History of science and technology in China#Jesuit activity in China

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The Warring States period began 2500 years ago at the time of the invention of the crossbow.{{harvnb|Needham|Robinson|Huang|2004}}, p. 218. Needham notes that the invention of the crossbow "far outstripped the progress in defensive armor", which made the wearing of armor useless to the princes and dukes of the states.{{harvnb|Needham|Robinson|Huang|2004}}, p. 10. At this time, there were also many nascent schools of thought in China—the Hundred Schools of Thought (諸子百家), scattered among many polities. The schools served as communities which advised the rulers of these states. Mo Di (墨翟 Mozi, 470 BCE–c. 391 BCE) introduced concepts useful to one of those rulers, such as defensive fortification. One of these concepts, fa (法 principle or method){{harvnb|Needham|1956}} p. 185. was extended by the School of Names (名家 Ming jia, ming=name), which began a systematic exploration of logic. The development of a school of logic was cut short by the defeat of Mohism's political sponsors by the Qin dynasty, and the subsumption of fa as law rather than method by the Legalists.

Needham further notes that the Han dynasty, which conquered the short-lived Qin, were made aware of the need for law by Lu Jia and by Shusun Tong, as defined by the scholars, rather than the generals.

{{blockquote

| You conquered the empire on horseback, but from horseback you will never succeed in ruling it.

| Lu JiaLu Jia (196 BCE, 前漢書 (Chi'en Han Shu) (History of the former Han dynasty) ch. 43, p. 6b and Tung Chien Kang Mu (Essential Mirror of Universal History) ch. 3, p. 46b) as referenced in {{harvnb|Needham|Robinson|Huang|2004}}, p. 10.

}}

Derived from Taoist philosophy, one of the newest longstanding contributions of the ancient Chinese are in Traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture and herbal medicine. The practice of acupuncture can be traced back as far as the 1st millennium BC and some scientists believe that there is evidence that practices similar to acupuncture were used in Eurasia during the early Bronze Age.{{cite web |title=Die neuen Akupunkturpunkte zur Beeinflussung der Hirnnerven an der Hand |url=http://www.ogka.at/aerzte/artikel/oetziLancet.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061208234912/http://www.ogka.at/aerzte/artikel/oetziLancet.htm |archive-date=2006-12-08 |access-date=2007-02-19}}, [http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140673698122420/fulltext]

Using shadow clocks and the abacus (both invented in the ancient Near East before spreading to China), the Chinese were able to record observations, documenting the first recorded solar eclipse in 2137 BC, and making the first recording of any planetary grouping in 500 BC.[http://home.cwru.edu/~sjr16/advanced/pre20th_ancients_others.html Ancient Chinese Astronomy] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060222181543/http://home.cwru.edu/~sjr16/advanced/pre20th_ancients_others.html |date=2006-02-22 }} These claims, however, are highly disputed and rely on much supposition.{{cite web |author=F. Espenak |title=Solar Eclipses of Historical Interest |url=http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhistory/SEhistory.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080309073832/http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/SEhistory/SEhistory.html |archive-date=2008-03-09 }}{{cite book |author=F.R. Stephenson |title=Historical Eclipses and Earth's Rotation |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year= 1997}} The Book of Silk was the first definitive atlas of comets, written c. 400 BC. It listed 29 comets (referred to as sweeping stars) that appeared over a period of about 300 years, with renderings of comets describing an event its appearance corresponded to.

In architecture, the pinnacle of Chinese technology manifested itself in the Great Wall of China, under the first Chinese Emperor Qin Shi Huang between 220 and 200 BC. Typical Chinese architecture changed little from the succeeding Han dynasty until the 19th century.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} The Qin dynasty also developed the crossbow, which later became the mainstream weapon in Europe. Several remains of crossbows have been found among the soldiers of the Terracotta Army in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang.[https://web.archive.org/web/20010425114009/http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Academy/7547/weapon.html Weapons of the terracotta army]

File:ChineseCrossbow.JPG, 2nd century BC]]

{{main|Science and technology of the Han dynasty}}

The Eastern Han dynasty scholar and astronomer Zhang Heng (78–139 AD) invented the first water-powered rotating armillary sphere (the first armillary sphere having been invented by the Greek Eratosthenes), and catalogued 2,500 stars and over 100 constellations. In 132, he invented the first seismological detector, called the "Houfeng Didong Yi" ("Instrument for inquiring into the wind and the shaking of the earth").{{cite web|url=http://english.people.com.cn/200506/13/eng20050613_189957.html|title=People's Daily Online -- China resurrects world's earliest seismograph|last=english@peopledaily.com.cn|website=english.people.com.cn}} According to the History of Later Han Dynasty (25–220 AD), this seismograph was an urn-like instrument, which would drop one of eight balls to indicate when and in which direction an earthquake had occurred. On June 13, 2005, Chinese seismologists announced that they had created a replica of the instrument.

The mechanical engineer Ma Jun (c. 200–265 AD) was another impressive figure from ancient China. Ma Jun improved the design of the silk loom,Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 39. designed mechanical chain pumps to irrigate palatial gardens, and created a large and intricate mechanical puppet theatre for Emperor Ming of Wei, which was operated by a large hidden waterwheel.Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 158. However, Ma Jun's most impressive invention was the south-pointing chariot, a complex mechanical device that acted as a mechanical compass vehicle. While the exact mechanism is unclear, scholars think it incorporated the use of a differential gear in order to apply equal amount of torque to wheels rotating at different speeds, a device that is found in all modern automobiles.Needham, Volume 4, Part 2, 40.

Sliding calipers were invented in China almost 2,000 years ago.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} The Chinese civilization was the earliest civilization to experiment successfully with aviation, with the kite and Kongming lantern (proto Hot air balloon) being the first flying machines.

File:Jingangjing.jpg from Tang dynasty China, 868 AD (British Library)]]

{{main|Four Great Inventions}}

The "Four Great Inventions" ({{zh|t=四大發明|s=四大发明|p=sì dà fāmíng}}) are the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing. Paper and printing were developed first. Printing was recorded in China in the Tang dynasty, although the earliest surviving examples of printed cloth patterns date to before 220.Shelagh Vainker Pin-pointing the development of the compass can be difficult: the magnetic attraction of a needle is attested by the Louen-heng, composed between AD 20 and 100,"A lodestone attracts a needle." Li Shu-hua, p. 176. although the first undisputed magnetized needles in Chinese literature appear in 1086.Li Shu-hua, p. 182f.

