Divyanshu67/squad_v2 huggingface dataset:
Han_dynasty

Women were expected to obey the will of their father, then their husband, and then their adult son in old age. However, it is known from contemporary sources that there were many deviations to this rule, especially in regard to mothers over their sons, and empresses who ordered around and openly humiliated their fathers and brothers. Women were exempt from the annual corvée labor duties, but often engaged in a range of income-earning occupations aside from their domestic chores of cooking and cleaning.

Question: Which gender was exempt from performing the yearly corvee labor duties?
Answer: Women

Question: What emotional state would empresses commonly place their immediate family members in?
Answer: openly humiliated

Question: What type of occupation did women commonly take part in?
Answer: income-earning

Question: Who were women obligated to obey in their old age?
Answer: their adult son

Question: Which parental figures often avoided the common familial rules?
Answer: mothers
Han_dynasty

The early Western Han court simultaneously accepted the philosophical teachings of Legalism, Huang-Lao Daoism, and Confucianism in making state decisions and shaping government policy. However, the Han court under Emperor Wu gave Confucianism exclusive patronage. He abolished all academic chairs or erudites (bóshì 博士) not dealing with the Confucian Five Classics in 136 BC and encouraged nominees for office to receive a Confucian-based education at the Imperial University that he established in 124 BC. Unlike the original ideology espoused by Confucius, or Kongzi (551–479 BC), Han Confucianism in Emperor Wu's reign was the creation of Dong Zhongshu (179–104 BC). Dong was a scholar and minor official who aggregated the ethical Confucian ideas of ritual, filial piety, and harmonious relationships with five phases and yin-yang cosmologies. Much to the interest of the ruler, Dong's synthesis justified the imperial system of government within the natural order of the universe. The Imperial University grew in importance as the student body grew to over 30,000 by the 2nd century AD. A Confucian-based education was also made available at commandery-level schools and private schools opened in small towns, where teachers earned respectable incomes from tuition payments.

Question: What philosophy was given exclusivity in the court during the rule of Emperor Wu?
Answer: Confucianism

Question: Who put an end to all erudites?
Answer: Emperor Wu

Question: How many students were in the Imperial University by the second century?
Answer: over 30,000

Question: What type of philosophy was available for individuals at the commanderies?
Answer: Confucian

Question: Where did teachers make their money from at private schools?
Answer: tuition payments
Han_dynasty

Some important texts were created and studied by scholars. Philosophical works written by Yang Xiong (53 BC – 18 AD), Huan Tan (43 BC – 28 AD), Wang Chong (27–100 AD), and Wang Fu (78–163 AD) questioned whether human nature was innately good or evil and posed challenges to Dong's universal order. The Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Tan (d. 110 BC) and his son Sima Qian (145–86 BC) established the standard model for all of imperial China's Standard Histories, such as the Book of Han written by Ban Biao (3–54 AD), his son Ban Gu (32–92 AD), and his daughter Ban Zhao (45–116 AD). There were dictionaries such as the Shuowen Jiezi by Xu Shen (c. 58 – c. 147 AD) and the Fangyan by Yang Xiong. Biographies on important figures were written by various gentrymen. Han dynasty poetry was dominated by the fu genre, which achieved its greatest prominence during the reign of Emperor Wu.

Question: Who had produced biographies of individuals of significant importance?
Answer: various gentrymen

Question: What type of poetry had much influence in the Han dynasty?
Answer: fu

Question: Who had written the dictionary Fangyan?
Answer: Yang Xiong

Question: Which person had authored the Book of Han?
Answer: Ban Biao

Question: What was the name of Ban Biao's female offspring?
Answer: Ban Zhao
Han_dynasty

Various cases for rape, physical abuse and murder were prosecuted in court. Women, although usually having fewer rights by custom, were allowed to level civil and criminal charges against men. While suspects were jailed, convicted criminals were never imprisoned. Instead, punishments were commonly monetary fines, periods of forced hard labor for convicts, and the penalty of death by beheading. Early Han punishments of torturous mutilation were borrowed from Qin law. A series of reforms abolished mutilation punishments with progressively less-severe beatings by the bastinado.

Question: What type of torture was acquired from Qin law?
Answer: mutilation

Question: What eventually replaced torturous mutilation as a type of punishment?
Answer: progressively less-severe beatings

Question: What type of extreme punishment was likely to be laid upon those who committed the harshest of crimes?
Answer: death by beheading

Question: What could a criminal in this era expect not to happen if he was convicted of a crime?
Answer: criminals were never imprisoned

Question: What did women commonly have less of?
Answer: rights
Han_dynasty

The most common staple crops consumed during Han were wheat, barley, foxtail millet, proso millet, rice, and beans. Commonly eaten fruits and vegetables included chestnuts, pears, plums, peaches, melons, apricots, strawberries, red bayberries, jujubes, calabash, bamboo shoots, mustard plant and taro. Domesticated animals that were also eaten included chickens, Mandarin ducks, geese, cows, sheep, pigs, camels and dogs (various types were bred specifically for food, while most were used as pets). Turtles and fish were taken from streams and lakes. Commonly hunted game, such as owl, pheasant, magpie, sika deer, and Chinese bamboo partridge were consumed. Seasonings included sugar, honey, salt and soy sauce. Beer and wine were regularly consumed.

