List of Chinese inventions

Four Great Inventions

Paper

Printing

Gunpowder

Compass

Prehistoric China

Ancient and Imperial China

A

• Acupuncture: Acupuncture, the traditional Chinese medicinal practice of inserting needles into specific points of the body for therapeutic purposes and relieving pain, was first mentioned in Huangdi Neijing compiled from the 3rd to 2nd centuries BC. The oldest known acupuncture sticks made of gold, found in the tomb of Liu Sheng, date from the Western Han ; the oldest known stone-carved depiction of acupuncture was made during the Eastern Han.
• Armillary sphere, hydraulic-powered: Poet Eratosthenes is credited as the first to invent the armillary sphere representing the celestial sphere. The Chinese astronomer Geng Shouchang of the Han dynasty invented it separately in China in 52 BC, and the Han dynasty polymath Zhang Heng was the first to apply motive power using a set of complex gears rotated by a waterwheel which was powered by the constant pressure head of an inflow clepsydra clock, the latter of which he improved with an extra compensating tank between the reservoir and the inflow vessel.

  B

• Banknote: Paper currency was first developed in China. Its roots were in merchant receipts of deposit during the Tang dynasty, as merchants and wholesalers desired to avoid the heavy bulk of copper coinage in large commercial transactions. During the Song dynasty, the central government adopted this system for their monopolized salt industry, but a gradual reduction in copper production—due to the closing of mines and an enormous outflow of Song-minted copper currency into the Japanese, Southeast Asian, Western Xia and Liao economies—encouraged the Song government in the early 12th century to issue government-printed paper currency alongside copper to ease the demand on their state mints and debase the value of copper. In the early 11th century, the Song dynasty government authorised sixteen private banks to issue notes of exchange in central China, but in 1023 the government commandeered this enterprise and set up an agency to supervise the manufacture of banknotes there. The earliest paper currency was limited to certain regions and could not be used outside specified bounds, but once paper was securely backed by gold and silver stores, the Song dynasty government initiated a nationwide paper currency, between 1265 and 1274. The concurrent the Jin regime also printed paper banknotes by at least 1214.
• Bellows, hydraulic-powered: Although it is unknown if metallurgic bellows in the Han dynasty were of the leather bag type or the wooden fan type found in the later Yuan state, the Han dynasty mechanical engineer and politician Du Shi applied the use of rotating waterwheels to power the bellows of his blast furnace smelting iron, a method which continued in use in China thereafter, as evidenced by subsequent records; it is a significant invention in that iron production yields were increased and it employed all the necessary components for converting rotary motion into reciprocating motion.
• Belt drive: The mechanical belt drive, using a pulley machine, was first mentioned in the text the Dictionary of Local Expressions by the Han dynasty philosopher, poet, and politician Yang Xiong in 15 BC, used for a quilling machine that wound silk fibers on to bobbins for weavers' shuttles. The belt drive is an essential component to the invention of the spinning wheel. The belt drive was not only used in textile technologies, it was also applied to hydraulic powered bellows dating from the 1st century AD.
• Belt hook: The belt hook was a fastener used in China. Belt hooks date from the 7th century BC in China, and were made with bronze, iron, gold, and jade. Texts claim that the belt hook arrived in China from Central Asia during the Warring States period, but archaeological evidence of belt hooks in China predate the Warring States period.
• Biological pest control: The first report of the use of an insect species to control an insect pest comes from Nanfang caomu zhuang, attributed to Western Jin dynasty botanist Ji Han, in which it is mentioned that "Jiaozhi people sell ants and their nests attached to twigs looking like thin cotton envelopes, the reddish-yellow ant being larger than normal. Without such ants, southern citrus fruits will be severely insect-damaged". The ants used are known as huang gan ants. The practice was later reported by Ling Biao Lu Yi, in Ji Le Pian by Zhuang Jisu, in the Book of Tree Planting by Yu Zhen Mu, in the book Guangdong Xing Yu, Lingnan by Wu Zhen Fang, in Nanyue Miscellanies by Li Diao Yuan, and others.
• Blast furnace: Although cast iron tools and weapons have been found in China dating from the 5th century BC, the earliest discovered Chinese blast furnaces, which produced pig iron that could be remelted and refined as cast iron in the cupola furnace, date from the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, and the vast majority of early blast-furnace sites discovered date from the Han dynasty, immediately following 117 BC with the establishment of state monopolies over the salt and iron industries during the reign of Emperor Wu of Han ; most ironwork sites discovered dating from before 117 BC acted merely as foundries to make castings for iron that had been smelted in blast furnaces elsewhere, in remote areas, far from population centres.
