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- Snoogs, on 05/12/2009, -2/+54
10. Gunpowder
We'll begin with arguably the most famous ancient Chinese invention. Legend has it that gunpowder was accidentally discovered by alchemists looking for a concoction that would create immortality in humans. Ironically, what these ancient chemists stumbled upon was an invention that could easily take human life.
Early gunpowder was made of a mixture of potassium nitrate (saltpeter), charcoal and sulfur, and it was first described in 1044 in the Collection of the Most Important Military Techniques, compiled by Zeng Goliang [source: Chinese Embassy in South Africa]. It's assumed the discovery of gunpowder occurred sometime earlier, since Zeng describes three different gunpowder mixtures and the Chinese used it for signal flares and fireworks before appropriating it for military use in rudimentary grenades.
Over time, we realized that metals added to the mixture created brilliant colors in gunpowder explosions and -- kaboom! -- modern fireworks displays were born. It also makes a handy explosive for projectiles like bullets.
9. The Compass
Where would we be without the compass? We'd be lost, that's where. Those of us who hike in the woods or fly various aircraft have the Chinese to thank for guiding us home safely.
Originally, the Chinese created their compasses to point to true south. This was because they considered south, not north, their cardinal direction [source: Wright]. The earliest compasses were created in the fourth century B.C. and were made of lodestone.
The mere existence of lodestone is the result of a bit of luck. Lodestone is a type of magnetite (a magnetic iron ore) that becomes highly magnetized when struck by lightning [source: Wasilewski]. The result is a mineral that's magnetized toward both the north and south poles. We're not certain precisely who came up with the clever idea of discerning direction using lodestone, but archaeological evidence shows the Chinese fashioned ladles that balanced on a divining board; the ladles would point the direction to inner harmony for ancient Chinese soothsayers.
8. Paper
It's not entirely clear who first came up with the notion to convert thoughts into a written language. There was a horserace between the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, the Harappa in present day Afghanistan and the Kemites in Egypt to be the first to formulate a written language. We do know that the first languages appear to have emerged around 5,000 years ago. One can even make the case that it dates back earlier -- that is, if one included artistic expressions like cave paintings as a form of written language. Once language began to develop, though, humans wrote on anything that would lay still long enough. Clay tablets, bamboo, papyrus and stone were only a few of the earliest writing surfaces.
Things changed once the Chinese -- specifically, a man named Cai Lun -- invented the prototype for modern paper. Before Cai's breakthrough, the Chinese wrote on thin strips of bamboo and lengths of silk, but in A.D.105, he created a mixture of wood fibers and water and pressed it onto a woven cloth. The weave in the cloth allowed the moisture in the pulpy mixture to seep out, resulting in a rough paper [source: Wisconsin Paper Council]. Exactly what Cai wrote on his first piece of paper is unknown.
7. Pasta?
Anybody who loves a good bowl of pasta e fagioli or linguine and clams may want to tip his hat to the ancient Chinese for coming up with pasta -- not the Italians, as you may have suspected.
The jury is still out on this one, but it looks like the Chinese beat either the Italians or the Arabs (it's unclear which) by around 2,000 years. In 2006, archaeologists excavating a 4,000 year-old settlement at Lajia in the Qinghai Province near the Tibetian border uncovered an overturned bowl of stringy noodles buried beneath ten feet of earth [source: Roach].
The newly discovered pasta may be the world's oldest. It's made from two types of millet grain, both of which have been cultivated in China for about 7,000 years. What's more, the Chinese still use these grains to make pasta to this day.
6. Wheelbarrow
The Chinese are also responsible for easing the burden of humans around the world and across time with the wheelbarrow. A general named Jugo Liang, who lived during the Han Dynasty, is widely credited with coming up with the concept of a one-wheeled cart used to carry heavy objects in the second century [source: Krebs and Krebs]. Jugo's conception missed the mark just a bit; he didn't add the barrow (handles) that came later as his invention was refined. Still, Jugo beat the Europeans by about 1,000 years with his wheelbarrow.