By AD 300, Ge Hong, an alchemist of the Jin dynasty, conclusively recorded the chemical reactions caused when saltpetre, pine resin and charcoal were heated together, in Book of the Master of the Preservations of Solidarity.Liang, pp. Appendix C VII Another early record of gunpowder, a Chinese book from c. 850 AD, indicates:Kelly, p. 4.

Some have heated together sulfur, realgar and saltpeter with honey; smoke and flames result, so that their hands and faces have been burnt, and even the whole house where they were working burned down.

These four discoveries had an enormous impact on the development of Chinese civilization and a far-ranging global impact. Gunpowder, for example, spread to the Arabs in the 13th century and thence to Europe.Kelly, p. 22. "Around 1240 the Arabs acquired knowledge of saltpeter (“Chinese snow”) from the East, perhaps through India. They knew of gunpowder soon afterward. They also learned about fireworks (“Chinese flowers”) and rockets (“Chinese arrows”)." According to English philosopher Francis Bacon, writing in Novum Organum:

{{blockquote

| Printing, gunpowder and the compass: These three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world; the first in literature, the second in warfare, the third in navigation; whence have followed innumerable changes, in so much that no empire, no sect, no star seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries.

|Novum Organum, Liber I, CXXIX – Adapted from the 1863 translation

}}

One of the most important military treatises of all Chinese history was the Huo Long Jing written by Jiao Yu in the 14th century. For gunpowder weapons, it outlined the use of fire arrows and rockets, fire lances and firearms, land mines and naval mines, bombards and cannons, two stage rockets, along with different compositions of gunpowder, including 'magic gunpowder', 'poisonous gunpowder', and 'blinding and burning gunpowder' (refer to his article).

For the 11th century invention of ceramic movable type printing by Bi Sheng (990–1051), it was enhanced by the wooden movable type of Wang Zhen in 1298 and the bronze metal movable type of Hua Sui in 1490.

File:WorldShips1460.jpg). Chinese junks are described as very large, three- or four-masted ships.]]

{{Further|Science and technology of the Tang dynasty}}

Among the engineering accomplishments of early China were matches, dry docks, the double-action piston pump, cast iron, the iron plough, the horse collar, the multi-tube seed drill, the wheelbarrow, the suspension bridge, the parachute, natural gas as fuel, the raised-relief map, the propeller, the sluice gate, and the pound lock. The Tang dynasty (AD 618–907) and Song dynasty (AD 960–1279) in particular were periods of great innovation.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

In the 7th century, book-printing was developed in China, Korea and Japan, using delicate hand-carved wooden blocks to print individual pages.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} The 9th century Diamond Sutra is the earliest known printed document.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} Movable type was also used in China for a time, but was abandoned because of the number of characters needed; it would not be until Johannes Gutenberg that the technique was reinvented in a suitable environment.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}}

In addition to gunpowder, the Chinese also developed improved delivery systems for the Byzantine weapon of Greek fire, Meng Huo You and Pen Huo Qi first used in China c. 900.Turnbull, p. 43. Chinese illustrations were more realistic than in Byzantine manuscripts, and detailed accounts from 1044 recommending its use on city walls and ramparts show the brass container as fitted with a horizontal pump, and a nozzle of small diameter. The records of a battle on the Yangtze near Nanjing in 975 offer an insight into the dangers of the weapon, as a change of wind direction blew the fire back onto the Song forces.

{{main|Science and technology of the Song dynasty}}

The Song dynasty (960–1279) brought a new stability for China after a century of civil war, and started a new area of modernisation by encouraging examinations and meritocracy. The first Song Emperor created political institutions that allowed a great deal of freedom of discourse and thought, which facilitated the growth of scientific advance, economic reforms, and achievements in arts and literature.Money of the World Special Christmas Edition, Orbis Publishing Ltd, 1998. Trade flourished both within China and overseas, and the encouragement of technology allowed the mints at Kaifeng and Hangzhou to gradually increase in production. In 1080, the mints of Emperor Shenzong had produced 5 billion coins (roughly 50 per Chinese citizen), and the first banknotes were produced in 1023. These coins were so durable that they would still be in use 700 years later, in the 18th century.

There were many famous inventors and early scientists in the Song dynasty period. The statesman Shen Kuo is best known for his book known as the Dream Pool Essays (1088 AD). In it, he wrote of use for a drydock to repair boats, the navigational magnetic compass, and the discovery of the concept of true north (with magnetic declination towards the North Pole). Shen Kuo also devised a geological theory for land formation, or geomorphology, and theorized that there was climate change in geological regions over an enormous span of time.

The equally talented statesman Su Song was best known for his engineering project of the Astronomical Clock Tower of Kaifeng, by 1088 AD. The clock tower was driven by a rotating waterwheel and escapement mechanism. Crowning the top of the clock tower was the large bronze, mechanically driven, rotating armillary sphere. In 1070, Su Song also compiled the Ben Cao Tu Jing (Illustrated Pharmacopoeia, original source material from 1058 to 1061 AD) with a team of scholars. This pharmaceutical treatise covered a wide range of other related subjects, including botany, zoology, mineralogy, and metallurgy.

Chinese astronomers were the first to record observations of a supernova, the first being the SN 185, recorded during the Han dynasty. Chinese astronomers made two more notable supernova observations during the Song dynasty: the SN 1006, the brightest recorded supernova in history; and the SN 1054, making the Crab Nebula the first astronomical object recognized as being connected to a supernova explosion.Mayall N.U. (1939), [http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1939ASPL....3..145M&link_type=ARTICLE&db_key=AST The Crab Nebula, a Probable Supernova], Astronomical Society of the Pacific Leaflets, v. 3, p. 145.

