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The Development of Ancient China's S & T

China, along with ancient Egypt, Babylon, and India, is known as one of the four great ancient civilizations of the world. The distinctive culture that arose in China was both far-reaching and highly refined.

In approximately the 21st century BC, a primitive agricultural society first appeared in the areas around China's Yellow（黄河） and Yangtze（长江） rivers, and animal husbandry joined hunting and fishing as a means of human sustenance. Approximately two millennia later, the Xia Dynasty（夏朝） (21st-16th century BC) emerged as China's first dynastic government, followed by the Shang Dynasty（商朝） (16th-11th century BC) and the Western Zhou Dynasty（西周） (11th century-771BC), which further refined the national system. The subsequent Spring and Autumn （春秋）(770-476BC) and Warring States periods（战国） (475-221BC) were a time of constant struggle for supremacy among numerous small states.

China's Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods saw a great upsurge in science and technology, as well as in ideology and culture.

In 221BC, at approximately the same time that the Roman Empire was establishing hegemony in the Mediterranean, Qin Shihuang（秦始皇）, the first Qin Emperor, conquered the warring states and founded the Qin Dynasty（秦朝） (221-207BC) -- the first united, centralized, multi-ethnic nation in Chinese history. The Qin Dynasty was followed by many dynasties, which have left a legacy of fascinating stories, and have provided a wealth of inspiration for modern Chinese art, literature, film, and television.

China's many inventions (especially its Four Great Inventions of paper, printing, the compass, and gunpowder) and wide range of knowledge have had a far-reaching effect on human development.. When Christopher Columbus embarked on his great voyages to the New World, the Chinese compass provided him with vital assistance. Floating pontoon bridges were in use in China before 1100BC, and the world's earliest astronomical treatise, Gan Shi Xing Jing（甘石星经） (The Classic of the Stars), was written in China during the Warring States Period.

Zhang Heng（张衡） invented the celestial globe, used to study star-related phenomena, and the seismograph, used to measure seismic activity, during the Han Dynasty（汉朝） (206BC-220AD). During the Northern and Southern Dynasties（南北朝）(420-589), Zu Chongzhi（祖冲之） calculated the value of pi (π) to be between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927, becoming the first person in the world to accurately determine the value of pi (π) to seven decimal places. Li Shizhen（李时珍）'s famous Compendium of Materia Medica, written in the 16th century, lists over 1,800 different medical remedies and over 10,000 prescriptions.

A set of sixty-four cast bronze bells, made in the State of Chu（楚国） during the Warring States Period, has been discovered in Central China's Hubei Province（湖北）. Each bell produces two notes, with the set covering a range of over five octaves. A wide range of classical and modem music, including symphonic works by Beethoven, can be performed on the set, which is tuned to a diatonic scale in the key of C major. The bells have a beautiful tone, harmonious and pleasing to the ear. The fact that such a musical instrument was created in China 2,400 years ago is truly a miracle in the history of world music.

Ceramics and porcelain are among the most well known inventions of ancient China. The most outstanding porcelain is made in China's porcelain capital, Jingdezhen（景德镇） in East China's Jiangxi Province. A famous saying describes Jingdezhen porcelain as "white as jade, bright as a mirror; thin as paper, tone like a chime." China's ceramics capital, Yixing（宜兴） in Jiangsu Province（江苏） (East China), is the home of purple sand pottery. Produced using the area's unique purple sand clay and special firing techniques, Yixing pottery is both beautiful and distinctive.

Traditional Chinese philosophy is both profound and simple, intimately linked to both society and the individual. It propounds the theory of "as above, so below," and replies to the vexations of the "ten thousand things" -- that is, the material world -- with the concept of Harmony ("he" 和 in Chinese). Harmony appears weak but is actually strong. There is nothing it cannot absorb and nothing it cannot penetrate. The Chinese character "he," or Harmony, appears in the Chinese words for peace, compromise, concord, and unison, and may be interpreted to include all of these meanings.

Chinese civilization has its source far in the distant past. With a continuous history of 5,000 years, it has undergone frequent transformations to produce a rich and vital cultural heritage.

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