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List of Chinese Inventions

19 points by DaniFong 18y ago

DaniFong 18y ago
It's often said that the Chinese were on the leading edge of scientific advantage throughout much of history, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this extensive list.
villageidiot 18y ago
Good list. Another good one - Ancient Roman Technology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_technology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_technology
jaytee_clone 18y ago
I was raised in China, so these inventions (the major ones) were as ingrained as the founding fathers for Americans. Much of the Chinese pride was rooted in such golden eras of the Chinese history. Sadly, in the modern days, this pride has become a nationalistic tool and is used to brainwash people into believing that the Chinese way has been and will always be superior to the other countries', when in fact there is so much the culture can learn from the rest of the world. (I suppose you can say that about any country.) Things are changing however, hopefully for the better.
- known 18y ago
  Exactly. Present and Future is more important than Past.
- Prrometheus 18y ago
  That is interesting because in practice it looks like China is borrowing a lot of the best ideas from the rest of the world and mixing it with its society.
  - jaytee_clone 18y ago
    It's true. People's perspective has been changing recently. Plus, when you have 1.6 billion of them, you can bet a good amount of the people are forward thinking (but a lot more are backward thinking too.)
  - qaexl 18y ago
    I've been recently studying more ancient Chinese history and the game of Weiqi (Go, as it is known in the US). Weiqi is a good way to understand the sociopolitical strategies of China. In Weiqi, it is often easier to surround and assimilate (embrace and extend) than it is to invade and conquer. If there is a grand strategy of the current political heads of China, it is to make China the pivot point of the world. America goes forth and spread democracy; I think the Chinese prefers to get other countries to orbits around them, the way the earth orbits inside the sun's gravity well. An observation of the inventiveness of the (Han) Chinese I think is best written by Neal Stephenson in his essay published in Wired Magazine in 1994: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.02/mao.bell.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.02/mao.bell.html "This article is the result of a two-week trip to Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Shanghai during September '93, during which I tried to get some sense of how the Chinese perceived the influence of technology - particularly digital technology - on their culture. The answer is that this issue hasn't occurred to the Chinese yet, and probably never will, because it basically stems from a Western, post-Enlightenment perspective. Going to China and asking people about the Hacker Ethic is like going to Peoria and talking to the folks down at Ned's Feed & Grain about Taoism. The hacking part comes to them easily enough - China is, in a sense, a nation of analog hackers quickly entering the digital realm. But I didn't see any urge to draw profound, cosmic conclusions from the act of messing around with technology. "
tokenadult 18y ago
William Boltz has a very interesting book https://www.eisenbrauns.com/ECOM/_2JN00T3AO.HTM https://www.eisenbrauns.com/ECOM/_2JN00T3AO.HTM about an invention that China didn't adopt when it could have (as shown by recently uncovered archeological evidence): a written system based on the consistent sound-indicating principle relatively easy for the masses to learn. That might have made for a radical change in Chinese history, coupled with the subsequent inventions of paper and of movable-type printing. See http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2081/is_/ai_n28679162 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2081/is_/ai_n2867916... for an overview of Boltz's argument.
- markessien 18y ago
  Who is to say the change would have been for the better? Korea switched systems, since then, there was no major advantage of Korea over China. And the 2nd largest economy in the world - Japan - still uses such a system. I don't think that writing with an alphabet vs writing with characters makes that big a difference. Characters are relatively easy to learn for a child. (I assume here that with sound-indicating principle, you mean a western like system)
  - tokenadult 18y ago
    "Characters are relatively easy to learn for a child." Which elementary reading textbooks have you been looking at from what countries and what periods of history? To reply to your assumption, by "sound-indicating system" I was referring to something like the Japanese kana syllabaries. They are inscriptions that have been found through rather recent archeological work in China from around the time of the founding of the Han Dynasty in which Chinese characters are used strictly for sound value, in disregard of their etymological meaning. It is, of course, possible to write any language strictly by writing out sounds--just as people are able to talk on the telephone, without clues from writing in the air or gestures.
    - markessien 18y ago
      I don't understand what you're trying to say. Can you repost your comment, but in a way that a person who is not a language expert would understand? For example, what do you mean by "used strictly for sound value" "etymological meaning" I've been looking at chinese characters, and the simplified characters are pretty easy to learn. The old chinese characters are somewhat more complicated, but the difference in learning to read such a text is minimal - they are more difficult to write, but reading is not more difficult.
mace 18y ago
Another good list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions: Decimal Number System Binary Numbers Panini-Backus Form (similarities to BNF) Chess

