The West’s first knowledge of China came from the silk exported via the Silk Road. During the Tang Dynasty, innovations in weaving and decorative techniques propelled China’s silk industry to new heights. The Ming Dynasty continued the Tang tradition of producing a wide range of luxurious silk items. Chinese silk was highly prized around the [...]
The Silk Road winds its way through numerous lands and deserts, colorfully stretching its way through the civilizations of Asia, Europe and Africa. It was through the Silk Road that the four great ancient Chinese inventions of papermaking, gunpowder, the compass and printing were diffused across the world. Likewise, breathtakingly splendid silk production, Chinese tea [...]
“It is a City of Light. When night falls, countless lamps and torches light up all the streets and lanes, and the whole city, viewed from afar, turns into a sea of lights,” described Jacob d’Ancona, a scholarly Jewish merchant, in a manuscript.
In 1270 Jacob d’Ancona set out on a voyage from Italy. A year [...]
The Liangzhu culture, dated to 3310 – 2250 BC, is a late Neolithic (or Chalcolithic) culture located in Southeast China. Well known for its high quality and number of jade artifacts, it succeeded the Majiabang culture and later became part of the Shang Dynasty. The Liangzhu culture is roughly contemporary with the Longshan and Hongshan [...]
Longshan Culture was typical of the late Neolithic Age (2900 BC to 2100 BC). Discovered in 1928 when the remains of the Chengziya site at Longshan, Zhangqiu County near Jinan, Shandong Province were being excavated, Longshan Culture dates from 2400 BC to 1900 BC. As far as Shandong Province is concerned, Dawenkou Culture (4300 BC–2400 [...]
Nothing is more exciting in archaeological circles than the discovery of a lost civilization that could possibly rewrite history. Sanxingdui, in Guanghan, 40 km from Chengdu in SW China’s Sichuan Province, is one such discovery. The excavations from Sanxingdui bring us face to face with ancient civilizations in Sichuan, long lost and only scantily recorded [...]
Yangshao Culture, distributed mainly in the Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, southern Hebei and eastern Gansu Provinces, is a culture belonging to the late Neolithic Age (2900 BC to 2100 BC). Extant from 5,000 BC to 3,000 BC, its name is derived from the first-known Yangshao Culture site - Yangshao Village in Yinchi County, Henan Province.
The famous [...]
From the earliest times in the history of humankind, water, in the form of lakes, seas, and especially rivers, has played an essential role in the development of civilization. This is a truth universal to cultures throughout the world. And the great amount of archeological information available about ancient Chinese civilization tells us that their [...]
As one of the earliest countries to apply machinery, China boasts a lot of unique inventions like the compass vehicle, the seismograph, and the incense burner with their respective characteristics on using power and mechanical structural design.
Ⅰ. Metallurgy and the development of machinery
Ancient metallurgy in China attained very high achievements very early. The bronze ware [...]
Scientist Francis Bacon once gave a high opinion, when he appraised China’s four big inventions’ contribution to the world, saying, “They completely changed the world’s appearance…there was no other country, religion, or person who had displayed as big an influence on human progress than them.” There were many great inventions in ancient China. Traditional Chinese [...]
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