{{main|History of Chinese archaeology}}

During the early half of the Song dynasty (960–1279), the study of archaeology developed out of the antiquarian interests of the educated gentry and their desire to revive the use of ancient vessels in state rituals and ceremonies.Julius Thomas Fraser and Francis C. Haber, Time, Science, and Society in China and the West (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, {{ISBN|0-87023-495-1}}, 1986), pp. 227. This and the belief that ancient vessels were products of 'sages' and not common people was criticized by Shen Kuo, who took an interdisciplinary approach to archaeology, incorporating his archaeological findings into studies on metallurgy, optics, astronomy, geometry, and ancient music measures. His contemporary Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) compiled an analytical catalogue of ancient rubbings on stone and bronze, which Patricia B. Ebrey says pioneered ideas in early epigraphy and archaeology.Patricia B. Ebrey, The Cambridge Illustrated History of China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999, {{ISBN|0-521-66991-X}}), pp. 148. In accordance with the beliefs of the later Leopold von Ranke (1795–1886), some Song gentry—such as Zhao Mingcheng (1081–1129)—supported the primacy of contemporaneous archaeological finds of ancient inscriptions over historical works written after the fact, which they contested to be unreliable in regard to the former evidence.Rudolph, R.C. "Preliminary Notes on Sung Archaeology," The Journal of Asian Studies (Volume 22, Number 2, 1963): 169–177. Hong Mai (1123–1202) used ancient Han dynasty era vessels to debunk what he found to be fallacious descriptions of Han vessels in the Bogutu archaeological catalogue compiled during the latter half of Huizong's reign (1100–1125).

In addition to his studies in meteorology, astronomy, and archaeology mentioned above, Shen Kuo also made hypotheses in regards to geology and climatology in his Dream Pool Essays of 1088, specifically his claims regarding geomorphology and climate change. Shen believed that land was reshaped over time due to perpetual erosion, uplift, and deposition of silt, and cited his observance of horizontal strata of fossils embedded in a cliffside at Taihang as evidence that the area was once the location of an ancient seashore that had shifted hundreds of miles east over an enormous span of time.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986) pp. 603–604, 618.Nathan Sivin, Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. (Brookfield, Vermont: VARIORUM, Ashgate Publishing, 1995), Chapter III, pp. 23.Alan Kam-leung Chan, Gregory K. Clancey, and Hui-Chieh Loy, Historical Perspectives on East Asian Science, Technology and Medicine (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|9971-69-259-7}}) pp. 15. Shen also wrote that since petrified bamboos were found underground in a dry northern climate zone where they had never been known to grow, climates naturally shifted geographically over time.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986) pp. 618.

Until the Song dynasty, Chinese medicine classified drugs under the system of the Zhenghe bencao (Herbal of the Zhenghe Era):

1. Superior drugs, associated with immortality, were used for the realization of vital powers
2. Medium drugs that enrich one's nature
3. Inferior drugs were those used to treat diseases

These early forms of drugs were made using primitive methods, usually just simple dried herbs, or unprocessed minerals. They were developed into combinations known as "elixirs of immortality". These early magical practices, supported by the imperial courts of Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BCE) and Emperor Wu (156–87 BCE) eventually led to the first observations of chemistry in ancient China. Chinese alchemists searched for ways to make cinnabar, gold and other minerals water soluble so they could be ingested, such as using a solution of potassium nitrate in vinegar . Solubilzation of cinnabar was found to occur only if an impurity (chloride ion) was present. Gold also was soluble when iodate was present in crude niter deposits.{{cite book |author1=Anthony R. Butler |author2=Christopher Glidewell |author1-link=Chemistry in China |editor1-last=Selin |editor1-first=Helaine |title=Encyclopedia of the History of Science, Technology and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures |date=2008 |publisher=Springer |page=89}}

{{seealso|Science and technology of the Yuan dynasty}}

Mongol rule under the Yuan dynasty saw technological advances from an economic perspective, with the first mass production of paper banknotes by Kublai Khan in the 13th century.{{citation needed|date=March 2019}} Numerous contacts between Europe and the Mongols occurred in the 13th century, particularly through the unstable Franco-Mongol alliance. Chinese corps, expert in siege warfare, formed an integral part of the Mongol armies campaigning in the West. In 1259–1260 military alliance of the Franks knights of the ruler of Antioch, Bohemond VI and his father-in-law Hetoum I with the Mongols under Hulagu, in which they fought together for the conquests of Muslim Syria, taking together the city of Aleppo, and later Damascus."Histoire des Croisades", René Grousset, p. 581, {{ISBN|2-262-02569-X}} William of Rubruck, an ambassador to the Mongols in 1254–1255, a personal friend of Roger Bacon, is also often designated as a possible intermediary in the transmission of gunpowder know-how between the East and the West."The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization", John M.Hobson, p. 186, {{ISBN|0-521-54724-5}} The compass is often said to have been introduced by the Master of the Knights Templar Pierre de Montaigu between 1219 and 1223, from one of his travels to visit the Mongols in Persia.{{cite web|url=http://templis.free.fr/maitre.htm#16|title=Grand maitre|website=templis.free.fr}}

Chinese and Arabic astronomy intermingled under Mongol rule. Muslim astronomers worked in the Chinese Astronomical Bureau established by Kublai Khan, while some Chinese astronomers also worked at the Persian Maragha observatory.{{cite journal|url=http://abstractairanica.revues.org/document4985.html|title=" Islamic and Chinese Astronomy under the Mongols: a Little-Known Case of Transmission ", in : Yvonne Dold-Samplonius, Joseph W. Dauben, Menso Folkerts & Benno van Dalen, éds., From China to Paris. 2000 Years Transmission of Mathematical Ideas. Series: Boethius 46, Stuttgart (Steiner), 2002, pp. 327–356.|first=Živa|last=Vesel|date=15 May 2004|journal=Abstracta Iranica|volume=25|doi=10.4000/abstractairanica.4985 |via=abstractairanica.revues.org|doi-access=free}} Before this, in ancient times, Indian astronomers had lent their expertise to the Chinese court.{{cite web|url=http://www.nybooks.com/|title=Home|via=www.nybooks.com}}

File:Sea island survey.jpg, written by Liu Hui in the 3rd century]]

As Toby E. Huff notes, pre-modern Chinese science developed precariously without solid scientific theory, while there was a lacking of consistent systemic treatment in comparison to contemporaneous European works such as the Concordance and Discordant Canons by Gratian of Bologna (fl. 12th century).{{Cite book |last=Huff |first=Toby E. |title=The Rise of Early Modern Science: Islam, China and the West |date=2003-08-18 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-82302-9 |edition=2 |pages=303 |doi=10.1017/cbo9781316257098}} This drawback to Chinese science was lamented even by the mathematician Yang Hui (1238–1298), who criticized earlier mathematicians such as Li Chunfeng (602–670) who were content with using methods without working out their theoretical origins or principle, stating:

{{blockquote

| The men of old changed the name of their methods from problem to problem, so that as no specific explanation was given, there is no way of telling their theoretical origin or basis.

|Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986) pp. 104.

