The four great inventions in ancient China were the compass, gunpowder, printing and papermaking. These inventions are the common wisdom of many working people, and it is impossible to say exactly who invented them.

1, compass

According to legend, it was used by the Yellow Emperor to identify the marching direction when he was fighting Chiyou. The compass is actually a mechanical device. When the compass moves, the fairy's fingers point in the same direction.

The principle of making a compass is different from that of using magnetic force to indicate direction. During the Warring States period, there was an instrument Sina, which really used the magnetic force of magnets to indicate the direction. ?

During the Song Dynasty, the technology of making compasses made great progress, which indirectly made China's navigation prosperous. Arabs and Persians who traveled with China learned to use the compass and spread it to Europe. ?

2. gunpowder?

Gunpowder was invented by alchemists in the process of alchemy. The dragon gun is like a rocket launcher. There are two small rockets at the head and tail of the dragon gun. After the small rocket is ignited, the rocket launcher will rise, and then other rockets in the rocket launcher will be ignited and fired at the enemy, usually with water. ?

In the Tang dynasty, gunpowder was used in war, and in the Song dynasty, tin cans were already used as weapons of destruction. China's gunpowder spread to Arabia, and then to Europe through the Mongols' Western Expedition. ?

3. printing?

Before printing, books were copied by hand. Later, printing methods such as rubbing and engraving appeared, but it was still time-consuming and laborious. It was not until Bi Sheng invented movable type printing in Song Dynasty that the printing technology was greatly improved.

Made of clay into a square with the same specifications, one end is engraved with words, which is called a movable type printing table. When printing, the movable type printing table is arranged according to the content of the article, fixed on the chassis coated with adhesive to become a movable type plate, and then ink is coated on the plate, so that the text can be printed on paper. ?

4. papermaking?

China's earliest writing appeared in Oracle Bone Inscriptions of Shang Dynasty, and then there was Zhong Dingwen (also known as bronze inscription) cast on Zhong Ding. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, people began to carve characters on wooden slips and use ropes to run through them.

In the Qin and Han Dynasties, characters were written on silk with pens. It was not until the Eastern Han Dynasty that eunuch Cai Lun improved the paper-making method that people began to use paper as a writing tool. Papermaking is an important event in the history of human civilization. It took 1000 years for this advanced technology to spread to Europe.

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Historical origin:

1, three great inventions

Although many important achievements of Chinese civilization are named after the "Big Four" and "Big Five", such as four beauties, four classical novels, four books and five classics, the concepts of the four great inventions originated from western scholars and were later accepted by China people.

As early as 1550, Italian mathematician Jerome Cardin was the first to point out that China's "three great inventions" had an impact on the world: Sina (compass), printing and gunpowder. And think that they are "no invention in ancient times can match them."

1620, the British philosopher bacon also mentioned in his book "New Tools": "The three great inventions of printing, gunpowder and compass have changed the whole face and situation of things all over the world."

Then in 186 1 ~ 1863, Marx and Engels pushed the significance of these inventions to a peak. Marx wrote in the application of machinery, natural forces and science: "gunpowder, compass and printing-these are the three great inventions that predict the arrival of bourgeois society."

Gunpowder blew the knight class to pieces, the compass opened the world market and established colonies, while printing became a tool of Protestantism, a means of scientific rejuvenation in general, and the most powerful lever to create the necessary premise of spiritual development. "

Engels clearly pointed out in the German Peasant War: "A series of inventions have more or less important significance, among which gunpowder has glorious historical significance.

It has been proved beyond doubt that gunpowder was passed from China to Arabs through India, and Arabs and gunpowder weapons were introduced to Europe through Spain. "

Maddox, a British sinologist, pointed out: "For a long time, the inventive genius of China people has been manifested in many aspects. China's three great inventions (navigation compass (Sina), printing and gunpowder) provided extraordinary impetus for the development of European civilization. "

2. Four Great Inventions

Yue Se, a missionary and sinologist in China, was the first person to add papermaking to the above three inventions. When comparing Japan and China, he pointed out, "We must always remember that they (referring to Japan) did not have such outstanding inventions as printing, papermaking, compass and gunpowder.

This list of inventions was later formulated by Joseph Needham, a famous British biochemist, historian and sinologist.

References:

Four Great Inventions of Baidu Encyclopedia