19 points by DaniFong 18y ago

It's often said that the Chinese were on the leading edge of scientific advantage throughout much of history, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this extensive list.

villageidiot 18y ago

Good list. Another good one - Ancient Roman Technology: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_technology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Roman_technology

jaytee_clone 18y ago

I was raised in China, so these inventions (the major ones) were as ingrained as the founding fathers for Americans. Much of the Chinese pride was rooted in such golden eras of the Chinese history. Sadly, in the modern days, this pride has become a nationalistic tool and is used to brainwash people into believing that the Chinese way has been and will always be superior to the other countries', when in fact there is so much the culture can learn from the rest of the world. (I suppose you can say that about any country.) Things are changing however, hopefully for the better.

known 18y ago
Exactly. Present and Future is more important than Past.
Prrometheus 18y ago
That is interesting because in practice it looks like China is borrowing a lot of the best ideas from the rest of the world and mixing it with its society.
- jaytee_clone 18y ago
  It's true. People's perspective has been changing recently. Plus, when you have 1.6 billion of them, you can bet a good amount of the people are forward thinking (but a lot more are backward thinking too.)
- qaexl 18y ago
  I've been recently studying more ancient Chinese history and the game of Weiqi (Go, as it is known in the US). Weiqi is a good way to understand the sociopolitical strategies of China. In Weiqi, it is often easier to surround and assimilate (embrace and extend) than it is to invade and conquer. If there is a grand strategy of the current political heads of China, it is to make China the pivot point of the world. America goes forth and spread democracy; I think the Chinese prefers to get other countries to orbits around them, the way the earth orbits inside the sun's gravity well. An observation of the inventiveness of the (Han) Chinese I think is best written by Neal Stephenson in his essay published in Wired Magazine in 1994: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.02/mao.bell.html http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/2.02/mao.bell.html "This article is the result of a two-week trip to Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Shanghai during September '93, during which I tried to get some sense of how the Chinese perceived the influence of technology - particularly digital technology - on their culture. The answer is that this issue hasn't occurred to the Chinese yet, and probably never will, because it basically stems from a Western, post-Enlightenment perspective. Going to China and asking people about the Hacker Ethic is like going to Peoria and talking to the folks down at Ned's Feed & Grain about Taoism. The hacking part comes to them easily enough - China is, in a sense, a nation of analog hackers quickly entering the digital realm. But I didn't see any urge to draw profound, cosmic conclusions from the act of messing around with technology. "

tokenadult 18y ago

William Boltz has a very interesting book https://www.eisenbrauns.com/ECOM/_2JN00T3AO.HTM https://www.eisenbrauns.com/ECOM/_2JN00T3AO.HTM about an invention that China didn't adopt when it could have (as shown by recently uncovered archeological evidence): a written system based on the consistent sound-indicating principle relatively easy for the masses to learn. That might have made for a radical change in Chinese history, coupled with the subsequent inventions of paper and of movable-type printing. See http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2081/is_/ai_n28679162 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2081/is_/ai_n2867916... for an overview of Boltz's argument.

markessien 18y ago
Who is to say the change would have been for the better? Korea switched systems, since then, there was no major advantage of Korea over China. And the 2nd largest economy in the world - Japan - still uses such a system. I don't think that writing with an alphabet vs writing with characters makes that big a difference. Characters are relatively easy to learn for a child. (I assume here that with sound-indicating principle, you mean a western like system)
- tokenadult 18y ago
  "Characters are relatively easy to learn for a child." Which elementary reading textbooks have you been looking at from what countries and what periods of history? To reply to your assumption, by "sound-indicating system" I was referring to something like the Japanese kana syllabaries. They are inscriptions that have been found through rather recent archeological work in China from around the time of the founding of the Han Dynasty in which Chinese characters are used strictly for sound value, in disregard of their etymological meaning. It is, of course, possible to write any language strictly by writing out sounds--just as people are able to talk on the telephone, without clues from writing in the air or gestures.
  - markessien 18y ago
    I don't understand what you're trying to say. Can you repost your comment, but in a way that a person who is not a language expert would understand? For example, what do you mean by "used strictly for sound value" "etymological meaning" I've been looking at chinese characters, and the simplified characters are pretty easy to learn. The old chinese characters are somewhat more complicated, but the difference in learning to read such a text is minimal - they are more difficult to write, but reading is not more difficult.

mace 18y ago

Another good list http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_inventions: Decimal Number System Binary Numbers Panini-Backus Form (similarities to BNF) Chess