Section 2　Exploitation of the Works of Nature

Exploitation of the Works of Nature was completed in 1637. It was a treatise that summarized the knowledge about the production in agriculture and handicraft. Its Chinese name has four characters, the first two “Tian Gong” and the second two “Kai Wu” were taken respectively from ancient Chinese classics The Book of History and The Book of Change. The combination of the two words created new meaning of exploiting materials in the natural world by combining natural powers with man’s techniques or producing utensils and artifacts by taking advantage of nature. This principle applies to everything from molding clay and firing ceramics, to mining, smelting and casting metals, and to making paper with the fiber of plants. Taking raw materials and producing man-made utensils and artifacts, created the physical idea that guaranteed the ever-evolving Chinese civilization and stood as the basic law of traditional Chinese craftsmanship.

I. Smelting and Casting of Cooper and Iron

Man’s utilization of metal copper started earlier than that of iron. Ceramics supplied important technical conditions for the emergence of copper metallurgy. Archeological discoveries indicate that copper metallurgy emerged during the period of Yangshao and Longshan Cultures in ancient China.14 The bronze ware excavated from the Erlitou Relics 3,800-3,500 years ago show that people already had very sophisticated potterymould casting technology at that time.15

Archeological relics show that large copper mining sites emerged in the middle and late Shang Dynasty (c.1600-c.1046 BC) when bronze-casting technology became superior and sophisticated. The copper mine relic sites at Tongling in Ruichang, Jiangxi and at Tonglüshan in Daye, Hubei were representative of the copper mining during this period. The sites exhibited mature mining technology, shaft- and drift-supporting technology that tended to become standardized, and relatively complicated excavating, loading and conveying technology.16 In 1939, a square “Ding” cauldron with an inscription that reads “Hou Mu Wu,” 133 cm tall, 110 cm long and 78 cm wide, and weighing 832 kg, was excavated from the Yinxu Relics in Anyang, Henan. It was formed through separated casting and cast bonding with piece-mould methods. It was the largest bronze ware in the world. Piece-mould methods were the most commonly used methods in bronze ware casting in ancient China. For example, when a container was about to be cast, a model of the container would have been made with clay, called “Mo” in Chinese. Then the clay would have been pasted on the surface of the model to create a reverse outline shape of the cast piece, called “Fan” in Chinese. Then an inner Fan was made with clay, identical to the inner chamber of the container. And then the inner and outer Fan pieces were put to together and the empty space inside them was the space for the cast piece. Liquid bronze was poured into it and the cast piece was completed when the inner and outer Fan pieces were removed after the bronze had cooled down. The Chinese word “Mo Fan” comes from bronze-casting technology. This model or example was used later for people to learn from and imitate. In addition, stack casting method emerged as a very efficient way to produce the same cast piece in simple shapes in large batches. Through this casting technology, many identical Fan pieces were stacked together and casting was produced through a common pouring gate and sprue so that many identical casting pieces could be made at one time. Such technology originated during the Warring States Period (475-221 BC).

There were two iron-making processes under ancient technical conditions: One was a block casting method in which ferric oxide was reduced to sponge iron under lower temperatures in a bowl-shaped furnace or lower shaft furnace. Then the sponge iron was processed into wrought iron through forging and slagging. Wrought iron could be made into steel through cementation and forging. The other was a pig iron smelting and casting method in which ferric oxide was reduced and carbureted into liquid pig iron at a high temperature in a high, giant shaft furnace. Then the liquid pig iron was released from the furnace and cast into ingots or utensils. Pig iron could be processed into steel or forging ductile cast iron through a number of processing methods. People in the West used block casting technology from 2,000 BC until the 14th century when Europe started to produce pig iron and cast it into iron ware.17

China was the first country to produce block casting iron products. But it quickly became a dominant technology. The earliest pig iron ware currently known in China were the remnants of white cast iron made in the early or middle Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), or approximately in the eighth to seventh century BC. They were excavated at the Tianma-Qucun Relics in Yuanqu, Shanxi.18 No later than the sixth century BC, pig iron smelting technology in China developed into a higher scale of production and more pig iron products emerged in the regions of the present Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan in the midstream of the Yellow River, and of the ancient Wu and Chu Kingdoms in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The earliest pig iron smelting shaft furnace was found at the Jiudian Township in Xiping County, Henan.19 The shaft furnace had been built in the late Warring States Period.