}}

Despite this, Chinese thinkers of the Middle Ages proposed some hypotheses which are in accordance with modern principles of science. Yang Hui provided theoretical proof for the proposition that the complements of the parallelograms which are about the diameter of any given parallelogram are equal to one another. Sun Sikong (1015–1076) proposed the idea that rainbows were the result of the contact between sunlight and moisture in the air, while Shen Kuo (1031–1095) expanded upon this with description of atmospheric refraction.Nathan Sivin, Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. (Brookfield, Vermont: VARIORUM, Ashgate Publishing, 1995), Chapter III, pp. 24.Yung Sik Kim, The Natural Philosophy of Chu Hsi (1130–1200) (DIANE Publishing, 2002, {{ISBN|0-87169-235-X}}), pp. 171.Paul Dong, China's Major Mysteries: Paranormal Phenomena and the Unexplained in the People's Republic (San Francisco: China Books and Periodicals, Inc., 2000, {{ISBN|0-8351-2676-5}}), pp. 72. Shen believed that rays of sunlight refracted before reaching the surface of the Earth, hence the appearance of the observed Sun from Earth did not match its exact location. Coinciding with the astronomical work of his colleague Wei Pu, Shen and Wei realized that the old calculation technique for the mean Sun was inaccurate compared to the apparent Sun, since the latter was ahead of it in the accelerated phase of motion, and behind it in the retarded phase.Nathan Sivin, Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. (Brookfield, Vermont: VARIORUM, Ashgate Publishing, 1995), Chapter III, pp. 16–19. Shen supported and expanded upon beliefs earlier proposed by Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) scholars such as Jing Fang (78–37 BCE) and Zhang Heng (78–139 CE) that lunar eclipse occurs when the Earth obstructs the sunlight traveling towards the Moon, a solar eclipse is the Moon's obstruction of sunlight reaching Earth, the Moon is spherical like a ball and not flat like a disc, and moonlight is merely sunlight reflected from the Moon's surface.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986) pp. 227 & 414–416. Shen also explained that the observance of a full moon occurred when the Sun's light was slanting at a certain degree and that crescent phases of the moon proved that the Moon was spherical, using a metaphor of observing different angles of a silver ball with white powder thrown onto one side."Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986) pp. 415–416.Paul Dong, China's Major Mysteries: Paranormal Phenomena and the Unexplained in the People's Republic (San Francisco: China Books and Periodicals, Inc., 2000, {{ISBN|0-8351-2676-5}}), pp. 71–72. Although the Chinese accepted the idea of spherical-shaped heavenly bodies, the concept of a spherical Earth (as opposed to a flat Earth) was not accepted in Chinese thought until the works of Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) and Chinese astronomer Xu Guangqi (1562–1633) in the early 17th century.Dainian Fan and Robert Sonné Cohen, Chinese Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1996, {{ISBN|0-7923-3463-9}}), pp. 431–432.

{{Main|Traditional Chinese medicine}}

There were noted advances in traditional Chinese medicine during the Middle Ages. Emperor Gaozong (reigned 649–683) of the Tang dynasty (618–907) commissioned the scholarly compilation of a materia medica in 657 that documented 833 medicinal substances taken from stones, minerals, metals, plants, herbs, animals, vegetables, fruits, and cereal crops.Charles Benn, China's Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. Oxford University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-19-517665-0}}), pp. 235. In his Bencao Tujing ('Illustrated Pharmacopoeia'), the scholar-official Su Song (1020–1101) not only systematically categorized herbs and minerals according to their pharmaceutical uses, but he also took an interest in zoology.Wu Jing-nuan, An Illustrated Chinese Materia Medica. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 5.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986) pp. 648–649.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 6, Biology and Biological Technology, Part 1, Botany. (Taipei: Caves Books Ltd., 1986), pp. 174–175.Schafer, Edward H. "Orpiment and Realgar in Chinese Technology and Tradition," Journal of the American Oriental Society (Volume 75, Number 2, 1955): 73–89. For example, Su made systematic descriptions of animal species and the environmental regions they could be found, such as the freshwater crab Eriocher sinensis found in the Huai River running through Anhui, in waterways near the capital city, as well as reservoirs and marshes of Hebei.West, Stephen H. "Cilia, Scale and Bristle: The Consumption of Fish and Shellfish in The Eastern Capital of The Northern Song," Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies (Volume 47, Number 2, 1987): 595–634.

Although the Bencao Tujing was an important pharmaceutical work of the age, Su Song is perhaps better known for his work in horology. His book Xinyi Xiangfayao (新儀象法要; lit. 'Essentials of a New Method for Mechanizing the Rotation of an Armillary Sphere and a Celestial Globe') documented the intricate mechanics of his astronomical clock tower in Kaifeng. This included the use of an escapement mechanism and world's first known chain drive to power the rotating armillary sphere crowning the top as well as the 133 clock jack figurines positioned on a rotating wheel that sounded the hours by banging drums, clashing gongs, striking bells, and holding plaques with special announcements appearing from open-and-close shutter windows.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2: Mechanical Engineering (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd. 1986) pp. 111 & 165 & 445–448.Liu, Heping. ""The Water Mill" and Northern Song Imperial Patronage of Art, Commerce, and Science," The Art Bulletin (Volume 84, Number 4, 2002): 566–595.Tony Fry, The Architectural Theory Review: Archineering in Chinatime (Sydney: University of Sydney, 2001), pp. 10–11.Derk Bodde, Chinese Thought, Society, and Science (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1991), pp. 140. While it had been Zhang Heng who applied the first motive power to the armillary sphere via hydraulics in 125 CE,Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2: Mechanical Engineering (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd. 1986), pp. 30.W. Scott Morton and Charlton M. Lewis, China: Its History and Culture. (New York: McGraw-Hill, Inc., 2005), pp. 70. it was Yi Xing (683–727) in 725 CE who first applied an escapement mechanism to a water-powered celestial globe and striking clock.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2: Mechanical Engineering (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd. 1986) pp. 470–475. The early Song dynasty horologist Zhang Sixun (fl. late 10th century) employed liquid mercury in his astronomical clock because there were complaints that water would freeze too easily in the clepsydra tanks during winter.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2: Mechanical Engineering (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd. 1986), pp. 469–471.

