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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY IN ANCIENT CHINA
https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/History_of_science_and_technology_in_China
The history of science and technology in China is both long and rich
with science and technological contribution. In antiquity, independent of
Greek philosophers and other civilizations, ancient Chinese philosophers
made significant advances in science, technology, mathematics,
and astronomy. The first recorded observations of comets, solar eclipses,
and supernovae were made in China. [1] Traditional Chinese medicine,
acupuncture and herbal medicine were also practiced.
Among the earliest inventions were the abacus, the "shadow clock," and the
first flying machines such as kites and Kongming lanterns. The four Great
Inventions of ancient China: the compass, gunpowder, paper making,
and printing, were among the most important technological advances, only
known in Europe by the end of the Middle Ages. The Tang dynasty (618 -
906 C.E.) in particular was a time of great innovation. [3] A good deal of
exchange occurred between Western and Chinese
The Jesuit China missions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries introduced
Western science and astronomy, then undergoing its own revolution, to China, and
knowledge of Chinese technology was brought to Europe. [4][5] Much of the early
Western work in the history of science in China was done by Joseph Needham.
Early scientific and technological
achievements
Remains of a Chinese crossbow, second century B.C.E.
ILOILO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY MODULE 2
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One of the oldest longstanding contributions of the ancient Chinese are
in Traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture and herbal medicine,
derived from Daoist philosophy. According to archaeological findings the
first writings on medicine appeared between the eleventh and the third
centuries B.C.E., like the Wu Shi Er Bing Fang, Prescriptions for Fifty-Two
Diseases found in a tomb excavated in 1973 near Mawangdui. The Canon of
Medicine was compiled in the third century B.C.E. and summarized diagnostic
knowledge like the knowledge of Bian Que, a great physician who pioneered
medical examination and pulse studies.
The practice of acupuncture can be traced as far back as the first
millennium B.C.E. and some scientists believe that there is evidence that
practices similar to acupuncture were used in Eurasia during the early
Bronze Age.[6][7] According to the History of Later Han Dynasty (25-220 C.E.),
this seismograph was an urn-like instrument, which would drop one of eight
balls to indicate when and in which direction an earthquake had occurred. On
June 13, 2005, Chinese seismologists announced that they had created a
replica of the instrument.
The mechanical engineer Ma Jun (c. 200-265 C.E.) was another impressive
figure from ancient China. Ma Jun improved the design of the silk loom,
[8]
designed mechanical chain pumps to irrigate palatial gardens, [8] and
created a large and intricate mechanical puppet theatre for Emperor Ming of
Wei, which was operated by a large hidden waterwheel. [9] However, Ma Jun's
most impressive invention was the South Pointing Chariot, a complex
mechanical device that acted as a mechanical compass vehicle. It
incorporated the use of a differential gear in order to apply equal amount
of torque to wheels rotating at different speeds, a device that is found in all
modern automobiles.[10]
The ancient Chinese also invented counting and time-keeping devices, which
facilitated mathematical and astronomical observations. Shadow clocks, the
forerunners of the sundial, first appeared in China about 4,000 years ago,
[11]
while the abacus was invented in China sometime between
1000 B.C.E. and 500 B.C.E.[12]
The most ancient of all astronomical instruments, at least in China, was the
simple vertical pole. With this one could measure the length of the sun’s
shadow by day to determine the solstices and the transits of stars by night to
observe the revolution of the sidereal year.”[13]
Already under the Shang dynasty (1765-1122 B.C.E.) the Chinese were
casting shadows with the help of a gnomon in relation to divination.
ILOILO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY MODULE 2
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The sundial that was much used during the Han Dynasty is clearly mentioned
in the first century B.C.E. The Sundial Book which includes 34 chapters would
have been compiled by Yin Hsien at that time. The use of water clock or
clepsydra which was important in astronomy would go back to the Warring
States period around the sixth century B.C.E. About 200 B.C.E. the outflow
clepsydra was replaced by an inflow type. Water clocks were used by Zhang
Heng in 125 C.E. to drive mechanisms illustrating astronomical phenomena.
Later on astronomical towers were built like the tower of Su Song in 1088
that comprehended an armillary sphere, a rotating celestial globe and front
panels with tablets indicating the time.