Based on pig iron smelting and casting technology, the Chinese people developed a full set of unique steel smelting and processing technologies. In earlier times, the cast iron produced was brittle and hard. It was really only suitable for casting simple farming tools. But, during the Warring States Period, the Chinese people invented a new cast iron technology. As a result, white cast iron could be heated to obtain forging ductile cast iron. Furthermore, this steel-making technology could be decarburized and annealed to produce decarburized steel from cast iron. Also during the Warring States Period, people started to cast iron ware in batches, using iron moulds. Stirring iron- or steel- making technologies emerged during the Western Han Dynasty with which pig iron was stir-smelted and decarburized in a half-molten state to produce wrought iron or steel. This technique allowed craftsmen to make production tools and weapons with cheap wrought iron or steel. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Chinese people mastered the technique to make multiple-refined steel with which steel and iron products were made through multiple folding and forging. The steel-making technology with which pig iron and wrought iron were smelt and processed together to produce steel also emerged, which developed into perfusing steel-making technology in later years. Moreover, a number of other steel-making technologies were invented successively such as the steel-sandwiching method, the steel-gluing method, the pig iron blade pouring method and the steel-smoldering method, etc.20 The steel- and iron-smelting technologies based on pig iron greatly improved productivity and laid the technological and material foundation for the political, economic and cultural development in ancient China. Chinese pig iron smelting and casting technology gradually spread to neighboring regions with the Central Plains being the central area and promoted the economic and cultural developments in these regions.21

Air blasting technology was essential to the development of the smelting industry in ancient times. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, water-powered serial bellows – a kind of water-powered air blasting machine used in smelting and casting – emerged and by the end of the 13th century this device had developed into a complicated machine with a crankshaft and connecting rod mechanisms. In the Song Dynasty, a doubleacting piston wind box, another kind of air blasting machine used for smelting and casting, was invented. The highlight feature of this kind of wind box was that it could blow air when the operator pushed and pulled the piston rod. Namely, the operator’s movements of push and pull could result in continuous air blasting. The earliest picture of this device can be seen in a painting drawn in 1543: It shows three men wielding hammers to forge and another man operating a wind box to blow air inside a blacksmith’s shop.22

II. Papermaking and Printing

Papermaking and printing have made important contributions to promoting the development of human civilization. The invention of paper provides mankind with proper material to write on. The invention of printing saves large amounts of writing time and accelerates the production and spreading of knowledge.

Plant fiber paper emerged in China in the second century BC. From the 1930s, ancient paper made in Western Han Dynasty has been excavated many times in Xinjiang, Gansu and Shaanxi.23 The paper pieces excavated from the Han tombs at Fangmatan in Tianshui, Gansu have graphs drawn with ink lines (Fig.2) and may be remnants of maps. It is speculated that these might have been made during the reign of Emperor Wendi and Jingdi in the Han Dynasty (179-142 BC).24 Furthermore,460 pieces of ancient paper were found at the Xuanquanzhi Relics in Dunhuang. Tested samples show that they are made from bast-fiber. The paper excavated from the archeological stratum of the Western Han Dynasty was made with a pouring papermaking method, while a small amount from the archeological stratum of the Eastern Han Dynasty was made with a picking papermaking method.25 The ancient paper unearthed from the archeological stratum of Emperor Zhaodi of the Han Dynasty(86-74 BC) has named characters of medicines written in the clerical script. It is the earliest paper found that bears a written language.26 Examined from archeological discoveries and related records in literature, ancient paper made in the Western Han Dynasty was mainly used as packaging material.

In the beginning of the second century, Cai Lun, director of the Shangfang Office of Imperial Utensils, made an essential contribution to making paper as writing materials. He invented the Paper of Marquis Cai made from bark, hemp fragments, old cloth and fish nets.27 This invention opened up a new and more extensive source of raw materials for papermaking and promoted the improvement of the production and quality of paper. At the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, paper, thick silk and bamboo slip were all used as writing materials. In the period of the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, paper was made from hemp, paper mulberry bark, mulberry bark and rattan bark. The comfort and convenience in writing brought by paper prevailed in historical trends. The government once issued orders to prohibit the use of bamboo and wooden slips in the imperial palace. In the fourth century, paper became the only writing material in China.28 In 751, a group of prisoners-of-war were captured in the wars between the Tang Empire and the Tazi Empire in Central Asia, and they were forced to make paper in Samarkand. This was the beginning of the spreading of Chinese papermaking technology to the West. In 1100, papermaking workshops were found in Central Asia, West and North Africa. Paper also became popular in the Arabic world. Then China’s papermaking technology was spread to Europe by the Arabians. The first group of European countries that had paper and papermaking included Spain, France and Italy. In the second half of the 19th century, papermaking was spread throughout the whole world.29