Originally, the vehicle was intended for military purposes. Recognizing the physical advantages the wheelbarrow gave its armies over any enemies -- they were used as mobile barricades as well as for transportation -- the Chinese kept their invention secret for centuries.
An old folktale also gives the credit for inventing the wheelbarrow to a farmer from the first century B.C. named Ko Yu [source: Leinhard]. Although his existence is questionable, there is a common thread between Jugo and Ko: Like the general, the farmer is said to have kept the wheelbarrow secret by describing it in code.
5. Seismograph
Although the Chinese couldn't tell anyone exactly what an earthquake measured on the Richter scale (since the Richter scale wasn't created until 1935), they did manage to invent the world's first earthquake detector -- a seismograph. Not only did imperial astronomer Chang Heng create a seismograph during the Han Dynasty in the early second century, he created a magnificently beautiful one.
Heng's creation was a heavy bronze vessel with nine dragons facing downward embedded into its outside. The dragons were spaced equidistant from one another on the vessel, and below each dragon, a detached frog looked upward as each frog held its mouth open.
Inside the vessel, a pendulum hung motionless until a tremor moved it. At this point, the pendulum's swing set the seismograph's internal levers in motion. This would trigger the release of a ball held in the mouth of the dragon facing the direction of the earthquake's epicenter. The ball would then fall into the mouth of the frog directly below it [source: Xinhua News Agency]. This first seismograph seems a bit basic, but it would be another 1,500 years before Western nations developed their own versions [source: Asia Central].
4. Alcohol
You can thank the Chinese for ethanol and isopropyl alcohol -- not to mention beer, wine and liquor. When you think of it, few of man's ingenuities have delivered as much joy and sorrow as alcohol.
For many years, it was assumed that alcohol fermentation grew out of other, similar processes. By the early third century B.C., the Chinese had figured out how to refine food products like vinegar and soy sauce using the techniques of fermentation and distillation [source: Huang]. Alcoholic spirits would soon follow.
Recent archaeological discoveries have pushed the date for Chinese fermentation and the creation of alcohol much further back. Nine-thousand-year-old pottery shards uncovered in Henan province show traces of alcohol. This discovery proves that the Chinese were the first to make alcohol, since the previous title holders, the ancient Arabs, didn't come up with alcoholic drinks until 1,000 years later [source: Walter].
3. Kites
Two ancient Chinese men share the credit for coming up with one of China's biggest claims to fame. During the fourth century B.C., Gongshu Ban and Mo Di, a patron of the arts and a philosopher, respectively, constructed bird-shaped kites that dipped and dove in the wind. The pair's novelty caught on quickly.
Over time, the Chinese adapted and added to the initial kite's design and found new uses for it beyond amusement. Kites became an easy way to fish without a boat, simply by using a line and hook draped from the kite and dangling it into an inaccessible body of water. Kites also became instrumental in military applications, serving as unmanned drones that delivered payloads of gunpowder to enemy fortifications. In 1232, the Chinese employed kites to drop propaganda leaflets over a Mongol prisoner-of-war encampment, urging the captured Chinese there to rebel and eventually overtake their captors [source: Pleskacheuskaya].
Soon, the urge to fly would be married with the technology of the kite to produce another Chinese invention, the hang glider.
2. Hang Gliders
As we discussed earlier, kites were invented by the fourth century B.C. By the end of the sixth century A.D., the Chinese had managed to build kites large and aerodynamic enough to sustain the weight of an average-sized man. It was only a matter of time before someone decided to simply remove the kite strings and see what happened.
The Chinese were using untethered kites that we know today as hang gliders. However, these "kites" weren't used for thrill rides: Emperors found joy in forcing convicted criminals and captured enemies to jump off cliffs while strapped into the gliders. One poor man flew two miles before he landed safely [source: Wright]. With these early flights, the Chinese had beaten European ingenuity by 1335 years [source: Pleskacheuskaya].