Shen Kuo's written work of 1088 also contains the first written description of the magnetic needle compass, the first description in China of experiments with camera obscura, the invention of movable type printing by the artisan Bi Sheng (990–1051), a method of repeated forging of cast iron under a cold blast similar to the modern Bessemer process, and the mathematical basis for spherical trigonometry that would later be mastered by the astronomer and engineer Guo Shoujing (1231–1316).Sal Restivo, Mathematics in Society and History: Sociological Inquiries (Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1992, {{ISBN|1-4020-0039-1}}), pp 32.Nathan Sivin, Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. (Brookfield, Vermont: VARIORUM, Ashgate Publishing, 1995), Chapter III, pp. 21, 27, & 34.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 1, Physics (Taipei: Caves Books Ltd., 1986), pp. 98 & 252.Hsu, Mei-ling. "Chinese Marine Cartography: Sea Charts of Pre-Modern China," Imago Mundi (Volume 40, 1988): 96–112.Jacques Gernet, A History of Chinese Civilization (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, {{ISBN|0-521-49781-7}}), pp. 335.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 1: Paper and Printing (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd, 1986), pp 201.{{cite journal|doi=10.1017/S0022050700061842|title=Markets, Technology, and the Structure of Enterprise in the Development of the Eleventh-Century Chinese Iron and Steel Industry|journal=The Journal of Economic History|volume=26|pages=29–58|year=1966|last1=Hartwell|first1=Robert|s2cid=154556274 }} While using a sighting tube of improved width to correct the position of the pole star (which had shifted over the centuries), Shen discovered the concept of true north and magnetic declination towards the North Magnetic Pole, a concept which would aid navigators in the years to come.Nathan Sivin, Science in Ancient China: Researches and Reflections. (Brookfield, Vermont: VARIORUM, Ashgate Publishing, 1995), Chapter III, pp. 22.Peter Mohn, Magnetism in the Solid State: An Introduction (New York: Springer-Verlag Inc., 2003, {{ISBN|3-540-43183-7}}), pp. 1.

In addition to the method similar to the Bessemer process mentioned above, there were other notable advancements in Chinese metallurgy during the Middle Ages. During the 11th century, the growth of the iron industry caused vast deforestation due to the use of charcoal in the smelting process.Wagner, Donald B. "The Administration of the Iron Industry in Eleventh-Century China," Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient (Volume 44 2001): 175–197.Patricia B. Ebrey, Anne Walthall, and James B. Palais, East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History (Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006, {{ISBN|0-618-13384-4}}), pp. 158. To remedy the problem of deforestation, the Song Chinese discovered how to produce coke from bituminous coal as a substitute for charcoal. Although hydraulic-powered bellows for heating the blast furnace had been written of since Du Shi's (d. 38) invention of the 1st century CE, the first known drawn and printed illustration of it in operation is found in a book written in 1313 by Wang Zhen (fl. 1290–1333).Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Physics and Physical Technology, Part 2, Mechanical Engineering (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986), pp. 376.

{{main|Chinese mathematics}}

Qin Jiushao (c. 1202–1261) was the first to introduce the zero symbol into Chinese mathematics.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986) pp. 43. Before this innovation, blank spaces were used instead of zeros in the system of counting rods.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986) pp. 62–63. Pascal's triangle was first illustrated in China by Yang Hui in his book Xiangjie Jiuzhang Suanfa (详解九章算法), although it was described earlier around 1100 by Jia Xian.Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986) pp. 134–137. Although the Introduction to Computational Studies (算学启蒙) written by Zhu Shijie (fl. 13th century) in 1299 contained nothing new in Chinese algebra, it had a great impact on the development of Japanese mathematics.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986) pp. 46.

File:てつはう（震天雷）.JPG), excavated from the Takashima shipwreck, October 2011. Excavated bombs contain a {{Convert|3-6|cm|abbr=on}} opening at the top where the fuse was placed. Once the fuse was lit, the bomb was thrown either by hand or catapult. According to the Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba scroll, these bombs made a large noise and emitted bright fire upon explosion. Prior to the shipwreck's discovery, observers believed the bombs depicted in the scroll were a later addition.]]

{{Main|Chinese alchemy}}

In their pursuit for an elixir of life and desire to create gold from various mixtures of materials, Taoists became heavily associated with alchemy.John King Fairbank and Merle Goldman, China: A New History (Cambridge: MA; London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2nd ed., 2006, {{ISBN|0-674-01828-1}}), pp. 81. Joseph Needham labeled their pursuits as proto-scientific rather than merely pseudoscience. Fairbank and Goldman write that the futile experiments of Chinese alchemists did lead to the discovery of new metal alloys, porcelain types, and dyes. However, Nathan Sivin discounts such a close connection between Taoism and alchemy, which some sinologists have asserted, stating that alchemy was more prevalent in the secular sphere and practiced by laymen.Nathan Sivin, [http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~nsivin/7tao.html "Taoism and Science" in Medicine, Philosophy and Religion in Ancient China] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080623085807/http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~nsivin/7tao.html |date=2008-06-23 }} (Variorum, 1995). Retrieved on 2008-08-13.

Experimentation with various materials and ingredients in China during the middle period led to the discovery of many ointments, creams, and other mixtures with practical uses. In a 9th-century Arab work Kitāb al-Khawāss al Kabīr, there are numerous products listed that were native to China, including waterproof and dust-repelling cream or varnish for clothes and weapons, a Chinese lacquer, varnish, or cream that protected leather items, a completely fire-proof cement for glass and porcelain, recipes for Chinese and Indian ink, a waterproof cream for the silk garments of underwater divers, and a cream specifically used for polishing mirrors.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 4, Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Apparatus, Theories and Gifts (Taipei: Caves Books Ltd., 1986), pp. 452.

The significant change that distinguished Medieval warfare to early Modern warfare was the use of gunpowder weaponry in battle. A 10th-century silken banner from Dunhuang portrays the first artistic depiction of a fire lance, a prototype of the gun.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986), pp. 220–262. The Wujing Zongyao military manuscript of 1044 listed the first known written formulas for gunpowder, meant for light-weight bombs lobbed from catapults or thrown down from defenders behind city walls.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986), pp. 70–73 & 117–124. By the 13th century, the iron-cased bomb shell, hand cannon, land mine, and rocket were developed.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986), pp. 173–174, 192, 290, & 477.Alfred W. Crosby, Throwing Fire: Projectile Technology Through History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, {{ISBN|0-521-79158-8}}), pp. 100–103. As evidenced by the Huolongjing of Jiao Yu and Liu Bowen, by the 14th century the Chinese had developed the heavy cannon, hollow and gunpowder-packed exploding cannonballs, the two-stage rocket with a booster rocket, the naval mine and wheellock mechanism to ignite trains of fuses.Joseph Needham, Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic (Taipei: Caves Books, Ltd., 1986), pp. 203–205, 264, 508.John Norris, Early Gunpowder Artillery: 1300–1600 (Marlborough: The Crowood Press, Ltd., 2003), pp. 11.

