China, the second great civilization of eastern Asia, did not experience the same intense contact with Islam as India (which eventually split into two Muslim states and one Hindu state). As a consequence its scientific achievements did not reach Europe through the works of Arab scholars. But Europe owes some of its biggest innovations to Chinese scientists.
This lecture will cover Chinese society, technology and science from its beginning to the European Renaissance. One lecture is very limited space for such an undertaking, and we have to take a broad-brush approach if we want to cover the material.
China is one of the few countries of today's "developing world" - and certainly the largest - that never experienced complete colonization. As we shall see there was foreign rule for a period and there were incursions of modern colonial powers (primarily Japan but also Britain, Portugal and Germany), but Chinese society and civilization always recovered. An important unifying force was and remains the Chinese script, which is used and can be read by many people who would not understand each other when speaking.
Chinese history is commonly reported to start with the reign of Huang-ti, the legendary emperor who is said to have lived around 2700 BC. This was during the Stone Age, some 500 years before the Bronze Age began in China. If the Chinese legends are to be believed Chinese society must have been at an advanced state at that time already, since several important achievements, including the invention of the script, the introduction of coins and the first handbook of medicine, are thought to be Huang-ti's work.
It is unlikely that Huang-ti was more than a brilliant person. During his lifetime China did not have cities, much less an empire. Archaeologically documented Chinese history begins with the Shang Dynasty (2200 - 1100 BC), a period during which Chinese society became structured into classes and an imperial slave economy developed in parallel to the self-sufficient but taxable villages.
The fact that the Chinese civilization never developed a continuous year count and often refers to historical times as "the third year of the so-and-so dynasty" makes it difficult for the European with no intimate knowledge of the Chinese dynastic sequence to establish a sense of history. Use of a timeline can assist us to relate historical developments in China with those in other parts of the world.
The transition from slaveholder society to feudalism took about 500 years. It began with the introduction of the first land tax in 594 BC ( during the Spring and Autumn Period), which prepared the ground for the progressive expropriation of the peasants. It was not greeted by all parts of the ruling classes and criticized particularly by the priesthood, who supported the old system of communal use of the village fields and communal taxation.
The new land tax exacerbated the simmering conflicts between the rulers of various parts of China, and the period of the Warring States that followed the Spring and Autumn Period brought disintegration, chaos and much suffering for 250 years. As we shall see the hopeless state of society brought about the birth of several philosophical schools that reigned for more than a millennium. The Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods (475 - 256 BC) were thus dark times for the people but important for the development of Chinese society and science.
The short period from 256 BC to 206 BC was a turning point in China's history. It brought about the unification of the country under emperor Shi huang-ti and its defence against enemies in the north and west through the Great Wall. It produced also artistic splendour and wasteful luxury beyond belief in the emperor's tomb and the first major peasant revolt.
For the next 1000 years China went through a never-ending series of new dynasties and peasant revolts that led to new dynasties. The fate of China's peasants varied greatly. Under Shi huang-ti they had to hand over two thirds of their harvest to the state and deliver their sons as conscript labour. His successor - the first emperor of the new Han Dynasty - maintained the labour requirement but lowered the land tax. In the best times land tax was as low as one 30th of the harvest.
Where Chinese peasant revolts were successful in deposing an oppressive ruler, their leaders soon usurped state power and installed themselves as the new emperor. The Han Dynasty was founded in 206 BC by the leader of a peasant revolt, and so was the Tang Dynasty in 618 AD. Other dynasties established themselves with the help of the peasants by offering military leadership against the oppressive regime.
Chinese feudalism was based on a dual administration in which the emperor appointed a civil and a military administrator to every province. The administrators had to collect the land tax from the free peasants, and their wealth was in direct competition with rich merchants and investors, who had used the chaos of the Warring States to gain control of the salt trade and iron ore mining and owned large numbers of private slaves.
In order to strengthen the imperial government, the salt trade and iron mines were turned into state monopolies in 119 BC. To increase the base for qualified administrators the Han Dynasty in 134 BC introduced the state examination system that should remain the backbone of China's government system until 1905. The state examinations opened the possibility of a lucrative state post to everyone who could afford to study.