1. Silk
The Mongols, the Byzantines, the Greeks and Romans all found themselves unhappily facing Chinese military innovations like gunpowder. It was silk, however, that helped broker peace between ancient China and other cultures. The demand for silk was so high that the fine fabric helped link China to the outside world through trade [source: Columbia University]. The fabric gave rise to the fabled Silk Road trade routes that eventually stretched from China to the Mediterranean, Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
The method for manipulating this silkworm-produced material existed 4,700 years ago. A scroll containing an article on silk production was found in the tomb of created during the Liangzhu period, which lasted from 3330 to 2200 B.C. [source: ChinaCulture.org]. The Chinese closely guarded the origin of silk; they only lost control of their secret when monks from Europe got their hands on silkworm eggs and took them back West [source: Columbia University]. - wonko33, on 05/12/2009, -0/+19My questions still remains, if pasta is from China and tomatoes from America.... What the heck did Italians eat before that?
- Calcularius, on 05/12/2009, -1/+15buried for being 11 pages and not 2 or 1.
- Foenetik, on 05/12/2009, -0/+13Ancient Chinese secret, huh?
- Snoogs, on 05/12/2009, -0/+9Actually, fortune cookies were 'invented' in the US of A.
- inactive, on 05/12/2009, -0/+8I wish I could kill whoever started the trend with tens of pages and each page with little information just to pollute us with more ads. I wish I could take a ***** on that person's head right now and then dance on the body and cut it with a small knife in as many pieces as pages of stupid "slide shows" exist because of this trend. ***** YOU, WHOEVER INVENTED THIS STUPID TREND!!!!!
- robbob, on 05/12/2009, -0/+8movable type. the Chinese invented MOVABLE TYPE
- amasiancrasian, on 05/12/2009, -0/+7Marco Polo. He brought back with him a Chinese chef. The emperor gifted him a chef. Not a lot of people know that, but it's still history. Ice cream, gnocchi (niangao - 年糕), prosciutto (huotui - 火腿, process is almost identical), pizza (congyoubing - 蔥油餅), pasta, mozzarella (tofu - 豆腐, process is almost identical), hell, even raviolis (wontons - 雲吞). This isn't related to Italy, but the Chinese introduced sushi, who then the Japanese brought back with them. Don't believe me? Check Wikipedia.
So lesson of the day is to bring a Chinese chef back to Italy! - DeLtAIjK, on 05/12/2009, -0/+6you win. i came to check the comments specifically because i didn't want to click through 10 pages. :D
- o0adam0o, on 05/12/2009, -1/+6"The Chinese were using untethered kites that we know today as hang gliders. However, these "kites" weren't used for thrill rides: Emperors found joy in forcing convicted criminals and captured enemies to jump off cliffs while strapped into the gliders. One poor man flew two miles before he landed safely [source: Wright]. With these early flights, the Chinese had beaten European ingenuity by 1335 years"
haha... history is funny. XD - doctechnical, on 05/12/2009, -1/+6Dugg for Ramen Noodles and Alcohol. After those two, what else do you really need?
(And while I don't *recommend* you shoot off fireworks while under the influence... done that.) - Bloodweaver, on 05/12/2009, -1/+6What kind of list doesn't mention porcelain.
- edwadokun, on 05/12/2009, -1/+5and this is just top ten... i wonder what else we made
- iamheero1, on 05/12/2009, -0/+4I don't get this, are you kidding? Is this a jab at English tyranny?
- UnFriendlyFire, on 05/12/2009, -0/+4We need more Calgon!
- nullcodes, on 05/12/2009, -0/+3They left out rocketry, multi stage rockets etc. The first manned rocket launch attempt too (umm, though it failed .. still the idea was there).
- ghostofpanty, on 05/12/2009, -0/+3ok Wayne...
- CoD4, on 05/12/2009, -3/+6All Pastafarians in this thread say Ramen!
- ghatid, on 05/12/2009, -4/+7I like how their picture for Pasta is Ramen.
- Bleahdom, on 05/13/2009, -0/+3China began to decline after the Mongolians invaded. Getting most of your people slaughtered tends to make you paranoid.