File:Jesuites en chine.jpgs in China]]

The Jesuit China missions of the 16th and 17th centuries introduced Western science and astronomy, then undergoing its own revolution, to China. One modern historian writes that in late Ming courts, the Jesuits were "regarded as impressive especially for their knowledge of astronomy, calendar-making, mathematics, hydraulics, and geography."Patricia Buckley Ebrey, p. 212. The Society of Jesus introduced, according to Thomas Woods, "a substantial body of scientific knowledge and a vast array of mental tools for understanding the physical universe, including the Euclidean geometry that made planetary motion comprehensible." Another expert quoted by Woods said the scientific revolution brought by the Jesuits coincided with a time when science was at a very low level in China:

{{blockquote|[The Jesuits] made efforts to translate western mathematical and astronomical works into Chinese and aroused the interest of Chinese scholars in these sciences. They made very extensive astronomical observation and carried out the first modern cartographic work in China. They also learned to appreciate the scientific achievements of this ancient culture and made them known in Europe. Through their correspondence European scientists first learned about the Chinese science and culture.|}} Johann Adam Schall published Yuan Jing Shuo, Explanation of the Telescope, in 1626, in Latin and Chinese. Schall's book referred to the telescopic observations of Galileo.link.springer.com/article/10.107/s 00016-020-00254-0wdl.org/en/item/11434/

Conversely, the Jesuits were very active in transmitting Chinese knowledge to Europe. Confucius's works were translated into European languages through the agency of Jesuit scholars stationed in China. Matteo Ricci started to report on the thoughts of Confucius, and Father Prospero Intorcetta published the life and works of Confucius into Latin in 1687."Windows into China", John Parker, p. 25. It is thought that such works had considerable importance on European thinkers of the period, particularly among the Deists and other philosophical groups of the Enlightenment who were interested by the integration of the system of morality of Confucius into Christianity."Windows into China", John Parker, p. 25, {{ISBN|0-89073-050-4}}"The Eastern origins of Western civilization", John Hobson, p. 194-195, {{ISBN|0-521-54724-5}}

The followers of the French physiocrat François Quesnay habitually referred to him as "the Confucius of Europe", and he personally identified himself with the Chinese sage.Rothbard, p 366 The doctrine and even the name of "Laissez-faire" may have been inspired by the Chinese concept of Wu wei.{{cite web|url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/economicHistory/GEHN/GEHNPDF/WorkingPaper12CG.pdf|title=Department of Economic History|first=London School of Economics and Political|last=Science|website=lse.ac.uk}}"The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization", John M. Hobson, p. 196 However, the economic insights of ancient Chinese political thought had otherwise little impact outside China in later centuries.Rothbard, p 23 Goethe, was known as "the Confucius of Weimar".{{cite journal| year = 1993| title = Confucius (K'ung Tzu) | journal = Prospects: The Quarterly Review of Comparative Education| volume = XXIII | issue = 1/2 | pages = 211–19 | url = http://www.ibe.unesco.org/publications/ThinkersPdf/confucie.PDF| doi=10.1007/bf02195036| last1 = Huanyin | first1 = Yang | s2cid = 147505060 }}

{{further|Great Divergence}}

One question that has been the subject of debate among historians has been why China did not develop a scientific revolution and why Chinese technology fell behind that of Europe. Many hypotheses have been proposed ranging from the cultural to the political and economic. John K. Fairbank, for example, argued that the Chinese political system was hostile to scientific progress. As for Needham, he wrote that cultural factors prevented traditional Chinese achievements from developing into what could be called "science." It was the religious and philosophical framework of the Chinese intellectuals which made them unable to believe in the ideas of laws of nature:

{{blockquote

| It was not that there was no order in nature for the Chinese, but rather that it was not an order ordained by a rational personal being, and hence there was no conviction that rational personal beings would be able to spell out in their lesser earthly languages the divine code of laws which he had decreed aforetime. The Taoists, indeed, would have scorned such an idea as being too naïve for the subtlety and complexity of the universe as they intuited it.

|{{harvnb|Needham|Wang|1954}}, p. 581.

}}

Another prominent historian of science, Nathan Sivin, has argued that China did indeed experience a scientific revolution in the 17th century; however, it must be understood in the context of its time and culture, rather than through a Western lens as an analog of Europe's revolution.{{Cite journal |last=Sivin |first=Nathan |date=March 1985 |title=Why the scientific revolution did not take place in China — or did it? |journal=The Environmentalist |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=39–50 |doi=10.1007/BF02239866 |issn=0251-1088}}

There are also questions about the philosophy behind traditional Chinese medicine, which, derived partly from Taoist philosophy, reflects the classical Chinese belief that individual human experiences express causative principles effective in the environment at all scales. Because its theory predates use of the scientific method, it has received various criticisms based on scientific thinking. Philosopher Robert Todd Carroll, a member of The Skeptics Society, deemed acupuncture a pseudoscience because it "confuse(s) metaphysical claims with empirical claims".{{cite web|url=http://skepdic.com/pseudosc.html|title=pseudoscience - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com|website=skepdic.com}}

More recent historians have questioned political and cultural explanations and have put greater focus on economic causes.{{cn|date=December 2023}} Mark Elvin's high level equilibrium trap is one well-known example of this line of thought. It argues that the Chinese population was large enough, workers cheap enough, and agrarian productivity high enough to not require mechanization: thousands of Chinese workers were perfectly able to quickly perform any needed task.{{cn|date=December 2023}} Other events such as Haijin, the Opium Wars and the resulting hate of European influence prevented China from undergoing an Industrial Revolution; copying Europe's progress on a large scale would be impossible for a lengthy period of time. Political instability under Cixi rule (opposition and frequent oscillation between modernists and conservatives), the Republican wars (1911–1933), the Sino-Japanese War (1933–1945), the Communist/Nationalist War (1945–1949) as well as the later Cultural Revolution isolated China at the most critical times. Kenneth Pomeranz has made the argument that the substantial resources taken from the New World to Europe made the crucial difference between European and Chinese development.{{cn|date=December 2023}}

