Chinese Discoveries
Assignment Requirements:
• For EACH INVENTION/DEVELOPMENT you must:
1) Illustration
2) Tell where the invention originated (information
such as the year invented, how it was invented, who
invented it, what the original use was, why it was
useful, some interesting facts)
2 POINTS
3) Tell how the invention influenced history (who
adopted it? When? How did they use it? Did they
change it? How did it affect world development?
2 POINTS
Chinese Discoveries Format
(8 ½ x 11 White Paper, illustration for each box)
Agriculture
-Terraces
-Fast-Ripening Rice
-Chan Jiang Valley
Pg. 226 in textbook
Tea
Paper Making /
Woodblock Printing
Pg. 227, 228, 230
Pg. 229
Compass / Junk
Gunpowder
Pg. 228, 243
Pg. 231, 228
3 Belief Systems
(Confucianism,
Buddhism, Daoism)
OR
Chinese
Government
(Imperial State,
Scholar Officials,
Civil Service exams
Advances Under the Tang and
Song Dynasties
Tang: 618-907 AD
Song: 906-1368 AD
• Song Dynasty
• Always had problems
controlling the North
• Southern Song Dynasty
(1126-1279) is secure
and prosperous
• Economy:
– Rice agriculture
– Paper money
Advances in Agriculture
• Developing Chang Jiang
Valley
• Drained the marshes to
create good farmland
• Learn about terracing
• Fast-Ripening Rice
• Now farmers can raise
2-3 crops a year instead
of 1
• Population increases
Rice Paddies
• Northern problems
blocked many overland
trade routes
– Some iron weapon trade
with Mongol tribes
– Silk Road not the safest,
but still going on
• Sea-borne Trade,
Inventions
• Southern Chinese
comfortable with seaborne trade
• Inventions that helped:
– Junk (Chinese Ship)
– Compass
• More Chinese Inventions
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Gunpowder
Clock
Iron Weapons
Tea
Woodblock Printing
Paper Manufacturing
Paper Money
– Coins are heavy
– Easy to print (woodblock
printing)
• Too easy--inflation
Tea and Porcelain
• Tea drinking began in 350 BC, but became
popular during Tang Dynasty (618-907)
• Through trade, tea became popular all over the
world. By the 1500s, European traders started
writing about tea in their journals
• At first Europeans thought tea was medicine,
then they started drinking it for the taste
• By 1700s, tea had become the drink of choice in
Europe—imported 2 million pounds a year from
China
• Tea popularity  Porcelain popularity
Growing Tea
Harvesting Tea
Dried Tea Leaves
Porcelain (sometimes called China)
Paper Making (Manufacturing)
• People outside of Asia
learned about paper
making from the Chinese
in about 751.
• Paper is made from fibers
from many different types
of plants, mixed with
water into a paste and
laid across screens— the
water is pressed out and
the sheets lay out to dry.
Making Paper
Woodblock Printing
• Before this invention, all writing was done by
hand!
• Characters (Chinese writing) are carved into a
block of wood. Then they are brushed with
ink. Then the woodblock is stamped onto
paper to make a printed page. Now, many
copies can be made.
• This invention made more books possible—
with more books, people all around found it
easier to become educated!
Woodblock Printing
Woodblock
Magnetic Compass
• Sailors and travelers used the compass for
telling direction—Needle points North
because of magnetism
• Something like a compass had been invented
as early as 500 BC but it was probably used for
rituals or feng shui
• Led to the navigational compass we know
today—in use by 1100 AD in China
• Europeans start using compass in 1400s!
Early Compass
Chinese Compass
European Compass
Junk Ships
• The biggest ships ever built!
• Chinese were the first to invent the moveable
rudder (to help steer), watertight compartments
(to help keep from sinking if damaged), and
having more than one mast (helps sail in
directions other than where the wind is blowing)
• Zheng Ho – Chinese trader/explorer went all the
way to Africa (Some historians think Chinese may
have gone to America in 1453!!)
• Chinese emperor destroyed the fleet and many
records of exploration—still don’t know why!
Chinese Junk
“Floating Cities”
1973 – Hong Kong
Gunpowder
• The story of gunpowder—a Daoist trying to
find the Elixir of Immortality…it blew up in his
face!
• First used for fireworks
• Later, used for rockets and weapons
• Spread from China, to Arabia, then to Europe
Gunpowder