-equatorial mounting of astronomical instruments	AD 1270
Porcelain	3rd Century BC
Potassium, flame-test used in identifying	3rd Century AD
Pound-lock canal gates	AD 984
Preservation of corpses	166 BC
Printing, bronze type	AD 1403
Printing, movable earthenware type on paper	11th Century AD
Printing, multicolor	12th Century AD
Printing, with woodblocks	7th Century AD
Propeller-oar, self-feathering	AD 100
Prospecting, biogeochemical	6th Century AD
Prospecting, geological	4th Century BC
Qin and se zither
Recording of sun halves, parhelic specters, and Lowitz arcs	AD 635
Reed on fishing rod	3rd Century AD
Refraction	4th Century BC
Rocket arrow	13th Century AD
Rocket arrow launchers	AD 1370
Rocket arrows, winged	AD 1360
Rockets, two-staged	AD 1360
Roller-harrows	AD 880
Rotary ballista	AD 240
Rotary fan	1st Cnetury BC
Sailing carriage	16th Century AD
Sails, mat and batten	1st Century AD
Salvage, underwater	AD 1064
Seawalls	AD 80
Seed, pre-treatment of	1st Century BC
Seed drill, multiple tube	AD 155
“Seedling horse”	11th Century AD
Seismograh	AD 132
Ships, construction principle of	1st Century BC
Silk, earliest spinning of	2850 BC
Silk reeling machine	AD 1090
Silk warp doubling and throwing frame	10th Century AD
Sluices	3rd Century BC
Sluices, riffles added to	11th Century AD
Smallpox, inoculation against	10th Century AD
Smokescreens	AD 178
Snow crystals, six-sided symmetry of	135 BC
Soil science (ecology)	5th Century BC
South-pointing carriage	AD 120
Soybean, fermented	200 BC
Sprouts, for medicinal and nutritional purposes	2nd Century BC
Spindle wheel	5th Century BC
Spindle wheel, multiple spindle	11th Century AD
Spindle wheel, treadle-operated	1st Century AD
Spooling frame	AD 1313
Square pallet chain pump	AD 186
Stalactites and stalagmites, records of	4th Century BC
Stars, proper motion of	AD 725
Steamers, pottery	5th millennium BC
Steel production, co-fusion method of	6th Century AD
Sterilization by steaming	AD 980
Steroids, urinary	AD 1025
Still, Chinese-type	7th Century AD
Stirrup	AD 300
Stringed instruments	9th Century BC
Tea, as drink	2nd Century BC
Thyroid treatment	1st Century BC
Tian yuan algebraic notation	AD 1248
Tilt-hammer, water-powered spoon	AD 1145
Toothbrush	9th Century AD
Trebuchet (simple)	4th Century BC
Trip hammers	2nd Century BC
Trip hammers, water-powered	AD 20
Vinegar	2nd Century BC
Water mills, geared	3rd Century AD
Waterwheel, horizontal	AD 31
Weather vane	120 BC
Wet copper method	11th Century AD
Wheelbarrow, centrally mounted	30 BC
Wheelbarrow, with sails	6th Century AD
Windlass, well	120 BC
Windows, revolving	5th Century BC
Winnowing machine	1st Century AD
Zoetrope	AD 180

Arthur