It would go beyond the aim of a history of science and civilization lecture to follow China's political development in detail. Outwardly as static as feudalism could ever be, internally the Chinese society was determined by the question who was allowed to exploit the peasants the most. Periodic peasant revolts alternated with imperial measures to redefine the tax system. Occasionally this lead to such radical reforms as nationalization of all land, land distribution to peasants and a ban on slavery (9 - 23 AD); but sooner or later the old exploitative order was again operational (Anderle et al., 1966).
Tu Fu, the great Chinese poet, described these years in words that make any further attempt a vain exercise. The classic novel Shui Hu Zhuan ("Outlaws of the Marsh"), which was written in the 13th or 14th century and describes actual events from 1100 - 1123, is such a damning account of corrupt feudal society that it was repeatedly banned for more than 400 years.
The only period that interrupted this state of affairs came with the arrival of the Mongols. For nearly 100 years, from 1271 until 1368, China was ruled by the Yüan Dynasty of Mongolia. It divided the population into for classes: Mongols held all government posts; central Asian people ( mainly Uigur) controlled all commerce and impoverished the country by exporting much of its wealth; Kitai (northern Chinese, Korean) practiced a trade or lived as peasants. Southern Chinese were the lowest class. The Mongol period saw much poverty but also much luxury. It was the time when the European traveller Marco Polo visited the country.
It is remarkable that Chinese society had very little organized religion. During the Stone and Bronze Ages the main religious activity was ancestor worship. Private houses had their own altar or devotional centre were the living paid reverence to their dead ancestors. There were temples and rites of worship but no powerful class of priests to control public life.
While this state of affairs left much religious freedom for the individual it also left much opportunity for political adventurers to exploit the people without being called to account. Ancestor worship also contributes to the maintenance of the status quo, on the argument that everyone should continue to do what the ancestors did.
The introduction of the first land tax system in 594 BC - the first step towards the establishment of a new order - brought a change of the situation. Religious people saw the land tax as immoral and began to think about the moral foundations of political power. This led to the establishment of Chinese philosophy as a separate intellectual activity. The same process occurred in Greece at exactly the same time (see Lecture 8), but for quite different reasons. The Greek philosopher-politicians participated in the abolition of feudal rule and establishment of republics. The Chinese philosophers were distressed by the general lawlessness and chaos and wanted to stabilize the society and make it more peaceful but not necessarily radically different.
The teachings of Lao-tzu, the first of China's great philosophers, were still quite close to religion, and Lao-tzu is considered the founder of Taoism. Lao-tzu's answer to the chaotic times was the retreat into a simple life, the declaration of unlimited individual freedom and minimal government.
K'ung-Fu-Tzu (Confucius), a younger contemporary of Lao-tzu, took a position diametrically opposed to Taoism and became the most influential of all Chinese philosophers. His thinking formed the basis of China's education system for 2000 years. Confucius was deeply convinced of the value of learning and believed in the power of education as a means to develop moral principles. Because he accepted the position of the feudal rulers as heaven-sent, he supported the existing social structures. His idea for political peace and stability was the restoration of the king's authority through moral leadership. A true philosopher-politician, he occupied a series of minor positions in the public service but eventually realized that feudal rulers were not interested in morals and retired to teaching.
After Confucius' death in 479 BC his teaching was developed into two very different directions. Mencius, who lived during the Warring States Period, tried to counteract widespread greed and moral decay by extolling private virtue and stressed that there cannot be peace where people are starved and mistreated. He offered his ideas to the rulers of several states, but he was unwelcome in the courts of the land, and greatly disappointed Mencius retired to his native state.
A few years later Hsün-tzu developed Confucian ideas into a comprehensive system of teaching. Where Mencius had said that "the people are the most important element in a nation; the spirits of the land and grain come next; the sovereign counts for the least," Hsün-tzu started from the premise that "the nature of man is evil; his goodness is only acquired training." According to Hsün-tzu every individual has to be shaped by society (the great teacher) how to become a good person, and the role of the government is to shape the individuals through the enforcement of traditional practices.
Such openly reactionary view was much more palatable for the courts than Mencius' ideas, and Hsün-tzu's philosophy became the official philosophical position for some 700 years. It was not until the establishment of the Mongol government that the Chinese people realized that they are indeed "the most important element in a nation" and began to value Mencius' ideas over those of Hsün-tzu.