The Chinese were able to record observations, documenting the first solar
eclipse in 2137 B.C.E., and making the first recording of any planetary
grouping in 500 B.C.E.[1] The Book of Silk was the first definitive atlas
of comets, written c. 400 B.C.E. It listed 29 comets (referred to as broom
stars) that appeared over a period of about 300 years, with renderings of
comets describing an event its appearance corresponded to. [1]
Replica of Zhang Heng's seismometer Houfeng Didong Yi
During the Spring and Autumn (77-476 B.C.E.) and the Warring States (475-
221 B.C.E.) periods, the development of technology in agriculture and
handicraft enhanced the economic activities and made crucial the means of
ILOILO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY MODULE 2
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calculation. It is then that the counting-rods and rod arithmetic were
invented. The counting-rods will be used even after the invention of the
abacus. The abacus or suanpan 算盤 was fits mentioned in the Supplementary
Notes on the Art of Figures by Xu Yue, under the Han dynasty in 190 C.E., but
it rose to prominence under the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368) and became a
household instrument only during the Ming dynasty starting in 1368.
In architecture, the pinnacle of Chinese technology manifested itself in
the Great Wall of China, under the first Chinese Emperor Qin Shi
Huang between 220 B.C.E. and 200 B.C.E. Typical Chinese architecture
changed little from the succeeding Han Dynasty until the nineteenth century.
[14]
The Great Wall as seen today is the result of grand-scale reconstruction
over a period of 100 years during the Ming dynasty.
The first bridge recorded in Chinese history is the boat bridge over the river
Weishui ordered by King Wen of the Zhou dynasty 3000 years ago. The first
record of a stone bridge goes back to the Han dynasty. Stone-arch bridges
made their appearance around 250 B.C.E. Famous bridges are the admired
Anji bridge built with one arch under the Sui dynasty (581-618), the
Lugou Marco Polo bridge built during the Kin dynasty (1038-1227), the jewel
belt bridge, with 53 spans, built a Suzhou during the Tang dynasty. “The
beam bridge has the longest history in bridge engineering whether in China
or elsewhere.“ It can be mentioned for example the Luoyang bridge built
during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) with a total length of 834
meter and a seven-meter-wide deck for traffic.[15]
The crossbow nǔ, 弩 was developed under the Warring States period. The
followers of the philosopher Mozi (544-496) mentioned it in the fourth-third
centuries B.C.E. It is also described by Sunzi in his Art of War. Several
remains were found among the soldiers of the Terracotta in the tomb of
emperor Shu Juangdi who unified China in 221 B.C.E.[16]
The Eastern Han Dynasty scholar and astronomer Zhang Heng (78-139 C.E.)
invented the first water-powered rotating armillary sphere (the first armillary
sphere however was invented by the Greek Eratosthenes), and catalogued
2500 stars and over 100 constellations. In 132, he invented the first
seismological detector, called the "Houfeng Didong Yi" ("Instrument for
inquiring into the wind and the shaking of the earth"). [17] According to
the History of Later Han Dynasty (25-220 C.E.), this seismograph was an urn-
like instrument, which would drop one of eight balls to indicate when and in
which direction an earthquake had occurred. On June 13, 2005, Chinese
seismologists announced that they had created a replica of the instrument.
ILOILO SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UNIVERSITY MODULE 2
GE 7 SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY LESSON 3
ANNEX 3B
The mechanical engineer Ma Jun (c. 200-265 C.E.) was another impressive
figure from ancient China. Ma Jun improved the design of the silk loom,
[8]
designed mechanical chain pumps to irrigate palatial gardens, [8] and
created a large and intricate mechanical puppet theatre for Emperor Ming of
Wei, which was operated by a large hidden waterwheel. [9] However, Ma Jun's
most impressive invention was the South Pointing Chariot, a complex
mechanical device that acted as a mechanical compass vehicle. It
incorporated the use of a differential gear in order to apply equal amount
of torque to wheels rotating at different speeds, a device that is found in all
modern automobiles.[10]
Sliding calipers were invented in China almost 2000 years ago. [18] The Chinese
civilization was the first civilization to succeed in exploring with aviation, with
the kite and Kongming lantern (proto Hot air balloon) being the first flying
machines.
The Four Great Inventions of ancient China
Mongols using Chinese gunpowder bombs during the Mongol Invasions of Japan, 1281.
The "Four Great Inventions of ancient China" (Traditional Chinese: 四 大 發 明 ;
Simplified Chinese: 四 大 发 明 ; pinyin: Sì dà fā míng) are
the compass, gunpowder, papermaking, and printing. Paper and printing
were developed first. Printing was recorded in China in the Tang Dynasty,
although the earliest surviving examples of printed cloth patterns date to
before 220.[19] Pinpointing the development of the compass can be difficult:
the magnetic attraction of a needle is attested by the Louen-heng, composed
between 20 and 100 C.E.,[20] although the first undisputed magnetized
needles in Chinese literature appear in 1086.[21]
By 300 C.E., Ge Hong, an alchemist of the Jin Dynasty, conclusively recorded
the chemical reactions caused when saltpetre, pine resin and charcoal were
heated together in his Book of the Master of the Preservations of Solidarity.
