chinese ancient inventions

compass as early as the warring state period (476-221 bc), the magic force of magnetic force was discovered by chinese people, and a sort of quite simple instrument was made from magnetite to show directions. this is yet the earliest compass in the world. during the han dynasty (206 bc -220 ad) a more complicated compass was made from magnetite, a spoon-shaped magnetite placed on a square copper plate. the center part of the plate is quite smooth so the magnetite spoon can move very easily. in song dynasty (960-1127 ad) the compass was further improved. people used thin iron needles, rubbed them on a piece of magnetite to make them magnetic. then the needle was hung up with a thin thread or put on something that could float on water in a bowl. this is the primary model of compass for navigation. china is the first country to use compass for ship going. between 1099 and 1102 the ships went to or left from guangzhou.

paper mr. cai lun in han dynasty was regarded as the first man in the world to upgrade paper producing technique basing on some other people's idea shortly before him. after him, different materials had been tried for paper making, such as the famous rice xuan paper (invented in the tang dynasty), which is still used right now by calligraphers and chinese painters. bamboo was used in the later of song dynasty as the basic materials making paper. and thus bamboo paper became soon popular. in 751 chinese paper-making technique was carried to arabic countries and in 1150, the technique was known by europeans from arabians.

gunpowder the chinese invented powder some 1,100 years ago. at the end of the tang dynasty (618-907) gunpowder was first used in war. in 904, during a battle between two local forces, a weapon then called "flying fire" was used. that was a packet of gunpowder tied to the head of an arrow. after the fuse was lighted, the arrow was shot to the enemy side, and the gunpowder explored. this was also the earliest sample of modern rocket. in the 13th century, gunpowder was introduced to the arab as a result of the silk road. one century later, some european countries began to make gunpowder weapons with methods they had learned from the arabs.

printing wood-block printing first appeared in the early of tang dynasty (618-907). the technique was developed from the use of seals and stone engraving. originally people found words caved on stone could last much longer. in the 4th century the method of rubbing a piece of paper on a engraved stone painted with ink was used to make copies. this gave artists an idea to engrave words on a wood-block and print them. on the other hand, the development of economy and literature needed more books and publications. the block printing thus became quite popular in the late of tang dynasty. in song dynasty, the block printing technique was so well-developed that even today the block-printed books are still quite clear and valuable. between 1041 and 1048 bi sheng invented the movable character-printing method. he caved one chinese character on each small piece of fried clay. these clays then were put on an iron plate according to the text. after this, ink was brushed on the clay, rice paper was spread over the clay, dry the paper and then the printing was done. after bi sheng, wood and iron-caved characters were widely used.