Question: What type of crop was rice considered to be during this period?
Answer: staple crops

Question: What were dogs in this era most likely to be considered?
Answer: pets

Question: What type of partridge was commonly consumed?
Answer: Chinese bamboo

Question: Where were turtles acquired from?
Answer: streams and lakes

Question: What was the color of the bayberries?
Answer: red
Han_dynasty

Families throughout Han China made ritual sacrifices of animals and food to deities, spirits, and ancestors at temples and shrines, in the belief that these items could be utilized by those in the spiritual realm. It was thought that each person had a two-part soul: the spirit-soul (hun 魂) which journeyed to the afterlife paradise of immortals (xian), and the body-soul (po 魄) which remained in its grave or tomb on earth and was only reunited with the spirit-soul through a ritual ceremony. These tombs were commonly adorned with uniquely decorated hollow clay tiles that function also as a doorjamb to the tomb. Otherwise known as tomb tiles, these artifacts feature holes in the top and bottom of the tile allowing it to pivot. Similar tiles have been found in the Chengdu area of Sichuan province in south-central China.

Question: What type of decoration was often seen in tombs?
Answer: hollow clay tiles

Question: What could be used to prevent a door from closing in a place of burial?
Answer: hollow clay tiles

Question: What was the afterlife of the immortals called during this period?
Answer: xian

Question: What is the commonly held notion regarding the dual nature of the soul called?
Answer: two-part soul

Question: What function did the holes in the top and bottom of the tomb tiles enable them to do?
Answer: allowing it to pivot
Han_dynasty

In addition to his many other roles, the emperor acted as the highest priest in the land who made sacrifices to Heaven, the main deities known as the Five Powers, and the spirits (shen 神) of mountains and rivers. It was believed that the three realms of Heaven, Earth, and Mankind were linked by natural cycles of yin and yang and the five phases. If the emperor did not behave according to proper ritual, ethics, and morals, he could disrupt the fine balance of these cosmological cycles and cause calamities such as earthquakes, floods, droughts, epidemics, and swarms of locusts.

Question: Who made sacrifices to the main deities in this period?
Answer: the emperor

Question: What type of geological event was feared could be caused by the morals of the emperor?
Answer: earthquakes

Question: What is another term that could be used to label the main deities?
Answer: the Five Powers

Question: How many realms were commonly thought of as being linked by a natural cycle?
Answer: three realms

Question: What type of swarm was a concern because of the emperor's ethics?
Answer: locusts
Han_dynasty

It was believed that immortality could be achieved if one reached the lands of the Queen Mother of the West or Mount Penglai. Han-era Daoists assembled into small groups of hermits who attempted to achieve immortality through breathing exercises, sexual techniques and use of medical elixirs. By the 2nd century AD, Daoists formed large hierarchical religious societies such as the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice. Its followers believed that the sage-philosopher Laozi (fl. 6th century BC) was a holy prophet who would offer salvation and good health if his devout followers would confess their sins, ban the worship of unclean gods who accepted meat sacrifices and chant sections of the Daodejing.

Question: What was the purpose of breathing exercises to a Daoist?
Answer: achieve immortality

Question: What type of religion did the society of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice practice?
Answer: Daoists

Question: What could the prophet Laozi offer in return for the confession of sins?
Answer: salvation and good health

Question: What literal work were followers of Laozi expected to chant?
Answer: Daodejing

Question: What could be earned if an individual had reached the lands of the Queen Mother of the West?
Answer: immortality
Han_dynasty

Buddhism first entered China during the Eastern Han and was first mentioned in 65 AD. Liu Ying (d. 71 AD), a half-brother to Emperor Ming of Han (r. 57–75 AD), was one of its earliest Chinese adherents, although Chinese Buddhism at this point was heavily associated with Huang-Lao Daoism. China's first known Buddhist temple, the White Horse Temple, was erected during Ming's reign. Important Buddhist canons were translated into Chinese during the 2nd century AD, including the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters, Perfection of Wisdom, Shurangama Sutra, and Pratyutpanna Sutra.

Question: During was era did Buddhism first appear in the region?
Answer: Eastern Han

Question: When did Emperor Ming of Han's reign end?
Answer: 75 AD

Question: What philosophical practice did Liu Ying believe in?
Answer: Buddhism

Question: What is believed to be the first Buddhist temple in this area?
Answer: the White Horse Temple

Question: During which century were important Buddhist notions translated to Chinese?
Answer: 2nd century AD
Han_dynasty

In Han government, the emperor was the supreme judge and lawgiver, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces and sole designator of official nominees appointed to the top posts in central and local administrations; those who earned a 600-dan salary-rank or higher. Theoretically, there were no limits to his power. However, state organs with competing interests and institutions such as the court conference (tingyi 廷議)—where ministers were convened to reach majority consensus on an issue—pressured the emperor to accept the advice of his ministers on policy decisions. If the emperor rejected a court conference decision, he risked alienating his high ministers. Nevertheless, emperors sometimes did reject the majority opinion reached at court conferences.