[22]
Another early record of gunpowder, a Chinese book
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from c. 850 C.E. Classified Essentials of the Mysterious Tao of the True Origin
of Things indicates that gunpowder was a byproduct of Daoist alchemical
efforts to develop an elixir of immortality:[23]
An original diagram of Su Song's book printed in 1092, showing the inner workings of
his astronomical clocktower.
Some have heated together sulfur, realgar and saltpeter with honey; smoke
and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even
the whole house where they were working burned down. [24]
These four discoveries had an enormous impact on the development of
Chinese civilization and a far-ranging global impact. Gunpowder, for
example, spread to the Arabs in the thirteenth century and thence to Europe.
[25]
According to English philosopher Francis Bacon, writing in Novum
Organum:
Printing, gunpowder and the compass: These three have changed the whole
face and state of things throughout the world; the first in literature, the
second in warfare, the third in navigation; whence have followed
innumerable changes, in so much that no empire, no sect, no star seems to
have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these
mechanical discoveries. [26]
One of the most important military treatises of all Chinese history was
the Huo Long Jing written by Jiao Yu in the fourteenth century. For
gunpowder weapons, it outlined the use of fire arrows and rockets, fire
lances and firearms, land mines and naval mines, bombards and cannons,
along with different compositions of gunpowder, including 'magic
gunpowder', 'poisonous gunpowder', and 'blinding and burning gunpowder.'
(refer to his article).
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For the eleventh century invention of ceramic movable type printing by Bi
Sheng (990-1051), it was enhanced by the wooden movable type of Wang
Zhen in 1298 and the bronze metal movable type of Hua Sui in 1490.
The Middle Ages
The world's earliest paper money was from the Song Dynasty, seeing mass production
under Mongol rule.
Among the scientific accomplishments of early China were matches, dry
docks, the double-action piston pump, cast iron, the iron plough, the horse
collar, the multi-tube seed drill, the wheelbarrow, the suspension bridge,
the parachute, natural gas as fuel, the raised-relief map, the propeller, the
sluice gate, and the pound lock. The Tang Dynasty (618 - 906 C.E.) in
particular was a time of great innovation.
In the seventh century, book-printing was developed in China and Japan,
using delicate hand-carved wooden blocks to print individual pages. The
ninth century Diamond Sutra is the earliest known printed document.
Movable type was also used in China for a time, but was abandoned because
of the number of characters needed; it would not be until Gutenberg (1400-
1468) that the technique was reinvented in a suitable environment. [27]
In addition to gunpowder, the Chinese also developed improved delivery
systems for the Byzantine weapon of Greek fire, Meng Huo You and Pen Huo
Qi first used in China c. 900.[28] Chinese illustrations were more realistic than
in Byzantine manuscripts,[28] and detailed accounts from 1044 recommending
its use on city walls and ramparts show the brass container as fitted with a
horizontal pump, and a nozzle of small diameter. [28] The records of a battle on
the Yangtze near Nanjing in 975 offer an insight into the dangers of the
weapon, as a change of wind direction blew the fire back onto the Song
forces.[28]
The Song Dynasty (960-1279) brought a new stability for China after a
century of civil war, and started a new area of modernization by encouraging
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examinations and meritocracy. The first Song Emperor created political
institutions that allowed a great deal of freedom of discourse and thought,
which facilitated the growth of scientific advance, economic reforms, and
achievements in arts and literature.[29] Trade flourished both within China and
overseas, and the encouragement of technology allowed the mints at
Kaifeng and Hangzhou to gradually increase in production. In 1080, the mints
of Emperor Shenzong were produced five billion coins (roughly 50 per
Chinese citizen), and the first banknotes were produced in 1023. These coins
were so durable that they would still be in use 700 years later, in the
eighteenth century.
Ships of the world in 1460 (Fra Mauro map). Chinese junks are described as very large,
three or four-masted ships.
There were many famous inventors and early scientists in the Song Dynasty
period. The statesman Shen Kuo is best known for his book known as
the Dream Pool Essays (1088 C.E.). In it, he wrote of use for a drydock to
repair boats, the navigational magnetic compass, and the discovery of the
concept of true north (with magnetic declination towards the North Pole).
Shen Kuo also devised a geological theory for land formation, or
geomorphology, and theorized that there was climate change in geological
regions over an enormous span of time. The equally talented statesman Su
Song was best known for his engineering project of the Astronomical Clock
Tower of Kaifeng, by 1088 C.E. The clock tower was driven by a rotating
waterwheel and escapement mechanism, the latter of which did not appear
in clockworks of Europe until two centuries later. Crowning the top of the
clock tower was the large bronze, mechanically-driven, rotating armillary
sphere. In 1070, Su Song also compiled the Ben Cao Tu Jing (Illustrated
Pharmacopoeia, original source material from 1058 – 1061 C.E.) with a team
of scholars. This pharmaceutical treatise covered a wide range of other
related subjects, including botany, zoology, mineralogy, and metallurgy.