In his book Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond postulates that the lack of geographic barriers within much of China{{mdash}}essentially a wide plain with two large navigable rivers and a relatively smooth coastline{{mdash}}led to a single government without competition. At the whim of a ruler who disliked new inventions, technology could be stifled for half a century or more. In contrast, Europe's barriers of the Pyrenees, the Alps, and the various defensible peninsulas (Denmark, Scandinavia, Italy, Greece, etc.) and islands (Britain, Ireland, Sicily, etc.) led to smaller countries in constant competition with each other. If a ruler chose to ignore a scientific advancement (especially a military or economic one), his more-advanced neighbors would soon usurp his throne. This explanation, however, ignores the fact that China had been politically fragmented in the past, and was thus not inherently disposed to political unification.{{Cite journal |last=Blaut |first=James M. |date=1999-07-01 |title=Environmentalism and Eurocentrism |journal=Geographical Review |language=en |volume=89 |issue=3 |pages=391–408 |doi=10.1111/j.1931-0846.1999.tb00225.x |issn=0016-7428}}

The Republic of China (1912–1949) saw the introduction in earnest of modern science to China. Large numbers of Chinese students studied abroad in Japan and in Europe and the US. Many returned to help teach and to found numerous schools and universities. Among them were numerous outstanding figures, including Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shih, Weng Wenhao, Ding Wenjiang, Fu Ssu-nien, and many others. As a result, there was a tremendous growth of modern science in China. As the Communist Party took over China's mainland in 1949, some of these Chinese scientists and institutions moved to Taiwan. The central science academy, Academia Sinica, also moved there.

Participants in the May Fourth Movement of 1919 advocated that science (nicknamed, "Mr. Science"), along with Democracy ("Mr. Democracy") could save China.{{Cite book |last=Zhong |first=Yang |url=https://www.fulcrum.org/concern/monographs/vx021h696 |title=China as Number One? The Emerging Values of a Rising Power |last2= |first2= |date=2024 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-07635-2 |editor-last=Zhong |editor-first=Yang |series=China Understandings Today series |location=Ann Arbor, Michigan |chapter=Attitudes Toward Religion, Science, and Technology in China |format=EPUB |editor-last2=Inglehart |editor-first2=Ronald |editor-last3=}}{{Rp|page=356}} Belief in the idea of "saving China through science" (kexue jiuguo) increased during the ROC period.{{Rp|page=356}}

{{main|History of science and technology in the People's Republic of China}}

{{see also|Science and technology in the People's Republic of China}}

After the establishment of the People's Republic in 1949, China reorganized its science establishment along Soviet lines. Although the country regressed scientifically as a result of government policies which led to famine during the Great Leap Forward and political chaos during the Cultural Revolution, scientific research in nuclear weapons and satellite launching still gained great success.

China began a formal computing development program in 1956 when it launched the Twelve-Year Science Plan and formed the Beijing Institute of Computing Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).{{Cite book |last=Mullaney |first=Thomas S. |title=The Chinese Computer: a Global History of the Information Age |date=2024 |publisher=The MIT Press |isbn=9780262047517 |location=Cambridge, MA}}{{Rp|page=100}} In 1958, China completed its first vacuum-tube computer.{{Rp|page=100}} Over the next several years, Chinese researchers expanded on these efforts with extrapolation from Soviet models.{{Rp|pages=100-101}}

Following the Sino-Soviet split, China continued to develop domestic computing and electronic institutions, including the Beijing Institute of Electronics in 1963.{{Rp|page=101}}

Beginning in 1964, China through the Third Front construction built a self-sufficient industrial base in its hinterlands as a strategic reserve in the event of war with the Soviet Union or the United States.{{Cite book |last=Meyskens |first=Covell F. |url= |title=Mao's Third Front: The Militarization of Cold War China |date=2020 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-78478-8 |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom |doi=10.1017/9781108784788 |oclc=1145096137 |s2cid=218936313}}{{Rp|page=1}} The Third Front construction was primarily carried out in secret, with the location for Third Front projects following the principle of “close to the mountains, dispersed, and hidden” ({{lang-zh|s=靠山, 分散, 隐蔽|p=kàoshān, fēnsàn, yǐnbì|labels=no}}).{{Cite book |last1=Marquis |first1=Christopher |author-link=Christopher Marquis |url= |title=Mao and Markets: The Communist Roots of Chinese Enterprise |last2=Qiao |first2=Kunyuan |date=2022 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-26883-6 |location=New Haven |doi=10.2307/j.ctv3006z6k |jstor=j.ctv3006z6k |oclc=1348572572 |s2cid=253067190}}{{Rp|page=179}} From 1964-1974, China invested more than 40% of its industrial capacity in Third Front regions.{{Cite book |last=Lan |first=Xiaohuan |title=How China Works: An Introduction to China's State-led Economic Development |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2024 |isbn=978-981-97-0079-0 |translator-last=Topp |translator-first=Gary |doi=10.1007/978-981-97-0080-6}}{{Rp|pages=297-298}} After Nixon's China trip in 1972, investment to the Third Front region gradually declined.{{Rp|pages=225-229}} Rapprochement between the United States and China decreased the fear of invasion which motivated the Third Front construction.{{Rp|page=180}} Through its distribution of infrastructure, industry, and human capital around the country, the Third Front created favorable conditions for subsequent market development and private enterprise.{{Rp|page=177}}

In 1964, CAS debuted China's first self-developed large digital computer, the 119.{{Rp|page=101}} The 119 was a core technology in facilitating China's first successful nuclear weapon test (Project 596), also in 1964.{{Rp|page=101}}

In 1966, China transitioned from vacuum-tube computers to fully transistorized computers.{{Rp|page=101}} In the mid-1960s through the late 1960s, China began a semiconductor program and was producing third-generation computers by 1972.{{Rp|page=101}}

From 1975, science and technology was one of the Four Modernizations, and its high-speed development was declared essential to all national economic development by Deng Xiaoping. Other civilian technologies such as superconductivity and high-yield hybrid rice led to new developments due to the application of science to industry and foreign technology transfer.