Question: Who was responsible for nominations of local administrators in the government?
Answer: the emperor

Question: Was the emperor able to reject an opinion that was made by the court conference?
Answer: sometimes did reject the majority opinion

Question: Who often placed pressure on the emperor in regards to local policies?
Answer: court conference

Question: What did the emperor risk if he did not accept the decisions of the court conference?
Answer: alienating his high ministers

Question: Who was considered to be the supreme judge in Han government?
Answer: the emperor
Han_dynasty

Ranked below the Three Councillors of State were the Nine Ministers, who each headed a specialized ministry. The Minister of Ceremonies was the chief official in charge of religious rites, rituals, prayers and the maintenance of ancestral temples and altars. The Minister of the Household was in charge of the emperor's security within the palace grounds, external imperial parks and wherever the emperor made an outing by chariot. The Minister of the Guards was responsible for securing and patrolling the walls, towers, and gates of the imperial palaces. The Minister Coachman was responsible for the maintenance of imperial stables, horses, carriages and coach-houses for the emperor and his palace attendants, as well as the supply of horses for the armed forces. The Minister of Justice was the chief official in charge of upholding, administering, and interpreting the law. The Minister Herald was the chief official in charge of receiving honored guests at the imperial court, such as nobles and foreign ambassadors. The Minister of the Imperial Clan oversaw the imperial court's interactions with the empire's nobility and extended imperial family, such as granting fiefs and titles. The Minister of Finance was the treasurer for the official bureaucracy and the armed forces who handled tax revenues and set standards for units of measurement. The Minister Steward served the emperor exclusively, providing him with entertainment and amusements, proper food and clothing, medicine and physical care, valuables and equipment.

Question: Which individual had a duty to maintain the imperial stables?
Answer: The Minister Coachman

Question: Which Minister had the responsibility to interpret laws in this period?
Answer: The Minister of Justice

Question: Which Minister could an honored guest of the court be expected to see?
Answer: The Minister Herald

Question: Who provided  the emperor with sustenance and medical aid?
Answer: The Minister Steward

Question: Which individual held the responsibility to oversee the interactions of the empire's nobles with the court?
Answer: The Minister of the Imperial Clan
Han_dynasty

A commandery consisted of a group of counties, and was headed by an Administrator. He was the top civil and military leader of the commandery and handled defense, lawsuits, seasonal instructions to farmers and recommendations of nominees for office sent annually to the capital in a quota system first established by Emperor Wu. The head of a large county of about 10,000 households was called a Prefect, while the heads of smaller counties were called Chiefs, and both could be referred to as Magistrates. A Magistrate maintained law and order in his county, registered the populace for taxation, mobilized commoners for annual corvée duties, repaired schools and supervised public works.

Question: What individual was typically in charge of a commandery?
Answer: an Administrator

Question: Around how many households was a Prefect responsible for?
Answer: 10,000

Question: What individual was responsible for law and maintaining order in the county?
Answer: A Magistrate

Question: What Emperor initially created the quota system?
Answer: Emperor Wu

Question: Who was in charge of counties that had fewer than 10,000 people in them?
Answer: Chiefs
Han_dynasty

At the beginning of the Han dynasty, every male commoner aged twenty-three was liable for conscription into the military. The minimum age for the military draft was reduced to twenty after Emperor Zhao's (r. 87–74 BC) reign. Conscripted soldiers underwent one year of training and one year of service as non-professional soldiers. The year of training was served in one of three branches of the armed forces: infantry, cavalry or navy. The year of active service was served either on the frontier, in a king's court or under the Minister of the Guards in the capital. A small professional (paid) standing army was stationed near the capital.

Question: What gender was expected to be conscripted into the military?
Answer: male

Question: At what age could a male common expect to be conscripted into the military?
Answer: twenty-three

Question: How long could a conscripted soldier expect to be in training for?
Answer: one year

Question: What was the lowest age a soldier could be conscripted after the end of Emperor Zhao's tenure?
Answer: twenty

Question: Which Minister could a conscripted soldier expect to serve under during his year of service?
Answer: Minister of the Guards
Han_dynasty

During the Eastern Han, conscription could be avoided if one paid a commutable tax. The Eastern Han court favored the recruitment of a volunteer army. The volunteer army comprised the Southern Army (Nanjun 南軍), while the standing army stationed in and near the capital was the Northern Army (Beijun 北軍). Led by Colonels (Xiaowei 校尉), the Northern Army consisted of five regiments, each composed of several thousand soldiers. When central authority collapsed after 189 AD, wealthy landowners, members of the aristocracy/nobility, and regional military-governors relied upon their retainers to act as their own personal troops (buqu 部曲).

Question: How could conscription into military service be avoided?
Answer: one paid a commutable tax

Question: What army was based near the capital?
Answer: Northern Army

Question: What army was considered to be the volunteer army?
Answer: Southern Army

Question: How many regiments were in the Northern Army?
Answer: five

Question: Around how many soldiers were in each regiment of the Northern Army?
Answer: several thousand soldiers
Han_dynasty

The Han dynasty inherited the ban liang coin type from the Qin. In the beginning of the Han, Emperor Gaozu closed the government mint in favor of private minting of coins. This decision was reversed in 186 BC by his widow Grand Empress Dowager Lü Zhi (d. 180 BC), who abolished private minting. In 182 BC, Lü Zhi issued a bronze coin that was much lighter in weight than previous coins. This caused widespread inflation that was not reduced until 175 BC when Emperor Wen allowed private minters to manufacture coins that were precisely 2.6 g (0.09 oz) in weight.