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Chinese astronomers were also among the first to record observations of a
supernova, in 1054, making the Crab Nebula the first astronomical object
recognized as being connected to a supernova explosion. [30] Arabic and
Chinese astronomy intermingled under the Mongol rule of the Yuan Dynasty.
Muslim astronomers worked in the Chinese astronomical bureau established
by Kublai Khan, while some Chinese astronomers also worked at the Persian
Maragha observatory.[31] (Before this, in ancient times, Indian astronomers
had lent their expertise to the Chinese court.[3]) Mongol rule also saw
technological advances from an economic perspective, with the first mass
production of paper banknotes by Kublai Khan in the eleventh century. [32]
Jesuit activity in China
The Jesuit China missions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
introduced Western science and astronomy, then undergoing its own
revolution, to China. The Society of Jesus introduced, according to Thomas
Woods, "a substantial body of scientific knowledge and a vast array of
mental tools for understanding the physical universe, including the Euclidean
geometry that made planetary motion comprehensible." [33] Another expert
quoted by Woods said the scientific revolution brought by the Jesuits
coincided with a time when science was at a very low level in China:
[The Jesuits] made efforts to translate western mathematical and
astronomical works into Chinese and aroused the interest of Chinese
scholars in these sciences. They made very extensive astronomical
observation and carried out the first modern cartographic work in China.
They also learned to appreciate the scientific achievements of this ancient
culture and made them known in Europe. Through their correspondence
European scientists first learned about the Chinese science and culture. [34]
Scientific and technological stagnation
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The puddling process of smelting iron ore to make pig iron from wrought iron, the right
half of the illustration (not shown) displays men working a blast furnace, Tiangong
Kaiwu encyclopedia published in 1637, written by Song Yingxing (1587-1666).
One question that has been the subject of debate among historians has been
why China did not develop a scientific revolution and why Chinese
technology fell behind that of Europe. Many hypotheses have been proposed
ranging from the cultural to the political and economic. Sinologist Nathan
Sivin has argued that China indeed had a scientific revolution in the
seventeenth century and that we are still far from understanding the
scientific revolutions of the West and China in all their political, economic
and social ramifications.[35] John K. Fairbank argued that the Chinese political
system was hostile to scientific progress.
Needham argued, and most scholars agreed, that cultural factors prevented
these Chinese achievements from developing into what could be called
"science".[36] It was the religious and philosophical framework of the Chinese
intellectuals which made them unable to believe in the ideas of laws of
nature:
It was not that there was no order in nature for the Chinese, but rather that it
was not an order ordained by a rational personal being, and hence there was
no conviction that rational personal beings would be able to spell out in their
lesser earthly languages the divine code of laws which he had decreed afore
time. The Taoists, indeed, would have scorned such an idea as being too
naïve for the subtlety and complexity of the universe as they intuited it. [37]
Similar grounds have been found for questioning much of the philosophy
behind traditional Chinese medicine, which, derived mainly from Daoist
philosophy, reflects the classical Chinese belief that individual human
experiences express causative principles effective in the environment at all
scales. Because its theory predates use of the scientific method, it has
received various criticisms based on scientific thinking. Even though there
are physically verifiable anatomical or histological bases for the existence of
acupuncture points or meridians, for instance skin conductance
measurements show increases at the predicted points [38]), philosopher Robert
Todd Carroll, a member of the Skeptics Society, deemed acupuncture a
pseudoscience because it "confuse(s) metaphysical claims with empirical
claims."
…no matter how it is done, scientific research can never demonstrate that
unblocking chi by acupuncture or any other means is effective against any
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disease. Chi is defined as being undetectable by the methods of empirical
science.[39]
More recent historians have questioned political and cultural explanations
and have focused more on economic causes. Mark Elvin's high level
equilibrium trap is one well-known example of this line of thought, as well as
Kenneth Pomeranz' argument that resources from the New World made the
crucial difference between European and Chinese development. Other
events such as Haijin and Cultural Revolution have isolated China during
critical times.
Science and technology in the People's
Republic of China
Science and technology in the People's Republic of China is growing rapidly.
As the People's Republic of China has become better connected to the global
economy, the government has placed more emphasis on science and
technology. This has led to increases in funding, improved scientific
structure, and more money for research. These factors have led to
advancements in agriculture, medicine, genetics, and global change.