Woodblock printing technology originated in China no later than the end of the seventh century. In the beginning, it was mainly used to print figures of Buddha and Buddhist scriptures. Xuan Zang, an eminent Buddhist monk in the Tang Dynasty, went through many hardships to study Buddhist scriptures in India. Later, he returned to Chang’an, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and devoted himself to spreading Buddhist teachings. In the middle of the seventh century, Xuan Zang would print, each year, a large number of the portraits of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva on paper to give out to Buddhist believers.30 In the middle and late period of the Tang Dynasty, woodblock printing started to be used to print worldly readings. One example was that of an imperial decree issued in the Ninth Year of the Taihe Reign of Emperor Wenzong of the Tang Dynasty (835). It said that non-governmental entities were prohibited to print ephemerides.31 The earliest woodblock printed material currently found that bears specific record of year of printing is the Vajracchedika-sutra printed in the Ninth Year of the Xiantong Reign of the Tang Dynasty (868); it was discovered in Dunhuang. It is also the earliest printed and illustrated book in the world. A picture of Sakyamuni Buddha preaching dharma on the first page of the book looks subtle, solemn and composed. Its exiquisite carving details show that the woodblock carving and printing techniques had already become fully mature. In the Song Dynasty, both governmental and private book printing workshops flourished. The time became a golden age in the Chinese history of woodblock printing. The books printed in the Song Dynasty were of complete types and classes and fine and beautiful printing workmanship. Bookstores were found everywhere in China; Zhejiang, Fujian and Sichuan had the most thriving book printing industry.

Woodblock printing had spread and developed into Korea in the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). Also in this period, Japanese Buddhist monks, who had traveled to China, brought back printed Buddhist scriptures to Japan; thus, they stimulated the woodblock printing in Japan.32 In the Yuan Dynasty, woodblock printing was spread to Europe via the Arabian world.33 Thomas Francis Carter, an American sinologist, said, “In the beginning of woodblock printing in Europe, the influence of China is essentially that last determinant factor.”34

The Chinese people also invented movable type printing. When the characters on a whole woodblock were taken out separately, they became individual types. Shen Kuo, a statesman of the Northern Song Dynasty, recorded in his book Dream Pool Essays that a commoner named Bi Sheng(c. 970-1051) invented pottery movable types during the Song Dynasty. These types could be set inside an iron frame and evened out by pressing. Then ink could be brushed on them for printing. In addition to pottery types, metal types emerged in the Northern Song Dynasty or the Yuan Dynasty. But in the long history of printing, woodblock printing was the main form of printing in ancient China and movable type printing never became a dominant feature.

III. Porcelain

In 1498, Portugese voyager Vasco da Gama sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in Africa and opened up a new sea route to India. After that, many Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and British merchants traveled to East Asia by sea and gained huge profits through transporting shiploads of Chinese porcelain. Among them, the marchant ship, “Gelderland” of the Dutch East India Company loaded 69,057 pieces of Chinese porcelain in just one voyage in 1614. At the time, using and collecting Chinese porcelain became a fashion among the European upper class. According to conservative estimates, China exported around 60 million pieces of porcelain to Europe alone in the 18th century.35 In the 17th and 18th centuries, Sinomania rose in Europe. Chinese porcelain had both practical and artistic functions. The esthetic style of exquisiteness, refinedness, extravagance and extreme intricacy exerted great influence on European literature and art. China, another name for porcelain, became an alias of the ancient empire in the Far East.

Approximately in the early Shang Dynasty, ancient Chinese people constantly improved on the selection and processing of raw materials in the practice of firing pottery. They raised the firing temperature, applied glaze to the surface of the utensils, and created primitive porcelain as the transition from pottery to porcelain.36 Such primitive porcelain has a grayish, white and hard porcelain body and with celadon glaze applied on the surface, thus became known as “celadon glaze ware.” In the latter stages of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Chinese people succeeded in firing mature pocelain ware. As a result, China became the country that invented porcelain.37 The porcelain made in the Eastern Han Dynasty had strong and solid body, fired at a firing temperature of over 1,200°C. The province of Zhejiang boasts the largest number of relic sites for porcelian kilns of that period. And many kilns have been excaveted, which produced this porcelian ware, at the Xiaoxiantan Relics in Shangyu County, Zhejiang.