Question: Where did the Han dynasty receive their coin type from?
Answer: the Qin

Question: Who closed the government mint?
Answer: Emperor Gaozu

Question: In what year was the decision reversing the closure of the government mint implemented?
Answer: 186 BC

Question: Who released new lighter coinage that caused significant amounts of inflation because of it's weight?
Answer: Lü Zhi

Question: In what year were private manufactures allowed to create coins that were exactly 2.6g in mass?
Answer: 175 BC
Han_dynasty

In 144 BC Emperor Jing abolished private minting in favor of central-government and commandery-level minting; he also introduced a new coin. Emperor Wu introduced another in 120 BC, but a year later he abandoned the ban liangs entirely in favor of the wuzhu (五銖) coin, weighing 3.2 g (0.11 oz). The wuzhu became China's standard coin until the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). Its use was interrupted briefly by several new currencies introduced during Wang Mang's regime until it was reinstated in 40 AD by Emperor Guangwu.

Question: Who introduced new coinage in the year of 120 BC?
Answer: Emperor Wu

Question: What coin replaced the ban liangs after only a year of distribution?
Answer: wuzhu

Question: During what dynasty did the wuzhu stop being the standard coin?
Answer: Tang dynasty

Question: What was the mass of the wuzhu coin?
Answer: 3.2 g

Question: What interrupted the use of the wuzhu coin during the reign of Wang Mang?
Answer: several new currencies
Han_dynasty

The small landowner-cultivators formed the majority of the Han tax base; this revenue was threatened during the latter half of Eastern Han when many peasants fell into debt and were forced to work as farming tenants for wealthy landlords. The Han government enacted reforms in order to keep small landowner-cultivators out of debt and on their own farms. These reforms included reducing taxes, temporary remissions of taxes, granting loans and providing landless peasants temporary lodging and work in agricultural colonies until they could recover from their debts.

Question: Which group made up the bulk of the Han tax base?
Answer: landowner-cultivators

Question: Who made reductions in the taxes that landowner-cultivators were forced to pay?
Answer: The Han government

Question: During what period did a large number of peasants incur debt?
Answer: Eastern Han

Question: What type of housing did the Han government provide to landless indebted peasants?
Answer: temporary

Question: What did the Han government do to help out smaller landowners?
Answer: enacted reforms
Han_dynasty

In the early Western Han, a wealthy salt or iron industrialist, whether a semi-autonomous king or wealthy merchant, could boast funds that rivaled the imperial treasury and amass a peasant workforce of over a thousand. This kept many peasants away from their farms and denied the government a significant portion of its land tax revenue. To eliminate the influence of such private entrepreneurs, Emperor Wu nationalized the salt and iron industries in 117 BC and allowed many of the former industrialists to become officials administering the monopolies. By Eastern Han times, the central government monopolies were repealed in favor of production by commandery and county administrations, as well as private businessmen.

Question: In which year did Emperor Wu monopolize several industries?
Answer: 117 BC

Question: Who allowed industrialists to become officials in the newly state sanctioned industries?
Answer: Emperor Wu

Question: During what period did the governmental monopolies become privatized once again?
Answer: Eastern Han

Question: What did Emperor Wu do to negate the influence of private entrepreneurs?
Answer: nationalized the salt and iron industries

Question: During what era could a wealthy iron industrialist be able to rival the treasury in funds?
Answer: Western Han
Han_dynasty

Liquor was another profitable private industry nationalized by the central government in 98 BC. However, this was repealed in 81 BC and a property tax rate of two coins for every 0.2 L (0.05 gallons) was levied for those who traded it privately. By 110 BC Emperor Wu also interfered with the profitable trade in grain when he eliminated speculation by selling government-stored grain at a lower price than demanded by merchants. Apart from Emperor Ming's creation of a short-lived Office for Price Adjustment and Stabilization, which was abolished in 68 AD, central-government price control regulations were largely absent during the Eastern Han.

Question: What industry was monopolized by the government in 98 BC?
Answer: Liquor

Question: In what year did the liquor industry once again become privatized?
Answer: 81 BC

Question: What was mostly missing during the Eastern Han?
Answer: price control regulations

Question: What did Emperor Wu sell that offended the merchants?
Answer: grain

Question: What office did Emperor Ming create?
Answer: Office for Price Adjustment and Stabilization
Han_dynasty

Evidence suggests that blast furnaces, that convert raw iron ore into pig iron, which can be remelted in a cupola furnace to produce cast iron by means of a cold blast and hot blast, were operational in China by the late Spring and Autumn period (722–481 BC). The bloomery was nonexistent in ancient China; however, the Han-era Chinese produced wrought iron by injecting excess oxygen into a furnace and causing decarburization. Cast iron and pig iron could be converted into wrought iron and steel using a fining process.

