Assignment 2 – Ancient Chinese Contributions

Shalley L. Whitesides

HUM 111
Professor Loftin Montgomery

December 1, 2013

Whenever we think of China, the first thought that may come to mind is the Great Wall of China, the cuddly pandas, cars, or even their wonderful cuisine. For more than fifteen hundred years, the Chinese culture have developed inventions and made contributions to things that not only be used on a daily basis, but to used in years to come.
Some of the greatest inventions to come out from China are: alcohol; the mechanical clock; tea; silk; porcelain; iron and steel smelting; paper; printing; gunpowder and the compass. Of the four greatest inventions are paper, tea, silk and the mechanical clock.
Before paper was invented, the people of China wrote on used grass stalks to write on “various natural materials by ancient peoples-on grass stalks by the Egyptians, on earthen plates by the Mesopotamians, on tree leaves by the Indians, on sheepskin by the Europeans and strangest of all, even inscribed on bamboo or wooden strips, tortoise shells or shoulder blades of an ox by the early Chinese.” (www.chinese-embassy.org.za) Until the Second Century, Cai Hun invented an idea that will include bark, rags and wheat stalks that was very cheap and light and became “suitable for brush writing. Today, paper is used on a daily basis for when we read our favorite entertainment magazine, a hot and steamy fiction novel, and even the textbook. Money serves as a paper because this is how we have to pay for items we purchased in retail stores. We all love to drink tea, whether it’s cold, as in a southern tradition in the southern states, or as a warm beverage that will help to settle a cough or to help get rid of a cold. Tea was “According to Chinese legend, tea was first drunk by the Chinese Emperor Shen Nong around 2,737 BC. Then, an unknown Chinese inventor created the tea shredder, a small device that used a sharp wheel in the center of a ceramic or wooden pot that would slice the leaves into thin strips. During the Tang (618－907) and Song (960－1279) dynasties, tea production developed rapidly, and tea became a popular drink around the country and the world. Cha Jing, written by Lu Yu in the Tang Dynasty, is widely recognized as the world's first scientific work about tea production.” (www.china.org.cn)
Another great invention from China is silk. We all love to purchase an item that was made of silk. Whether if it’s a silk blouse, silk neck ties, the silk lining in winter coats or silk lingerie, we all want to know how this smooth, shiny fabric was created and made. Silk was harvested to be used for clothes are paper over a thousand years ago. “The oldest silk, which was found in Henan Province, came from the Chinese Neolithic period and dates to around 3,630 BC. Silk excavated from the Liangzhu culture site in Zhejiang Province date to roughly 2570 BC. In ancient China, silk was not only a vital invention for life but also a bridge connecting China to the outside world. The 2,000-year-old Silk Road is still an important path for cultural, commercial and technological exchange between East and West. (www.china.org.cn) Silk is twisted in a strand where it can be used for weaving or knitting, which is known to be called throwing. It prevents splitting from the thread. “Four different types of silk thread may be produced from this procedure: crepe, tram, thrown singles and organzine. Crepe is made by twisting individual threads of raw silk, doubling two or more of them together, and then twisting them again. Tram is made by twisting two or more threads in only one direction. Thrown singles are individual threads that are twisted in only one direction. Organzine is a thread made by giving the raw silk a preliminary twist in one direction and then twisting two of these threads together in the opposite direction.” (https://texeresilk.com) We all wondered how the clock was made, and who the inventor of this fine machinery was. The mechanical clock was made by Yi Xing in 725 AD. The clock functioned by “dripping water that powered a wheel which made one full revolution in 24 hours. An iron and bronze system of wheels and gears made the clock turn. This system caused the chiming of a bell on the hour.” (www.vhinkle.com) The one invention that I cannot live without is paper. At any given time I am always in the store purchasing items for the house because there in everyone’s household will be some type of paper product that will be in some type of use. A few to name is toilet paper, paper hand towels, paper plates, and Kleenex. In order for me to purchase these items, I have to use money, though we are living in the days that most debit and credit cards are used more, but I tend to have money if the purchases are less than $ 75.00.
These four inventions that I used are based in what I use on a day to day basis. When jotting notes down from a lecture or writing down your grocery list, we are looking for a piece of paper. Should I have a cold and don’t want to drink a cold beverage or just or to sip on a warm beverage on a cold winter’s day, tea will be the first thing that comes to mind. Third, though we are in the technology stage that we look to our cell phones, or the computer to look at the time, one day there is a power failure and not able to see what the time is, or the battery has died on our phones, the use of the mechanical clock can still be of use. Lastly, silk is one of the most beautiful fabric to have ever been invented because of its smooth texture and light weight.

References:

http://www.china.org.cn

https://texeresilk.com//article/history_of_silk

http://www.vhinkle.com/china/inventions.html#Mechanical_Clock

http://www.chinese-embassy.org.za/eng/znjl/Culture