Buddhism had developed in India at the same time when Confucius tried to improve the political situation in China. It found its way into China gradually, but for 1200 years it did not make an impact. Then, in 629, the Buddhist monk Hsüan-tsang decided to travel to the source of Buddhist wisdom and undertook his famous journey to India that provided the plot for China's classic novel "Journey to the West."
Hsüan-tsang spent considerable time at the Nalanda monastery, then the most illustrious centre of learning in India, and returned to China to translate as many Sanskrit scriptures as he could. He began to teach a version of Buddhism that saw the world not as reality but just an image of the mind. His ideas did not survive him, but Hsüan-tsang did establish Buddhism as an important religion in China besides Taoism.
Three circumstances were particularly helpful for the development of science in China. The first circumstance is the relative worldliness of early Chinese religion. Ancestor worship did assist the continuity of society and the state, but it did not develop a rigid religious superstructure with a powerful priestly authority. Reflection about nature could therefore not easily be labelled heretic. The burning of books ordered by Shi huang-ti in 213 BC was not typical, and even this act was mainly directed against Confucian works, while works on agriculture and medicine were exempt.
The second factor supportive for the development of science was the stability of China's system of government. Like other feudal societies China experienced constant upheaval; but the system of government maintained continuity from dynasty to dynasty. Without that continuity it would have been impossible to maintain the system of dykes, canals and river regulations on which the life of China's millions depended.
Science always depends on the support of the ruling class, and in a feudal society this means dependence on the benevolence of the emperor. The stability and continuity of China's political system meant that every emperor saw the support of science as an imperial responsibility, at least to the extent that ongoing work was rarely disrupted. From the 16th century BC until today government appointed astronomers had the task of observing and recording what could be seen in the sky.
As a result the longest observational records of modern astronomy have their origin in Chinese observations. This includes the earliest documented solar eclipse on 26 May 1217 BC and records of lunar eclipses from the 14th and 13th centuries BC. The unbroken record of solar eclipses into our time begins in the 3rd century BC, that of lunar eclipses in the 5th century BC.
The first documented observation of sunspots was made in China in 28 BC and followed by more than 100 sunspot observations during the next 1700 years. The observations clearly document the cyclic strengthening of sunspot activity, which occurs on average every 11.33 years.
The first mention of a meteoric shower is documented for 2133 BC. Between 1600 BC and 1600 AD Chinese astronomers documented 581 major comets. An astronomical work from 635 BC pointed out that comets always travel with their tail pointing away from the Sun. A record of 613 BC describes the passage of a comet now known as Halley's Comet. It passes the Earth every 76.09 years and has been recorded by Chinese astronomers on all occasions since. Their records have been used to determine the slow change in the shape of the comet's orbit. (China Internet Information Center, 2001a)
Star explosions known as novas and supernovas have also been recorded by Chinese astronomers. The first record of a nova is documented on a tortoise shell inscription of about 1400 BC. Over the next 3,000 years (1400 BC - 1600 AD) Chinese records reported 90 novas. The most famous of these records is the observation of a supernova in 1054. The "new star" gradually disappeared over the following decades, but in 1731 a British astronomer noticed a hazy patch at the location where the supernova had been recorded. Detailed analysis and further observation with modern equipment during the 1960s proved that the patch, now known as the Crab Nebula, is indeed made up of the remnants of the supernova observed in China 900 years ago. (China Internet Information Center, 2001a)
The third factor that favoured the development of science in China was, perhaps somewhat paradoxically, the interest of Taoism in immortality, which promoted all kinds of experimentation. Originally this was mostly directed towards alchemy, but the idea that it might be possible to gain insight through experiment or special apparatus clearly had an effect on science in general, since no other early civilization developed such close connections between scientific research and the design of scientific instrumentation. The closeness of science and technology was also the result of the concentration of both scientific research and applied technology in the emperor's workshops.
An example of the interaction of science and technology is the seismoscope of Chang Heng, which was constructed at about 130 AD to assist the emperor with the management of earthquake relief. Earthquakes occur frequently in China. Records of earthquakes go back to 780 BC, and imperial instructions how to act in an earthquake emergency were issued very early. Chang Heng's seismoscope allowed the detection of distant earthquakes in the capital and the determination of the direction where they had occurred.