Question: What type of furnace was functional in China in 722 BC?
Answer: blast

Question: What element was used in the production of wrought iron?
Answer: oxygen

Question: What type of iron could pig iron be converted into?
Answer: wrought

Question: What type of process was used to convert various metals into steel?
Answer: fining

Question: What can iron ore be converted into in a blast furnace?
Answer: pig iron
Han_dynasty

The Han-era Chinese used bronze and iron to make a range of weapons, culinary tools, carpenters' tools and domestic wares. A significant product of these improved iron-smelting techniques was the manufacture of new agricultural tools. The three-legged iron seed drill, invented by the 2nd century BC, enabled farmers to carefully plant crops in rows instead of casting seeds out by hand. The heavy moldboard iron plow, also invented during the Han dynasty, required only one man to control it, two oxen to pull it. It had three plowshares, a seed box for the drills, a tool which turned down the soil and could sow roughly 45,730 m2 (11.3 acres) of land in a single day.

Question: What was an invention that allowed farmers to place their crops into rows?
Answer: The three-legged iron seed drill

Question: How many animals were neccessary to pull an iron plow?
Answer: two oxen

Question: How many acres of land could succesfully be sowed with a seed box in a day?
Answer: 11.3 acres

Question: What methodology allowed the production of new agricultural tools?
Answer: improved iron-smelting techniques

Question: How many persons were necessary to operate an iron plow?
Answer: one man
Han_dynasty

To protect crops from wind and drought, the Grain Intendant Zhao Guo (趙過) created the alternating fields system (daitianfa 代田法) during Emperor Wu's reign. This system switched the positions of furrows and ridges between growing seasons. Once experiments with this system yielded successful results, the government officially sponsored it and encouraged peasants to use it. Han farmers also used the pit field system (aotian 凹田) for growing crops, which involved heavily fertilized pits that did not require plows or oxen and could be placed on sloping terrain. In southern and small parts of central Han-era China, paddy fields were chiefly used to grow rice, while farmers along the Huai River used transplantation methods of rice production.

Question: What helped insure the safety of crops from wind?
Answer: the alternating fields system

Question: What was the name of the system that for growing crops that did not require plows?
Answer: pit field system

Question: What were paddy fields used for primarily to grow in smaller areas?
Answer: rice

Question: What system did the government recommend the usage of?
Answer: alternating fields system

Question: What was the name of the Grain Intendant?
Answer: Zhao Guo
Han_dynasty

Timber was the chief building material during the Han dynasty; it was used to build palace halls, multi-story residential towers and halls and single-story houses. Because wood decays rapidly, the only remaining evidence of Han wooden architecture is a collection of scattered ceramic roof tiles. The oldest surviving wooden halls in China date to the Tang dynasty (618–907 AD). Architectural historian Robert L. Thorp points out the scarcity of Han-era archaeological remains, and claims that often unreliable Han-era literary and artistic sources are used by historians for clues about lost Han architecture.

Question: What building material was used primarily during the Han dynasty?
Answer: Timber

Question: What dynasty can the oldest wooden buildings in China be dated to?
Answer: Tang

Question: What is considered to be the last year of the Tang dynasty?
Answer: 907 AD

Question: What type of object is the only evidence of Han's wooden constructions?
Answer: ceramic roof tiles

Question: What was the primary component of a palace hall during the Han dynasty?
Answer: Timber
Han_dynasty

Though Han wooden structures decayed, some Han-dynasty ruins made of brick, stone, and rammed earth remain intact. This includes stone pillar-gates, brick tomb chambers, rammed-earth city walls, rammed-earth and brick beacon towers, rammed-earth sections of the Great Wall, rammed-earth platforms where elevated halls once stood, and two rammed-earth castles in Gansu. The ruins of rammed-earth walls that once surrounded the capitals Chang'an and Luoyang still stand, along with their drainage systems of brick arches, ditches, and ceramic water pipes. Monumental stone pillar-gates, twenty-nine of which survive from the Han period, formed entrances of walled enclosures at shrine and tomb sites. These pillars feature artistic imitations of wooden and ceramic building components such as roof tiles, eaves, and balustrades.

Question: How many stone pillar-gates survive from the Han era?
Answer: twenty-nine

Question: What architectural feature contained an imitation of a balustrade?
Answer: stone pillar-gates

Question: What building material were tomb chambers constructed with?
Answer: brick

Question: What were the walls that encompassed the city of Luoyang comprised of?
Answer: rammed-earth

Question: What type of system used ceramic water pipes?
Answer: drainage systems
Han_dynasty

Evidence of Han-era mechanical engineering comes largely from the choice observational writings of sometimes disinterested Confucian scholars. Professional artisan-engineers (jiang 匠) did not leave behind detailed records of their work. Han scholars, who often had little or no expertise in mechanical engineering, sometimes provided insufficient information on the various technologies they described. Nevertheless, some Han literary sources provide crucial information. For example, in 15 BC the philosopher Yang Xiong described the invention of the belt drive for a quilling machine, which was of great importance to early textile manufacturing. The inventions of the artisan-engineer Ding Huan (丁緩) are mentioned in the Miscellaneous Notes on the Western Capital. Around 180 AD, Ding created a manually operated rotary fan used for air conditioning within palace buildings. Ding also used gimbals as pivotal supports for one of his incense burners and invented the world's first known zoetrope lamp.

