Wood-Block Printing
The earliest woodblock printed fragments to survive are from China and are of silk printed with flowers in three colors from theHan Dynasty(before AD 220). It is clear that woodblock printing developed in Asia several centuries before Europe. The Chinese were the first to use the process to print solid text, and equally that, much later, in Europe the printing of images on cloth developed into the printing of images on paper (woodcuts). It is also now established that the use in Europe of the same process to print substantial amounts of text together with images in block-books only came after the development ofmovable typein the 1450s.
The three necessary components for woodblock printing are the wood block, which carries the design cut inrelief; dye orink, which had been widely used in the ancient world; and eitherclothorpaper, which was first developed in China, around the 3rd century BC or 2nd century BC.
The technique is found through East and Central Asia, and in theByzantineworld for cloth, and by AD 1000 examples of woodblock printing on paper appear in IslamicEgypt. Printing onto cloth had spread much earlier, and was common in Europe by 1300. "In the 13th century the Chinese technique of blockprinting was transmitted to Europe," soon after paper became available in Europe. Theprintinwoodcut, later joined byengraving, quickly became an important cultural tradition for popular religious works, as well asplaying cardsand other uses.
Papermaking
Papermaking is known to have been traced back toChinaabout 105 CE, when CaiLun, an official attached to the Imperial court during theHan Dynasty(202 BCE-220 CE), created a sheet of paper usingmulberryand otherbastfibres along with fishnets, old rags, andhempwaste. However a recent archaeological discovery has been reported fromGansuprovince of paper with legible Chinese writings on it dating from 8 BCE,while paper had been used inChinafor wrapping and padding since the 2nd century BCE.Paper used as a writing medium became widespread by the 3rd centuryand, by the 6th century,toilet paperwas starting to be used in China as well.During theTang Dynasty(618-907 CE) paper was folded and sewn into squarebagsto preserve the flavor of tea,while the laterSong Dynasty(960-1279 CE) was the first government to issue paper-printed money.
Paper reached India in the seventh century and West Asia in the eighth. In the 8th century, paper spread to theIslamic world, where the rudimentary and laborious process of papermaking was refined and machinery was designed for bulk manufacturing of paper. The Arabs sold paper to Europeans until manufacture in the West in the twelfth century.
Gunpowder
Ancient alchemists in China spent centuries trying to discover an elixir of life that would render the user immortal. One important ingredient in many of the failed elixirs was saltpeter, also known as potassium nitrate.
During theTang Dynasty, around 850 A.D., an enterprising alchemist (whose name has been lost to history) mixed 75 parts saltpeter with 15 parts charcoal and 10 parts sulfur. This mixture had no discernable life-lengthening properties, but it did explode with a flash and a bang when exposed to an open flame. According to atextfrom that era, "smoke and flames result, so that [the alchemists'] hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down."
Many western history books over the years have stated that the Chinese used this discovery only for fireworks, but that is not true.Song Dynastymilitary forces as early as 904 A.D. used gunpowder devices against their primary enemy, the Mongols. These weapons included "flying fire" (feihuo), an arrow with a burning tube of gunpowder attached to the shaft.
Flying fire arrows were miniature rockets, which propelled themselves into enemy ranks and inspired terror among both men and horses. It must have seemed like fearsome magic to the first warriors who were confronted with the power of gunpowder. Other Song military applications of gunpowder included primitive hand grenades, poisonous gas shells, flame throwers and land mines. The first artillery pieces were rocket tubes made from hollow bamboo shoots, but these were soon upgraded to cast metal.
By the mid- to late-eleventh century, the Song government had become concerned about gunpowder technology spreading to other countries. The sale of saltpeter to foreigners was banned in 1076. Nonetheless, knowledge of the miraculous substance was carried along theSilk RoadtoIndia, the Middle East, and Europe. In 1267, a European writer made reference to gunpowder, and by 1280 the first recipes for the explosive mixture were published in the west.
China's secret was out.
Compass
The magnetic compass is an oldChinese invention, probably first made in China during theQin dynasty(221-206 B.C.). Chinese fortune tellers usedlodestones(a mineral composed of an iron oxide which aligns itself in a north-south direction) to construct their fortune telling boards.
Eventually someone noticed that the lodestones were better at pointing out real directions, leading to the first compasses.
They designed the compass on a square slab which had markings for the cardinal points and the constellations. The pointing needle was a lodestone spoon-shaped device, with a handle that would always point south.
Magnetized needles used as direction pointers instead of the spoon-shaped lodestones appeared in the 8th century AD, again in China, and between 850 and 1050 they seem to have become common as navigational devices on ships.
The first person recorded to have used the compass as a navigational aid was Zheng He (1371-1435), from the Yunnan province in China, who made seven ocean voyages between 1405 and 1433.
Arab traders sailing to China probably learned of the Chinese method of sailing by compass and returned to the West with the invention.