Ancient Chinese Contributions - Research Paper Example

Modern day agricultural methods, astronomical observations, paper money, decimal mathematics, brandy and whisky, chess, umbrellas, wheelbarrows, multistage rockets, and so many other things came from China. Throughout 600 AD to 1500 AD, Chinese stood as worlds most technologically advanced society. Their frequent discoveries of scientific principles and new technologies influenced the development of societies throughout the world (Shaw, 2003, p.14). This paper briefly explores the most useful and ingenious innovations of Ancient Chinese.

Chinese invented the art of paper making in 105 AD, Tsai Lun, a Chinese member of Imperial Court made it by grinding plant and then converting it into sheets of paper after drying. Writing system dates back to 3000 years in China, they used bamboos for writing before, paper was certainly more practical. Early Chinese paper was made by mulberry tree and other plant fibers. Early Chinese paper was also used for clothing and military body armor since it was very hard and strong. Paper use in writing was discovered after a century of its discovery.

The earliest example of writing on paper was found in the form of an abandoned piece from military. That paper dated back to 110 AD and it has nearly two dozen readable characters (Shaw, 2003, p.16). Ancient civilizations may know the process of magnetizing iron by placing it near a loadstone, however, Chinese were the first who applied this rule to invent compass. The earliest picture of compass was from 200 BC made by placing spoon as needle on the table with compass points. Early compasses were not used for navigation but divination (Gies and Gies, 1994, p.94).Earliest Chinese compass used to point towards south and called south-pointer.

In the Han dynasty (202 BC-AD 220), travelers used this compass. An American scholar, Derk Bodde (1909-2003) argues that we would have been