Ancient China Essay

One of the most important inventions of all time was the invention of gunpowder. "Imagine their enemy's surprise when the Chinese first demonstrated their newest invention in the eighth century AD. Chinese scientists discovered that an explosive mixture could be produced by combining sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate). The military applications were clear. New weapons were rapidly developed, including rockets and others that were launched from a bamboo tube" (Franklin Institute). The Chinese are known for their inventions that still are used in the modern day. Those inventions are paper, gunpowder, books, and much more.

Gunpowder was discovered in the tenth century by Chinese medicine men that were looking for the secret to immortality. They thought that gunpowder could be used as a medicine of some sort. "The invention of gunpowder gave the Chinese a distinct advantage over their enemies, changing the nature of warfare" (Ken Hsu, Willy Hsu, Micheal Lu).

At first gunpowder was used to blast rocks apart and to make fireworks, later to be used as warfare. To medieval Chinese it was simply an aid to esthetic pleasure. By the 10th century, gunpowder began to be used for military purposes in China in the form of rockets and explosive bombs fired from catapults. The first reference to cannon appears in 1126 when oil bamboo tubes were used to launch missiles at the enemy. Eventually bamboo tubes were replaced by metal tubes, and the oldest cannon in China dates from 1290. From China, the military use of gunpowder appears to have spread to Japan and Europe. "It was used by the Mongols against the Hungarians in 1241 and was mentioned by Roger Bacon in 1248. By the mid 14th century, early cannons are mentioned extensively both in Europe and in China." (Jack Kelly).

In China as in Europe, the use of gunpowder to produce firearms and cannons was delayed by difficulties in creating metal tubes that would contain an explosion. This problem may have led to the false myth that the Chinese used their invention only for the manufacture of fireworks. In fact, gunpowder powered cannons and rockets were extensively used in the Mongol conquests of the 13th century and were a feature of East Asian warfare afterwards. "The short squat and thick city walls of Beijing for example, were specifically designed to withstand an artillery attack, and the Ming dynasty moved the capital from Nanjing to Beijing specifically because the hills around Nanjing were good locations for invaders to place artillery."(Jack Kelly).

I believe Paper was the greatest invention of all Chinese inventions, even greater than gunpowder. "Chinese legend tells that the new invention of paper was presented to the Emperor in the year 105 AD by Cai Lun" (Franklin Institute). In 105 AD, Han Emperor Ho-Ti's chief eunuch T'sai Lun tried with a wide variety of materials and worked with the fiber of plants until each filament was completely separate. The individual fibers were mixed with water in a large vat. Next, a screen was submerged in the vat and lifted up through the water, catching the fibers on its surface. When dried, this thin layer of intertwined fiber became what today we call paper. T'sai Lun's thin, yet flexible and strong paper with its fine, smooth surface was known as T'sai Ko-Shi, meaning: "Distinguished T'sai's Paper" and he became revered as the saint of papermaking.

It wasn't until the third century when the secret art of papermaking began to get out of China, first to Vietnam and then Tibet. "Taught by Chinese papermakers, Tibetans began to make their own paper as a replacement for their traditional writing materials" (Georgia Tech). It was introduced in Korea in the forth century and spread