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The Western World has Benefited Hugely from Chinese Inventions

By: Henry KH Fong

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Chinese are traditionally stereotyped for a lack of technological ability however when we speak about Chinese inventions it is actually difficult to know where to begin. For a start there is gunpowder, kite, paper making, printing, the wheelbarrow, ceramics, the dry dock, chopsticks (duh) firecrackers, ceramics, the crossbow, lacquer, iron casting, natural medicine, acupuncture, surgery, the seismograph, the compass, Indian ink, whiskey, brandy, tea drinking and shredding, chess, paper money and spaghetti. And this is only the beginning!

The four most important discoveries by the Chinese which influenced the western world to a huge degree were spaghetti, paper money, chopsticks and whiskey (joke), no they were actually gunpowder, paper and printing and the compass.

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.

Anesthetics have been used as far back as the 3rd century, this was a type of wine which had an anesthetic affect. The Chinese are world renowned for their knowledge of herbal medicines and acupuncture and this dates back millennia. 4000 year old skulls have been found in Heilongjiang, Qinghai and Henan provinces which indicate some kind of surgery may have taken place on them, the age of these skulls have been confirmed by Carbon Dating.

The first clocks were invented by the Chinese; they made toys, houses and many other things from bamboo. The Chinese built the first planetarium, made the first kites and learned how to use them even in battle. They invented and experiment for parity which revolutionized the science of particle physics, we cold go on with this subject ad infinitum, but I think you get the picture now.

Article Source: http://depositarticles.com/

Visit Absolutely Feng Shui for information on Chinese Astrology. Plus more on Chinese Feng Shui Compass

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