Before the middle of the Tang Dynasty, celadon porcelain ware, produced in South China, dominated China’s porcelain produciton. In particular, the products from the Yue Kiln in the region of the present Shaoxing and Yuyao, Zhejiang were the most renowned. One poet praised,“When the Yue Kiln is opened, the porcelain shines like being covered with the clear dewdrops in late autumn, its color seeming to be extracted from the verdancy of a thousand mountains.”38 White porcelain is another type of porcelain invented in ancient China. It started to emerge in North China in the late Northern Dynasties (386-581). The fluxing agent of its glaze was mainly calcium oxide, and the content of iron material used was far less . By the middle of the Tang Dynasty, the firing technology of white porcelain also became much more advanced. The products of the Xing Kiln in North China in the region of the present Lincheng and Neiqiu, Hebei were representative of such porcelain. The color of their glaze looked as pure as white snow. So porcelain products in the Tang Dynasty can roughly be summarized as “celadon porcelain in the South and white porcelain in the North.”

By the Song Dynasty, the porcelain industry had become prosperous and flourishing. Sophisticated production technology resulted in the formation of seven famous kiln systems: Ding Kiln, Cizhou Kiln and Yaozhou Kiln in North China; and Jingdezhen Kiln, Yue Kiln, Longquan Kiln and Jianyang Kiln in South China. For example, the products of the Cizhou Kiln were characterized mainly by its black decorations on white background, representing a unique style in the porcelain products in the Song Dynasty. A special example was the porcelain pillows with underglaze black and colored drawings. The drawings on them were mostly from trivial scenes in real life and thus presented rich real life taste.39 Another example were the products from the Jingdezhen Kiln in South China. The porcelain made here was of thin, clear and semi-transparent body, with rich shining gloss, and bluish white color. Such porcelain has very high whitenss and transmittance of light and represents the masterly craftsmanship in the porcelain-making technology of the Song Dynasty.

The technology to fire blue and white porcelain emerged in the Yuan Dynasty as a major innovation. It represents the divide from plain color decoration to colored-drawing decoration in Chinese porcelain production. It was also one important reason why Jingdezhen rapidly became a porcelain-producing town that attracted attention from all across the nation.40 Blue and white porcelain is underglaze-colored porcelain on which cobalt pigment is used to draw decorations. Underglaze color technology refers to the technique that pigment is used to draw patterns on plain porcelain bodies, then transparent glaze is painted over them. Finally, the porcelain is fired at a temperature of over 1,200°C. Cobalt dioxide contained in the pigment gives the decorations a blue color. Blue and white porcelain has blue decorations on white backgrounds and looks clear, pure and elegant. Its unique charm coincides with the artistic style of traditional Chinese ink painting.41

Porcelain coloring methods became more diversified in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). For example, clashing-colored porcelain was produced by adding pigments in red, yellow, green and purple colors on finished blue and white porcelains, and then firing them in the kiln once again. There were also five-colored porcelains that included the color of red, which was a special genre in porcelain making. In the Qing Dynasty(1644-1911), plain tricolor, five-colored, famille rose and enamel-colored porcelain products became worldly renowned. Famille rose and enamel-colored porcelain both were produced with overglaze technology. Namely, colored drawings were made on the glaze surface of finished porcelain and then fired in the kiln at a low temperature, so that the colored pigments became fixed on the glaze.42

In 1793, George Macartney’s mission arrived in China from the UK. He wanted to request foreign trade and convey the country’s interests in China. He also hoped that the Qing government would help the UK to build a porcelain factory and export raw materials including clay, kaolin and glaze to the UK. But all these plans came to nothing. The mission also planned to visit Jingdezhen on the return journey to the UK. Unfortunately, this did not happen due to certain reasons. However, in 1801, the British East India Company stopped importing Chinese porcelain because porcelain production technology was improving and social fashions were changing in the UK. Moreover, the company began to invest limited funds into tea trading, which brought greater profits.43 So when George Macartney lamented about his travel in China, he never imagined that the landscape of porcelain trade in the world was changing.

IV. Gunpowder and Firearms44

Gunpowder is one of the four great inventions in China. In ancient China, gunpowder was a substance made through mixing niter, sulfur and coal (or other organic substance that could be carbonized easily) according to certain proportions. Because it burned quickly after being ignited and produced black fumes and flames, it was also called “black gunpowder” in the West.

The invention of gunpowder in ancient China is closely related to alchemy. In order to prevent explosions and violent burning in the alchemical processes, alchemists used many formulas to “tame fire” (invent a safer method). Ge Hong, an alchemist in the Jin Dynasty (266-420), recorded the production of elixir by puting together niter, sulfur and carbon in alchemical process in his book Bao Pu Zi.

