Chapter 1　China’s Creations

The Chinese people contributed to the world technical inventions and scientific knowledge represented by papermaking, printing, gunpowder and the compass. Francis Bacon wrote in his Novum Organum: “Printing, gunpowder, and the nautical compass have altered the face and state of the world: firstly, in literary matters; secondly, in warfare and thirdly in navigation.” Karl Marx also commented, “Gunpowder, the compass, and the printing press were the three great inventions which ushered in bourgeois society. Gunpowder blew up the knightly classes; the compass discovered the world market and founded the colonies. And the printing press was the instrument of Protestantism and the regeneration of science in general; it was the most powerful lever for creating the intellectual prerequisites.” Joseph Needham listed the technical inventions in alphabetical order in the first volume of Science and Civilization in China, which spread to Europe from China and influenced the whole world. Recently, science and technology historians in China also gave an emphatic introduction to some important inventions and creations in ancient times, which embody the wisdom and the type of intellectual tradition established by ancient Chinese wise men.