page_title: List of Chinese inventions
section_title: S
hierarchical_section_title: List of Chinese inventions / Shang and later / S
caption_attribution_description: English: A set of trip hammers on an axle rotated by a waterwheel, a machine used to decorticate grain. From the Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia of 1637, written by the Ming Dynasty encyclopedist Song Yingxing (1587-1666). Français&#160;: Un ensemble de marteaux tournant autour d'un axe activé par un moulin à eau et utilisé pour décortiquer les grains de céréales. Tiré de l'encyclopédie Tiangong Kaiwu de 1637, écrite par l'encyclopédiste de la Dynastie Ming, Song Yingxing (1587-1666). This picture appears on page 93 of E-tu Zen Sun and Shiou-Chuan Sun's translation (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1966)
context_page_description: China has been the source of many innovations, scientific discoveries and inventions. This includes the Four Great Inventions: papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, and printing. The list below contains these and other inventions in China attested by archaeological or historical evidence.
  The historical region now known as China experienced a history involving mechanics, hydraulics and mathematics applied to horology, metallurgy, astronomy, agriculture, engineering, music theory, craftsmanship, naval architecture and warfare. By the Warring States period, inhabitants of the Warring States had advanced metallurgic technology, including the blast furnace and cupola furnace, while the finery forge and puddling process were known by the Han Dynasty. A sophisticated economic system in imperial China gave birth to inventions such as paper money during the Song Dynasty. The invention of gunpowder during the mid 9th century led to an array of inventions such as the fire lance, land mine, naval mine, hand cannon, exploding cannonballs, multistage rocket and rocket bombs with aerodynamic wings and explosive payloads.
context_section_description: Salt well: The Chinese have been using brine wells and a form of salt solution mining as part of their civilization for more than 2000 years. The first recorded salt well in China was dug in the Sichuan province around 2,250 years ago. This was the first time that ancient water well technology was applied successfully for the exploitation of salt, and marked the beginning of Sichuan's salt drilling industry. Shaft wells were sunk as early as 220 BC in the Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. By 1035 AD, Chinese in the Sichuan area were using percussion drilling to recover deep brines, a technique that would not be introduced to Europe and the Western World for another 600 to 800 years. Medieval and modern European travelers to China between 1400 and 1700 AD reported salt and natural gas production from dense networks of brine wells. Archaeological evidence of Song dynasty salt drilling tools used are kept and displayed in the Zigong Salt Industry Museum. Many of the wells were sunk deeper than 450 m and at least one well was more than 1000 meters deep. The medieval Venetian traveler to China Marco Polo reported an annual production in a single province of more than 30,000 tonnes of brine during his time there. According to Salt: A World History, a Qing Dynasty well, also located in Zigong, "continued down to 3,300 feet [1,000 m] making it at the time the deepest drilled well in the world."
  Seismometer: The Chinese polymath and inventor Zhang Heng (78–139) of the Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) invented the first seismometer in 132, a large metal urn-shaped instrument which employed either a suspended pendulum or inverted pendulum acting on inertia (i.e. ground tremors from earthquakes) to dislodge a metal ball by a lever trip device; this ball would fall out of dragon-shaped metal mouth into the corresponding metal toad mouth indicating the exact cardinal direction of where a distant earthquake had occurred in order for the state to send swift aid and relief to the affected regions; several subsequent recreations of his device were employed by Chinese states up until the Tang Dynasty (618–907), when use of the device fell into obscurity, a fact noted even by the writer Zhou Mi around 1290, during the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368).
  Sky lantern: The Chinese military strategist, politician, writer, and inventor Zhuge Liang of the Three Kingdoms era is credited with its invention, and reportedly used it during military campaigns. According to the British scientist, historian, and sinologist Joseph Needham, sky lanterns have been used in China since the 3rd century BC. In 1783, the French entrepreneurs and inventors Joseph-Michel and Jacques-Etienne Montgolfier took part in the first modern manned hot air balloon flight.
  Snow gauge: The first use of snow gauges were precipitation gauges that was widely used in 1247 during the Southern Song dynasty to gather meteorological data. The Song Chinese mathematician and inventor Qin Jiushao records the use of gathering rain and snowfall measurements in the Song mathematical treatise Mathematical Treatise in Nine Sections. The book discusses the use of large conical or barrel-shaped snow gauges made from bamboo situated in mountain passes and uplands which are speculated to be first referenced to snow measurement.
  Solid-propellant rocket: The medieval Song dynasty Chinese invented the solid-propellant rocket at a time when bows, arrows, and catapult-based projectile launchers were state of the art military technology in medieval Europe. Illustrations and descriptions in the 14th century Chinese military treatise  Huolongjing by the Ming dynasty military writer and philosopher Jiao Yu confirm that the Chinese in 1232 used proto-solid propellant rockets then known as "fire arrows" to drive back the Mongols during the Siege of Kaifeng. Each arrow took a primitive form of a simple, solid-propellant rocket tube that was filled gunpowder. One open end allowed the gas to escape and was attached to a long stick that acted as a guidance system for flight direction control.
  South-pointing chariot: Although t
caption: Hydraulic-powered trip hammers, from a Ming Dynasty encyclopedia published in 1637 by Song Yingxing (1587–1666)
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