Chinese Inventions Have Been Indispensable to the Western World - By: Allan Michael Taylor

The Chinese have long been undermined by the western world as not being well known for their technological accomplishments. However this is completely untrue, and thanks to the efforts of a British philanthropist Joseph Needham the Chinese have been accredited with the discovery of an independent invention of the decimal system, seismological detectors, the blast furnace, gunpowder, paper money, the wheel barrow, paper, printing, the compass, natural gas as a fuel, the rotary fan, the suspension bridge, spaghetti and many more, as well as having made a huge contribution to the fields of medicine, astronomy and logic.

The Chinese inventions which are considered to be the most important, particularly in that they spread to the rest of the world, are gunpowder, paper, printing and the compass. Although they have made some other pretty amazing discoveries also, they are even credited with the invention of whiskey and brandy.

Chinese alchemists played a major role in the development of gunpowder, and this invention has probably had the biggest impact of any other discovery. It formed the basis for all armaments, and waging war. It was accidentally discovered in the Tang Dynasty, while and alchemist was trying to create the elixir of life. However this was only one of many military innovations, there was the grid sight, tear gas, mustard gas, rockets, bombs and even a small version of the cannon.

In 105 AD Cai Lun was responsible for the invention of paper, he was a Chinese Eunuch (please don't make me explain what this means). And this was one of the greatest Chinese inventions. During the Battle of Talas River in 751, some Chinese paper makers were captured by the Arabs and this is how paper making came to be known to the world, by a process of enculturation.

The compass was originally used as a religious accruement; the Chinese people believed that when you built a new house, it had to be perfectly aligned with nature, so the compass was used to ensure this alignment. Obviously perfect alignment with nature must have been true north. This was a simply wooden circle, with notches carved on it, on which the monk balanced a magnetic spoon. Navigation throughout the world has been developed and dictated to by the compass.

They used anesthetics as far back as the third century and have been making use of herbal medical remedies since time immemorial. Several skulls dating back to the New Stone Age about 4 000 years ago have been found at sites in Qinghai, Henan and Heilongjiang provinces which indicates that skull operations may have taken place at this time.

We could seriously discuss this subject for a very long time and never get to the end of the inventions the Chinese have been credited with, but I think for now, this will do!

About the Author

Henry Fong is a Feng Shui Consultant. To find out more on Feng Shui Bed Position, visit his web site at http://www.absolutelyfengshui.com

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