Today, I will share with you the knowledge of why the four great inventions of ancient China have influenced the world, and will also explain why the four great inventions of ancient China have influenced the development of the world.
What is the impact of the four great inventions on the world?
The impact of the four great inventions on the world:
1. The invention of papermaking: it provides economical and convenient writing materials for human beings, and set off a revolution of human writing carriers.
2. The invention of engraving and printing: greatly promoted the spread of culture.
3. The invention of the compass: provided conditions for the sailing activities of European navigators.
4. The invention of gunpowder weapons: The use of gunpowder weapons changed the way of fighting, helped the European bourgeoisie destroy feudal fortresses, and accelerated the historical process of Europe.
Evaluation of the Four Great Inventions
Engels clearly pointed out in “German Peasant’s War”: “A series of inventions all have more or less important significance, among which gunpowder is of glorious historical significance. It has now been proved beyond doubt that gunpowder originated from China passed through India to the Arabs, and the Arabs and gunpowder weapons passed through Spain to Europe.”
The British Sinologist Meadows pointed out: “The inventive genius of the Chinese was manifested in many aspects very early on. The three major inventions of the Chinese (the nautical compass (Sinan), printing, and gunpowder) provided an extraordinary contribution to the development of European civilization. Unusual impetus.”
What impact did the four ancient Chinese inventions have on the world?
China’s four major inventions were introduced to the West before the emergence of modern European civilization, which had a certain impact on the development of Western science and technology. The emergence of printing changed the situation that only monks could study and receive higher education, and facilitated the spread of culture. The introduction of gunpowder and firearms broke the ideological shackles of medieval Catholicism in Europe. The compass was passed to the hands of European navigators, making it possible for them to discover the Americas and achieve global voyages, laying the foundation for the development of world trade and handicrafts for the West.
The four great inventions have left a brilliant page in the history of human science and culture. These great inventions have influenced and benefited the whole world and promoted the progress of human history. Guns, rockets, artillery and other weapons were all invented in China. Due to the low quality of individual combat in the Song Dynasty, military science and technology were vigorously developed in order to achieve a balance, and gunpowder weapons that influenced the world were born.
During the Ming Dynasty, various gunpowder weapons were modified quite a lot, so the military technology of the Ming Dynasty reached the pinnacle of the world. At the same time, the Ming Dynasty also actively introduced western science and technology. But since the 17th century, when Western countries used the compass to travel around the world and actively developed colonies, the Qing rulers began to implement a complete closed-door policy to the outside world, ignorant of the rise of the Western world, and China began to lag behind Western countries. .
Papermaking Impact
As early as the Western Han Dynasty, Chinese working people had already made paper. In the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cai Lun improved the papermaking technique on the basis of summarizing the experience of his predecessors. He made plant fiber paper from materials such as bark, hemp, rags and old fishing nets. Cai Lun was once named “Longtinghou”, so people called the paper he created “Caihou paper”. From the 6th century, papermaking gradually spread to Korea and Japan, and later spread to Greece, Italy and other places in Europe through Arabia, Egypt and Spain. In 1150, Spain began to make paper and established the first paper mill in Europe. Since then, France (1189), Italy (1276), Germany (1391), Britain (1494), Holland (1586), and the United States (1690) all successively built paper factories. By the 16th century, paper had become popular in Europe. In Medieval Europe, it is said that more than 300 sheepskins were used to copy a copy of the Bible. The spread of cultural information was extremely narrow due to the limitation of materials. extremely favorable conditions.
Influence and Controversy of Printing
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties in China, people combined the two methods of engraving seals and rubbing characters on carved stones, and invented woodblock printing. The “Diamond Sutra” left by the Tang Dynasty is exquisite and clear, and it is the earliest woodblock printing with an exact date in the world (868). In the Song Dynasty in the middle of the 11th century, Bi Sheng invented movable type printing, which popularized printing. Chinese woodblock printing spread to Arabia around the 8th century AD, and then to Europe from Arabia after the 11th century, and then to Egypt around the 12th century. With the spread of papermaking, paper successively replaced Egyptian papyrus, and India’s Leaves and sheepskin in Europe, etc., triggered a huge change in the world’s writing materials. From the 14th to the 15th centuries, printing became popular in Europe.
The earliest surviving woodblock print with an exact date in Europe is the portrait of “St. Christopher” in southern Germany (1423), about 600 years later than China. Around 1450, under the influence of Chinese movable type printing, the Germans created movable type for European phonetic alphabets for printing books, 400 years later than Bi Sheng. After printing was introduced to Europe, it changed the situation that only monks could study and receive higher education, and provided an important material condition for the rapid development of European science after the long dark night of the Middle Ages and the emergence of the Renaissance movement.