At the start of the ninth century, China invented gunpowder. The entry “alum method to tame fire” in the book Supreme Divine Master’s Secrets about Golden Elixir, completed in the Third Year of the Yuanhe Reign of the Tang Dynasty Emperor Xianzong (808), specifically recorded the formula of gunpowder consisting of two liang (a traditional Chinese measurement unit of weight approximately equal to 50 grams) of sulfur, two liang of niter, and three and a half qian (also a traditional Chinese measurement unit of weight equal to 1/10 of liang or 5 grams) of birthwort (which would carbonize quickly in open fire). Moreover, alchemists noticed the dangers of this formula and adopted certain preventative measures. The book, The Method of Many Masters for Making Elixir of Superb Grade, was another work on alchemy compiled by scholars in the Song Dynasty. It recorded the “sulfur method to tame fire” which adopted a gunpowder formula similar to the “alum method to tame fire.” It is recorded in the Outline of the True, Original and Subtle Great Ways that some alchemists heated sulfur, realgar, niter and honey together, which ended up with explosions and sudden disaster. They suffered terrible injuries; their hands or faces were burnt, and those worse off had their houses burnt to the ground. This was the earliest record in the world of gunpowder, and its explosive lethality. In the second half of the 10th century, namely the period from the end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-960) to the early Northern Song Dynasty, gunpowder was already used for military purposes. The History of the Song Dynasty recorded the firearms used in this period such as fire arrow, fire ball and fire caltrop.

“Huo Yao,” the Chinese word for gunpowder, first appeared during the reign of Emperor Renzong of the Song Dynasty (1022-1063). According to the records in the Historical Compendium of Important Matters of the Song Dynasty, there was a “gunpowder workshop” that specialized in producing gunpowder among the weapon workshops in the capital city of Bianliang (the present Kaifeng). The Essentials of Military Classics, completed approximately in 1047, first recorded three military gunpowder formulas: the formula of poisonous fume ball, the formula of mangonel fire ball, and the formula for caltrop fire ball. In the 13th century, Mongolian armies brought gunpowder technology to Arabia in their expeditions to the West. In the 14th century, Arabians spread firearms to Europe. Joseph Needham believed that the first roar of gun in the 14th century tolled the death knell for fortresses and, therefore, for the feudal system of military aristocracy in the West.

After its invention, gunpowder was first used to make firearms like the fire ball shot. The gunpowdered arrows were shot from bows and crossbows to set fire to whatever they hit. The emergence of recoil fire arrows, the predecessor of the modern rocket, had something to do with certain firework shows that were popular in Bianliang at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. In firework entertainment, people gradually understood and utilized the reaction of explosions. In the 31st Year of the Shaoxing Reign of Emperor Gaozong of the Southern Song Dynasty(1161), the Song army might have used military fire arrows that utilized the reaction principle in real battle such as in the Battle of Caishi between the Song and Jin dynasties. Such arrows were called “Thunderbolt Shells.” It could be understood as a giant double-explosion firecracker. Its structure was as follows: Propellant powder was loaded at the lower part of a paper tube while primary explosives were at the upper part. The two parts were connected with a fuse thread. When the propellant powder was ignited, flames and gas burst out from the bottom of the paper tube and produced a reactive force to launch the device up in the air. After the propellant powder burnt out, a primary explosive was ignited and then, it exploded and blasted the paper tube into pieces. Such explosions might occur in the air or over water. Because there was lime inside the paper tube, lime powder would diffuse. Such device was a primitive rocket projectile that gave off lime fume. It was a bomb launched with a paper tube rocket.

Also in the Southern Song and Jin dynasties, tubular firearms made from bamboo or paper tubes emerged. Gunpowder could be ignited inside the tube to shoot fire and flame. In the first year of the reign of Emperor Lizong in the Southern Song Dynasty (1259), Shouchun Prefecture produced an eruptive fire gun called “Tuhuo Qiang.” This was the first tubular shooting firearm found in historical records. It had a barrel made from a huge bamboo tube. Gunpowder was ignited inside the tube to fire gunpowder-containing bullets called “Zi Ke.” At the end of the 13th century, the armies of the Yuan Dynasty were equipped with metal blunderbuss. The copper bowl-mouth blunderbuss with the inscription of “the Second Year of the Dade Reign” (1298) was the earliest blunderbuss relic currently found. Around the 13th century, China’s firearm technology spread to its neighbors, which indirectly promoted the innovation of gunpowder weapons in Europe. In the 16th to 17th century, a series of military conflicts in the southeastern coasts and northern frontiers of the Ming Dynasty promoted the introduction and localization of European firearms.