Question: What type of scholars have provided proof that mechanical engineering was prominent during the Han period?
Answer: Confucian

Question: Which philosopher described the invention of a belt drive?
Answer: Yang Xiong

Question: Which engineer was responsible for first inventing the zoetrope lamp?
Answer: Ding Huan

Question: What can be used as a support structure in incense burners?
Answer: gimbals

Question: What type of invention was used to provide air conditioning for the palace buildings?
Answer: rotary fan
Han_dynasty

Modern archaeology has led to the discovery of Han artwork portraying inventions which were otherwise absent in Han literary sources. As observed in Han miniature tomb models, but not in literary sources, the crank handle was used to operate the fans of winnowing machines that separated grain from chaff. The odometer cart, invented during Han, measured journey lengths, using mechanical figures banging drums and gongs to indicate each distance traveled. This invention is depicted in Han artwork by the 2nd century AD, yet detailed written descriptions were not offered until the 3rd century AD. Modern archaeologists have also unearthed specimens of devices used during the Han dynasty, for example a pair of sliding metal calipers used by craftsmen for making minute measurements. These calipers contain inscriptions of the exact day and year they were manufactured. These tools are not mentioned in any Han literary sources.

Question: During which period was the odometer cart first created?
Answer: Han

Question: What item was used to make very small measurements during this era?
Answer: sliding metal calipers

Question: What has allowed us to discover long lost inventions of the Han era?
Answer: artwork

Question: What was used to separate parts of grain?
Answer: winnowing machines

Question: What use did the odometer cart provide?
Answer: measured journey lengths
Han_dynasty

The waterwheel appeared in Chinese records during the Han. As mentioned by Huan Tan in about 20 AD, they were used to turn gears that lifted iron trip hammers, and were used in pounding, threshing and polishing grain. However, there is no sufficient evidence for the watermill in China until about the 5th century. The Nanyang Commandery Administrator Du Shi (d. 38 AD) created a waterwheel-powered reciprocator that worked the bellows for the smelting of iron. Waterwheels were also used to power chain pumps that lifted water to raised irrigation ditches. The chain pump was first mentioned in China by the philosopher Wang Chong in his 1st-century-AD Balanced Discourse.

Question: What was used to power chain pumps to raise water to irrigation ditches?
Answer: Waterwheels

Question: What commandery was the creator of the waterwheel-powered reciprocator from?
Answer: Nanyang

Question: Who was the author of the essay entitled Balance Discourse?
Answer: Wang Chong

Question: During what century is it likely that the watermill made an appearance in China?
Answer: about the 5th century

Question: During what era did the waterwheel first appear in recordings?
Answer: Han
Han_dynasty

The armillary sphere, a three-dimensional representation of the movements in the celestial sphere, was invented in Han China by the 1st century BC. Using a water clock, waterwheel and a series of gears, the Court Astronomer Zhang Heng (78–139 AD) was able to mechanically rotate his metal-ringed armillary sphere. To address the problem of slowed timekeeping in the pressure head of the inflow water clock, Zhang was the first in China to install an additional tank between the reservoir and inflow vessel. Zhang also invented a seismometer (Houfeng didong yi 候风地动仪) in 132 AD to detect the exact cardinal or ordinal direction of earthquakes from hundreds of kilometers away. This employed an inverted pendulum that, when disturbed by ground tremors, would trigger a set of gears that dropped a metal ball from one of eight dragon mouths (representing all eight directions) into a metal toad's mouth.

Question: Who was responsible for the invention of the seismometer?
Answer: Zhang Heng

Question: In what year was the seismometer first invented?
Answer: 132 AD

Question: What invention included an inverted pendulum?
Answer: seismometer

Question: How many dragons were represented in Zhang Heng's invention of the seismometer?
Answer: eight

Question: What was exchanged from mouth to mouth in the usage of the seismometer?
Answer: metal ball
Han_dynasty

Three Han mathematical treatises still exist. These are the Book on Numbers and Computation, the Arithmetical Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven and the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Han-era mathematical achievements include solving problems with right-angle triangles, square roots, cube roots, and matrix methods, finding more accurate approximations for pi, providing mathematical proof of the Pythagorean theorem, use of the decimal fraction, Gaussian elimination to solve linear equations, and continued fractions to find the roots of equations.

Question: What type of treatise is the Book on Numbers and Computation considered to be?
Answer: mathematical

Question: How many mathematical treatises have still managed to survive to this day?
Answer: Three

Question: What achievement of the Han era can be used to help solve linear equations?
Answer: Gaussian elimination

Question: During what era was the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art from?
Answer: Han

Question: What can be used to help find the roots of equations?
Answer: continued fractions
Han_dynasty

One of the Han's greatest mathematical advancements was the world's first use of negative numbers. Negative numbers first appeared in the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art as black counting rods, where positive numbers were represented by red counting rods. Negative numbers are used in the Bakhshali manuscript of ancient India, but its exact date of compilation is unknown. Negative numbers were also used by the Greek mathematician Diophantus in about 275 AD, but were not widely accepted in Europe until the 16th century AD.