- o0adam0o, on 05/12/2009, -0/+3My grandpa invented paper.
- soccerbud, on 05/12/2009, -0/+3documented by who?
both eastern and western historians have documented that paper (the form that we know and use today) was invented by China. - ViscidGobs, on 05/12/2009, -0/+3Christians.
- amasiancrasian, on 05/12/2009, -0/+3Interesting to note that the Japanese is credited for ramen by many in the West, when the Japanese themselves acknowledge that it's a foreign invention by writing it in katakana (ramen: ラメン; 拉麵, Chinese: lamian).
- kirualeorio, on 05/12/2009, -0/+3Most of the people who claim to have introduced the cookie to the United States are Japanese. The cookies are little-known in mainland China or Taiwan.
Source: wikipedia - nemomarlin, on 05/12/2009, -1/+3China is the food Mecca. So much variety in a vast country that one can't experience it all in a life time.
- bacon_skoda, on 05/12/2009, -0/+2apparently forks and chopsticks.
forks came before chopsticks.
weird.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inven ... - nemomarlin, on 05/12/2009, -1/+3European smoked pots too. China was already a weak nation by then.
- Rudegar, on 05/12/2009, -0/+2they grassed basilicum and oregano directly from the fields
- NoobpwnYa, on 05/12/2009, -0/+2Made in China
- bighair, on 05/15/2009, -0/+2Yes, there is, but he lost and died.
His name is Wan Hu, 万户. He bunched 47 'rockets' that he made up on the chair.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wan_Hu - damack, on 05/12/2009, -0/+2The list is exhaustive you guys had a huge advantage in that your civilisation existed 5000 years ago.
Guns, bows, rockets, first space craft, fireworks, porcelain, telescope, compass...
The only real flaw with this list is trying to pick ten it's so debetable when there are literally thousands of inventions the Chinese created and some by accident of all things.
From an anthropoligical point of view the Chinese were always gifted with great minds and able to build and construct things others had no idea how to.
This is why China is going to be the kind of super power you've never seen in several decades. - bacon_skoda, on 05/12/2009, -0/+2Can never trust those monks.
- masterkenobi, on 05/12/2009, -0/+2And yet, Seinfeld thinks the complete opposite of chopsticks.
Jewish comedians. What would we do without them? - kingmanic, on 05/12/2009, -0/+1By Chinese businessmen... so in a way.
- metrenome, on 05/12/2009, -0/+1I'd like to think the first thing Cai Lun put down a piece of paper was a drawing of a penis.
- NeoDreamer, on 05/12/2009, -0/+1by a Japanese guy in San Fransisco
- ManUnitdFan, on 05/12/2009, -0/+1Camera 1... Camera 2... Camera 1... Camera 2.
- FarEastKilla, on 05/12/2009, -0/+1FACT: Ancient Chinese believed it was too barbaric to stab your food, therefore it would be more civilized/cultured to use chop sticks to pick up food.
- iamheero1, on 05/12/2009, -0/+1Read the Fortune Cookie Chronicles. It's interesting if not definitive.
- metrenome, on 05/12/2009, -0/+1Make better television, that's what.
- Hillsfar, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1You know the Chinese didn't invent that!
- o0adam0o, on 05/12/2009, -0/+1Seafood.
- bacon_skoda, on 05/14/2009, -0/+1also to add, with chopsticks you can get food from across the table.
which is how chinese dishes are served. family style, but no such thing as "pass the ____"
chopsticks also means all your food are in small pieces instead of a large slab of steak or chicken. - xinye, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1I Ching
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching - shinkou, on 05/13/2009, -0/+1Dugg for being worthy as information... don't like it being split into pages tho'.
- Trollemite, on 05/15/2009, -1/+1So based on the article pic the ancient Chinese invented GPS navigation? Way cool!
- greenlay, on 05/23/2009, -0/+0Chinese also invented golf(Chui Wan).
Yes,the same.
http://www.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/html/en/11Ka ... - FarEastKilla, on 05/12/2009, -2/+2Where would the world be without "made in China".
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