In 1584, Spanish historian and missionary Gonzalez de Mendoza proposed in his book “History of the Great Chinese Empire” that Gutenberg was influenced by Chinese printing technology; Chinese printing technology was transmitted through two channels. One way is to enter Germany through Russia, and the other way is to bring books to Germany through Arab merchants. Parchment scrolls were used for writing in medieval Europe, and there was no concept of “books” and “printing”. Gutenberg used these Chinese books as the blueprint for his printing. Mendoza’s book was quickly translated into French, English, and Italian, which had a great influence in Europe. French historian Louis Le Roy, writer Michel de Montaigne, etc., all agree with Mendoza’s argument. Yasuda Pu, a French sinologist, once argued that European movable type printing originated from China with the title of “The Representative Work of Eurocentric Deception: The So-called Gutenberg May Be the Inventor of Printing”. ([France] Yasuda Pu “History of Chinese Culture Spreading to the West”)
The Effect of Gunpowder
Gunpowder was invented in China during the Tang Dynasty and was first used in military affairs. At the end of the Tang Dynasty in the early 10th century, artillery and rockets appeared, and firearms were commonly used in warfare in the Song Dynasty. The Mongols learned how to make gunpowder and firearms from fighting the Song and Jin, and the Arabs learned how to make firearms from fighting the Mongols. Europeans acquired knowledge of gunpowder from Arab books in the late 13th century, and learned how to make gunpowder and use firearms from wars against Muslim countries in the early 14th century. Firearms played a huge role in the resistance of citizens of European cities to absolute monarchies. The invention of gunpowder has greatly promoted the process of historical development and is one of the important pillars of the European Renaissance.
Engels pointed out: “Firearms were the weapons of the city and the new monarchy relying on the city against the feudal aristocracy from the beginning. The stone walls of the noble castles that had been impregnable before could not withstand the cannons of the citizens; the bullets of the citizens pierced the armor of the knights. , the reign of the nobility and the cavalry of the nobility in armor have perished.”
Compass influence
As early as the Warring States Period, China has already made “Sinan” according to the characteristics of magnets indicating north and south, which is the earliest guiding instrument in the world. During the Northern Song Dynasty, people invented the method of artificially magnetizing iron needles to make a compass, and began to apply it to navigation. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the compass was widely used in navigation and spread to Arabia at the same time. The compass was introduced to Europe in the early 13th century. The compass was used in navigation, which led to Columbus’s voyage to discover the New World of America and Magellan’s voyage around the world. This has greatly accelerated the process of world economic development.
Historical Significance
The Four Great Inventions are a string of glorious footprints left by the ancestors of the Han nationality in China to the world, and they are symbols of great contributions to the progress of human civilization.
① The invention of papermaking: it provided economical and convenient writing materials for human beings, and set off a revolution in human writing carriers;
② The invention of engraving and printing: greatly promoted the spread of culture;
③ The invention of the compass: provided conditions for the sailing activities of European navigators;
④ The invention of gunpowder weapons: The use of gunpowder weapons changed the way of fighting, helped the European bourgeoisie destroy feudal fortresses, and accelerated the historical process of Europe.
Influence of the Four Great Inventions of Ancient China
The so-called Four Great Inventions refer to four inventions that had great influence on the world in ancient China, namely papermaking, compass, gunpowder, and movable type printing. The term “Four Great Inventions” was first put forward by the British sinologist Joseph Needham, and was later inherited by many Chinese historians. These inventions spread to the West through various channels, thus exerting a huge influence on the development of world civilization.
A compass is a simple instrument used to determine direction. Its predecessor was Sinan. Its main component is a magnetic needle mounted on a shaft that can rotate freely. The magnetic needle can be kept in the tangential direction of the magnetic meridian under the action of the earth’s magnetic field. The north pole of the magnetic needle always points to the geographical south pole, and people can use this property to distinguish the direction. The compass is often used in navigation, geodesy, travel and marching operations.
How did the four great inventions of ancient China contribute to world civilization?
The Four Great Inventions refer to the four inventions that had a great impact on the world in ancient China. They are papermaking, compass, gunpowder, and movable type printing.
The four great inventions have greatly promoted the development of politics, economy, and culture in ancient China. They have also had a great impact on the history of world civilization development.
The English philosopher Francis Bacon pointed out that the printing press, gunpowder, and the compass “Three inventions have changed the whole face and condition of things throughout the world: the first in learning, the second in As in war, the third is in navigation; and from this have produced innumerable changes: so that no sect, no empire, no star has more influence on human affairs than these mechanical discoveries.”
Marx commented: “Gunpowder, the compass, printing—these are the three great inventions that heralded the advent of bourgeois society. Gunpowder blew up the knightly class, the compass opened up the world market and established colonies, and printing transformed the Protestant instrument of scientific revival in general, and the most powerful lever for creating the necessary preconditions for spiritual development.”
Although papermaking is not mentioned, it is it that provides the necessary conditions for the production and promotion of printing
In the slave society, the emergence of writing and the division of mental and physical labor created the necessary prerequisites for the development of scientific culture.
In the feudal society, people from all over the world used their hard work and ingenuity to create a splendid scientific and technological culture, but the development of scientific and technological culture around the world is not balanced.
Western Europe entered the feudal society much later than China. In the first few hundred years, continuous wars not only turned the ancient European cities into ruins, but also destroyed the ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, coupled with the devastation of Christianity, The scientific and technological culture in Europe has been stagnant for a long time. On the contrary, China in the East has shown a magnificent scene of vigorous development of scientific and technological culture, with major achievements in almost all fields. The profound and profound Chinese culture has attracted scholars from many countries to visit. In the Tang Dynasty , there are as many as five or six hundred Japanese students studying in Chang’an alone.
The technological and cultural achievements of China’s feudal society represented the level reached by all mankind in the feudal era, and it was an extremely glorious page in the history of the world’s technological and cultural development.