Question: In what treatise did negative numbers first appear?
Answer: the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art

Question: How were negative numbers first described during the Han period?
Answer: as black counting rods

Question: In what century were negative numbers more commonly accepted in Europe?
Answer: 16th century AD

Question: What Indian manuscript also contains the useage of negative numbers?
Answer: Bakhshali

Question: What were positive numbers portayed as in the treatise of the Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art?
Answer: red counting rods
Han_dynasty

Han-era astronomers adopted a geocentric model of the universe, theorizing that it was shaped like a sphere surrounding the earth in the center. They assumed that the Sun, Moon, and planets were spherical and not disc-shaped. They also thought that the illumination of the Moon and planets was caused by sunlight, that lunar eclipses occurred when the Earth obstructed sunlight falling onto the Moon, and that a solar eclipse occurred when the Moon obstructed sunlight from reaching the Earth. Although others disagreed with his model, Wang Chong accurately described the water cycle of the evaporation of water into clouds.

Question: In what era was a geocentric view of the universe adopted?
Answer: Han

Question: Who was able to describe the process of evaporation?
Answer: Wang Chong

Question: What object was assumed to block sunlight during a lunar eclipse?
Answer: the Earth

Question: What did astronomers believe the shape of the Sun to be during this era?
Answer: spherical

Question: What did astronomers during this area believe to be the center of the universe?
Answer: the earth
Han_dynasty

Evidence found in Chinese literature, and archaeological evidence, show that cartography existed in China before the Han. Some of the earliest Han maps discovered were ink-penned silk maps found amongst the Mawangdui Silk Texts in a 2nd-century-BC tomb. The general Ma Yuan created the world's first known raised-relief map from rice in the 1st century AD. This date could be revised if the tomb of Qin Shi Huang is excavated and the account in the Records of the Grand Historian concerning a model map of the empire is proven to be true.

Question: What textile were some of the early Han maps made from?
Answer: silk

Question: In what type of building were silken maps found?
Answer: tomb

Question: Which individual created the very first raised relief map?
Answer: Ma Yuan

Question: What food stable was the first raised relief map created from?
Answer: rice
Han_dynasty

The Han-era Chinese sailed in a variety of ships differing from those of previous eras, such as the tower ship. The junk design was developed and realized during Han. Junks featured a square-ended bow and stern, a flat-bottomed hull or carvel-shaped hull with no keel or sternpost, and solid transverse bulkheads in the place of structural ribs found in Western vessels. Moreover, Han ships were the first in the world to be steered using a rudder at the stern, in contrast to the simpler steering oar used for riverine transport, allowing them to sail on the high seas.

Question: What type of boat design was first invented during the Han era?
Answer: The junk design

Question: In what areas were Han ships able to be sailed in part due to the stern rudder?
Answer: high seas

Question: What ship design contained a flat-bottomed hull?
Answer: Junks

Question: What type of transport was the steering oar most likely to be used during?
Answer: riverine transport
Han_dynasty

Han-era medical physicians believed that the human body was subject to the same forces of nature that governed the greater universe, namely the cosmological cycles of yin and yang and the five phases. Each organ of the body was associated with a particular phase. Illness was viewed as a sign that qi or "vital energy" channels leading to a certain organ had been disrupted. Thus, Han-era physicians prescribed medicine that was believed to counteract this imbalance. For example, since the wood phase was believed to promote the fire phase, medicinal ingredients associated with the wood phase could be used to heal an organ associated with the fire phase. To this end, the physician Zhang Zhongjing (c. 150–c. 219 AD) prescribed regulated diets rich in certain foods that were thought to cure specific illnesses. These are now known to be nutrition disorders caused by the lack of certain vitamins consumed in one's diet. Besides dieting, Han physicians also prescribed moxibustion, acupuncture, and calisthenics as methods of maintaining one's health. When surgery was performed by the physician Hua Tuo (d. 208 AD), he used anesthesia to numb his patients' pain and prescribed a rubbing ointment that allegedly sped the process of healing surgical wounds.

Question: Who believed that the same forces that controlled the universe also controlled the human body?
Answer: Han-era medical physicians

Question: What was used during surgery to relieve patients of their pain?
Answer: anesthesia

Question: What profession was the individual Zhang Zhongjing involved in?
Answer: physician

Question: How did Zhang Zhongjing attempt to cure various illnesses?
Answer: prescribed regulated diets

Question: When did Hua Tuo die?
Answer: 208 AD
Quran

Muslims believe the Quran was verbally revealed by God to Muhammad through the angel Gabriel (Jibril), gradually over a period of approximately 23 years, beginning on 22 December 609 CE, when Muhammad was 40, and concluding in 632, the year of his death. Muslims regard the Quran as the most important miracle of Muhammad, a proof of his prophethood, and the culmination of a series of divine messages that started with the messages revealed to Adam and ended with Muhammad. The word "Quran" occurs some 70 times in the text of the Quran, although different names and words are also said to be references to the Quran.