• Bomb: The first accounts of bombs made of cast iron shells packed with explosive gunpowder—as opposed to earlier types of casings—were written in the 13th century in China. The term was coined for this bomb during a Jin dynasty naval battle of 1231 against the Mongols. The History of Jin states that in 1232, as the Mongol general Subutai descended on the Jin stronghold of Kaifeng, the defenders had a "thunder-crash bomb" which "consisted of gunpowder put into an iron container ... then when the fuse was lit there was a great explosion the noise whereof was like thunder, audible for more than a hundred li, and the vegetation was scorched and blasted by the heat over an area of more than half a mou. When hit, even iron armour was quite pierced through." The Song dynasty official Li Zengbo wrote in 1257 that arsenals should have several hundred thousand iron bomb shells available and that when he was in Jingzhou, about 1,000–2,000 were produced each month for dispatch of ten to twenty thousand at a time to Xiangyang and Yingzhou. The significance of this, Needham states, is that a "high-nitrate gunpowder mixture had been reached at last, since nothing less would have burst the iron casing."
• Borehole drilling: By at least the Han dynasty, the Chinese used deep borehole drilling for mining and other projects; The British sinologist and historian Michael Loewe states that borehole sites could reach as deep as. K. S. Tom describes the drilling process: "The Chinese method of deep drilling was accomplished by a team of men jumping on and off a beam to impact the drilling bit while the boring tool was rotated by buffalo and oxen." This was the same method used for extracting petroleum in California during the 1860s. A Western Han dynasty bronze foundry discovered in Xinglong, Hebei had nearby mining shafts which reached depths of with spacious mining areas; the shafts and rooms were complete with a timber frame, ladders and iron tools. By the first century BC, Chinese craftsmen cast iron drill bits and drillers were able to drill boreholes up to deep. By the eleventh century AD, the Chinese were able to drill boreholes up to 3000 feet in depth. Drilling for boreholes was time-consuming and long. As the depth of the holes varied, the drilling of a single well could take up to nearly one full decade. It wasn't up until the 19th century that Europe and the West would catch up and rival ancient Chinese borehole drilling technology.
• Breeching strap: The breeching strap traces its roots back to the Chinese invented breast-strap or breastcollar harness developed during the Warring States era. The Chinese breast harness became known throughout Central Asia by the 7th century, introduced to Europe by the 8th century. The breeching strap would allow the horse to hold or brake the load as horse harnesses were previously attached to vehicles by straps around their necks as previously designed harnesses would constrict the horses neck preventing the horse from pulling heavier loads. The breeching strap acted as a brake when a cart tries to run forward when moving downwards on a slope and also make it possible to maneuver the cart in the reverse direction.
• Brine mining: About 500 BC, the ancient Chinese dug hundreds of brine wells, some of which were over in depth. Large brine deposits under the earth's surface were drilled by drilling boreholes. Bamboo towers were erected, similar in style to modern-day oil derricks. Bamboo was used for ropes, casing, and derricks since it was salt resistant. Iron wedges were hung from a bamboo cable tool attached to a lever on a platform constructed atop the tower. The derricks required two to three men jumping on and off the lever that moved the iron wedge pounded into the ground to dig a hole deep enough into the ground to hit the brine.
• Bristle toothbrush: According to the United States Library of Congress website, the Chinese have used the bristle toothbrush since 1498, during the reign of the Hongzhi Emperor of the Ming dynasty; it also adds that the toothbrush was not mass-produced until 1780, when they were sold by a William Addis of Clerkenwell, London, England. In accordance with the Library of Congress website, scholar John Bowman also writes that the bristle toothbrush using pig bristles was invented in China during the 1490s. Bonnie L. Kendall agrees with this, and adds that a precursor existed in Ancient Egypt, in the form of a twig frayed at the end.

• Bulkhead partition: The 5th century book Garden of Strange Things by Liu Jingshu mentioned that a ship could allow water to enter the bottom without sinking, and the Song dynasty author Zhu Yu wrote in his book of 1119 that the hulls of Chinese ships had a bulkhead build; these pieces of literary evidence for bulkhead partitions are confirmed by archaeological evidence of a long Song dynasty ship dredged from the waters off the southern coast of China in 1973, the hull of the ship divided into twelve walled compartmental sections built watertight, dated to about 1277. Western writers from Marco Polo, to Niccolò Da Conti, to Benjamin Franklin commented on bulkhead partitions, which they viewed as an original aspect of Chinese shipbuilding, as Western shipbuilding did not incorporate this hull arrangement until the early 19th century.