In March 1986, China launched a large-scale technology development plan, the 863 Project.{{Cite book |last=Minami |first=Kazushi |title=People's Diplomacy: How Americans and Chinese Transformed US-China Relations during the Cold War |date=2024 |publisher=Cornell University Press |isbn=9781501774157 |location=Ithaca, NY}}{{Rp|page=88}}

As the People's Republic of China becomes better connected to the global economy, the government has placed more emphasis on science and technology. This has led to increases in funding, improved scientific structure, and more money for research. These factors have led to advancements in agriculture, medicine, genetics, and global change. In 2003, the Chinese space program allowed China to become the third country to send humans into space, and ambition to put a man on mars by 2030. In the 2000s and 2010s, China became a top scientific and industrial power in more advanced fields such as super computing, artificial intelligence, bullet trains, aeronautics, nuclear physics researches and other fields.

In 2014, the China Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund was established in an effort to reduce dependence on foreign semiconductor companies.{{Cite book |last=Zhang |first=Angela Huyue |title=High Wire: How China Regulates Big Tech and Governs Its Economy |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2024 |isbn=9780197682258 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780197682258.001.0001}}{{Rp|page=274}}

In 2016, China became the country with the highest science output, as measured in publications. While the US had been the biggest producer of scientific studies until then, China published 426,000 studies in 2016 while the US published 409,000.{{Cite journal|title=China declared world's largest producer of scientific articles|last=Tollefson|first=Jeff|journal=Nature |date=2018-01-18|volume=553 |issue=7689 |page=390 |language=EN|doi=10.1038/d41586-018-00927-4|bibcode=2018Natur.553..390T|doi-access=free}} However, the numbers are somewhat relative, as it also depends how authorship on international collaborations is counted (e.g. if one paper is counted per person or whether authorship is split among authors). In 2022, China passed both the US and the European Union in the number of high-impact papers published.{{Cite news |title=China has become a scientific superpower |url=https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/06/12/china-has-become-a-scientific-superpower |access-date=2024-09-26 |work=The Economist |issn=0013-0613}} As of 2024, the Nature Index ranks seven Chinese universities or institutions in the global top ten for volume of research output. The Leiden Ranking rates six in the global top ten.

{{Portal|China|History|Science|Technology}}

• Chinese astronomy
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• List of Chinese discoveries
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• List of inventions and discoveries of Neolithic China
• Military history of China
• History of canals in China
• Science and Civilization in China
• Traditional Chinese medicine
• Two Bombs, One Satellite
• Yongle Encyclopedia
• Chinese Annals of History of Science and Technology

{{Reflist|2}}

• Patricia Buckley Ebrey, The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge, New York and Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 1996. {{ISBN|0-521-43519-6}}.
• Mark Elvin, "The high-level equilibrium trap: the causes of the decline of invention in the traditional Chinese textile industries" in W. E. Willmott, Economic Organization in Chinese Society, (Stanford, Calif., Stanford University Press, 1972) pp. 137–172.
• {{cite web|url= http://www-personal.umd.umich.edu/~delittle/elvin.pdf |title=The High-level Equilibrium Trap }} {{small|(64.3 KB)}}
• {{cite book |last=Kelly |first=Jack |title=Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World |publisher=Basic Books |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-465-03718-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/gunpowderalchemy00jack }}
• {{cite book |last = Liang |first = Jieming |title=Chinese Siege Warfare: Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity |publisher= Leong Kit Meng |year=2006 |isbn = 978-981-05-5380-7 |location= Singapore, Republic of Singapore}}
• {{Cite book |year=1954 |last1=Needham |first1=Joseph| last2=Wang |first2=Ling (王玲)|author1-link=Joseph Needham |author2-link=Wang Ling (historian) |title=Science and Civilisation in China |publisher=Cambridge University Press|volume=1 Introductory Orientations|title-link=Science and Civilisation in China }}
• {{Cite book |last=Needham |first=Joseph |author-link=Joseph Needham |year=1956 |title=Science and Civilisation in China |volume=2 History of Scientific Thought |isbn = 978-0-521-05800-1 |page=697 |title-link=Science and Civilisation in China }}
• Joseph Needham (1986). Science and Civilization in China, Volume 4, Part 2: Mechanical Engineering. Taipei: Caves Books Pty. Ltd.
• {{Cite journal |year=2004 |last1=Needham |first1=Joseph |last2=Robinson |first2=Kenneth G.| last3=Huang |first3=Jen-Yü |author1-link=Joseph Needham |title=Science and Civilisation in China |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=7, part II General Conclusions and Reflections |title-link=Science and Civilisation in China }}
• Li Shu-hua, "Origine de la Boussole 11. Aimant et Boussole," Isis, Vol. 45, No. 2. (Jul., 1954)
• {{Cite book | first=Murray N. | last=Rothbard |author-link=Murray Rothbard |title=Economic thought before Adam Smith: An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought |publisher=Edward Elgar |location=Cheltnam, UK |year = 2006 |isbn = 978-0-945466-48-2 | title-link=An Austrian Perspective on the History of Economic Thought }}
• Stephen Turnbull, The Walls of Constantinople, AD 324–1453, Osprey Publishing, {{ISBN|1-84176-759-X}}
• Agustín Udías, Searching the Heavens and the Earth: The History of Jesuit Observatories (Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003)
• Shelagh Vainker in Anne Farrer (ed), "Caves of the Thousand Buddhas", 1990, British Museum publications, {{ISBN|0-7141-1447-2}}
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• Sivin, Nathan. 2005. "A Multi-dimensional Approach to Research on Ancient Science". East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine, no. 23. Temporary Publisher: 10–25. {{JSTOR|43150669}}.
• Thomas Woods, How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization, (Washington, DC: Regenery, 2005), {{ISBN|0-89526-038-7}}

{{Commons category|History of technology in China}}

• [http://www.ihns.ac.cn/ Institute for the History of Natural Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090912192814/http://www.cshst.org.cn/ Chinese Society for the History of Science and Technology]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20120504201846/http://www.uisp.org.cn/ Popular Science Alliance Network, Internet Society of China]
• [http://www.cast.org.cn/ China Association for Science and Technology]
• [http://www.ciapst.org/ China International Association for Promotion of Science and Technology (CIAPST)]
• [http://www.kepu.gov.cn/ China Popular Science Network]
• [http://www.crsp.org.cn/ China Research Institute for Science Popularization]
• [http://www.cacsi.org.cn/ China Association of Children's Science Instructors]
• [https://www.chinayearbooks.com/china-statistical-yearbook-on-science-and-technology.html China Statistical Yearbook on Science and Technology 1991–2015]

{{S&T in China}}

{{History of science}}

{{History of technology}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:History Of Science And Technology In China}}

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