Question: Which angel is believed to have communicated the Quran to Muhammad?
Answer: Gabriel

Question: On which date did Muhammad begin receiving the Quran?
Answer: 22 December 609 CE

Question: In which year CE did Muhammad die?
Answer: 632

Question: What is the Arabic variant of Gabriel?
Answer: Jibril

Question: How many times is the word "Quran" used in the Quran?
Answer: 70

Question: Which devil is believed to have communicated the Quran to Muhammad?

Question: On which date did Muhammad stop receiving the Quran?

Question: In which year CE did Muhammad get sick?

Question: What is the Jewish variant of Gabriel?

Question: How many times isn't the word "Quran" used in the Quran?
Quran

According to the traditional narrative, several companions of Muhammad served as scribes and were responsible for writing down the revelations. Shortly after Muhammad's death, the Quran was compiled by his companions who wrote down and memorized parts of it. These codices had differences that motivated the Caliph Uthman to establish a standard version now known as Uthman's codex, which is generally considered the archetype of the Quran known today. There are, however, variant readings, with mostly minor differences in meaning.

Question: Who first recorded Muhammad revelations?
Answer: companions of Muhammad

Question: Who first standardized the earliest versions of the Quran?
Answer: Caliph Uthman

Question: By what name is the first standardized version of the Quran known?
Answer: Uthman's codex

Question: Who last recorded Muhammad revelations?

Question: Who last standardized the earliest versions of the Quran?

Question: Who first standardized the latest versions of the Quran?

Question: By what name is the last standardized version of the Quran known?

Question: By what name is the first standardized version of the Quran unknown?
Quran

The Quran assumes familiarity with major narratives recounted in the Biblical scriptures. It summarizes some, dwells at length on others and, in some cases, presents alternative accounts and interpretations of events. The Quran describes itself as a book of guidance. It sometimes offers detailed accounts of specific historical events, and it often emphasizes the moral significance of an event over its narrative sequence. The Quran is used along with the hadith to interpret sharia law. During prayers, the Quran is recited only in Arabic.

Question: In which language is the Quran spoken during prayer?
Answer: Arabic

Question: The Quran is used in the interpretation of which form of law?
Answer: sharia

Question: What accounts are form the basis of much of the accounts in the Quran?
Answer: Biblical scriptures

Question: Which religious text calls itself a book of guidance?
Answer: Quran

Question: In which language is the Quran unspoken during prayer?

Question: The Quran isn't used in the interpretation of which form of law?

Question: The Quran is unused in the interpretation of which form of law?

Question: What accounts are form the basis of none of the accounts in the Quran?

Question: Which scientific text calls itself a book of guidance?
Quran

The word qurʼān appears about 70 times in the Quran itself, assuming various meanings. It is a verbal noun (maṣdar) of the Arabic verb qaraʼa (قرأ), meaning "he read" or "he recited". The Syriac equivalent is (ܩܪܝܢܐ) qeryānā, which refers to "scripture reading" or "lesson". While some Western scholars consider the word to be derived from the Syriac, the majority of Muslim authorities hold the origin of the word is qaraʼa itself. Regardless, it had become an Arabic term by Muhammad's lifetime. An important meaning of the word is the "act of reciting", as reflected in an early Quranic passage: "It is for Us to collect it and to recite it (qurʼānahu)."

Question: From which Arabic verb might "Quran" be derived?
Answer: qaraʼa

Question: What Syriac word might be related to "Quran"?
Answer: qeryānā

Question: The words from which the name "Quran" might be described are related to which act?
Answer: reciting

Question: Which word do most Muslim scholars point to as the origin of the Quran's name?
Answer: qaraʼa

Question: From which Arabic noun might "Quran" be derived?

Question: From which Arabic verb might not "Quran" be derived?

Question: What Syriac word might be unrelated to "Quran"?

Question: The words from which the name "Quran" might be described are unrelated to which act?

Question: Which word don't any Muslim scholars point to as the origin of the Quran's name?
Quran

The term also has closely related synonyms that are employed throughout the Quran. Each synonym possesses its own distinct meaning, but its use may converge with that of qurʼān in certain contexts. Such terms include kitāb (book); āyah (sign); and sūrah (scripture). The latter two terms also denote units of revelation. In the large majority of contexts, usually with a definite article (al-), the word is referred to as the "revelation" (waḥy), that which has been "sent down" (tanzīl) at intervals. Other related words are: dhikr (remembrance), used to refer to the Quran in the sense of a reminder and warning, and ḥikmah (wisdom), sometimes referring to the revelation or part of it.

Question: Which term used in the Quran to indicate itself means "book"?
Answer: kitāb

Question: Which term does the Quran use to refer to itself as "scripture"?
Answer: sūrah

Question: What meaning does the Quran take when it calls itself hikmah?
Answer: wisdom

Question: What name does the Quran use for itself that means "revelation"?
Answer: waḥy

Question: Which term isn't used in the Quran to indicate itself means "book"?

Question: Which term doesn't the Quran use to refer to itself as "scripture"?

Question: Which term does the Quran use to refer to itself as "puncture"?

Question: What meaning doesn't the Quran take when it calls itself hikmah?

Question: What name doesn't the Quran use for itself that means "revelation"?