Chinese astronomers designed armillary spheres well before the 1st century BC, at about the same time when such devices were developed in Greece. But the Chinese scientists were more adept at technology and fitted armillaries with drives, so that they indicate the positions of the planets for every moment automatically. Chang Heng was the first to connect an armillary to a water drive. In 1088 Su Song constructed a public water driven clock tower that contained an armillary sphere, a celestial globe and a time indicator.
The invention of the place-value number system during the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD; see Lecture 5) greatly assisted Chinese science and led to rapid advances in mathematics. Zu Chongzhi, a mathematician, astronomer and instrument builder who lived from about 429 to about 500, gave a proof that
3.1415926 < p < 3.1415927
This accuracy was not surpassed for more than 1,000 years. Zu Chongzhi also determined the length of the year to 365.24281481 days, which differs from today's accepted value by only 46 seconds, and used it to improve the calendar. (China Internet Information Center, 2001a) His "Daming Calendar" became the standard Chinese calendar about two decades after his death.
The Invention of the place-value number system produced several mathematical texts. Some appeared before the end of the Han dynasty (220 AD), others followed soon after:
These examples of Chinese achievements in science and mathematics have to suffice to keep this lecture at reasonable length. Some further developments of Chinese mathematics were already mentioned in Lecture 5.
Medical science was of great interest to China's rulers in their search for immortality. Its close links with alchemy allowed much experimentation with drugs, and medical manuals appeared early. The successes of Chinese medicine have made sure that as the only surviving branch of original Chinese science it is still practiced today, and some of its methods - particularly acupuncture - are taken up by western physicians.
China's system of medical treatment can be divided into three areas: the use of herbs and drugs in the curing of the sick including surgery (activities that the western tradition would regard as the core of medical practice); disease prevention through physical and breathing exercises; and acupuncture and moxibustion. The following description is based on information provided by the China Internet Information Center (2001b).
Descriptions of diseases on tortoise shell are known from about 2000 BC. Later texts, relating to eczema and other skin diseases, were carved on bronze ware. Written works are not documented until about 100 BC, when The Yellow Emperor's Canon of Medicine appeared. It was a compilation of various texts written between 400 BC and 100 BC. Its underlying theory is the idea of the five elements metal, wood, water, fire and earth and their interaction with the sense organs and brain waves.
The next important compendium of medical science was the Treatise on Febrile and Other Diseases by Chang Chung Ching (Zhang Zhongjing), written around 250 AD. It formed the cornerstone of Chinese medicine. Hundreds of commentaries were written about it, and it is still available in print today, in Chinese and English translation. The "febrile diseases" refer to epidemics and infectious diseases, while the "other diseases" cover internal, surgical and gynaecological problems.
At about the same time lived Hua To, the most famous of all Chinese surgeons, who developed a drug to deliver total anaesthesia and used it to perform complicated surgery. He treated appendicitis and other problems so successfully that he became known as the "miracle doctor".
The Taoist Ge Hong, who lived during the Eastern Jin Dynasty of the Six Dynasties Period (317 - 420, about 100 years after Hua To and Chang Chung Ching), provides a particularly vivid example of the interaction between the Taoist quest for immortality and the development of medicine in China. Ge spent most of his life as a recluse on a mountain in the quest for immortality. In the process he wrote a detailed account of tuberculosis and its treatment and developed the technique of smallpox inoculation.
The Tang dynasty (618 - 907) commissioned a medical encyclopaedia, the Revised Materia Medica. It was discovered again in 1900, consist of 56 richly illustrated volumes and contains the description of 850 drugs. During the next centuries governments regularly set up committees of physicians to prepare new Materia Medica editions.
During the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) Chinese feudalism turned increasingly to luxury consumption, which ended the tradition of government sponsorship of Materia Medica. The only Materia Medica ordered under a Ming emperor remained unpublished. Eventually Li Shi-Chen, a practicing physician of the 16th century, undertook the task single-handed and in the process produced the last great work of the period of China's greatness as the leader in science. His Bencao Gangmu ("Great Compendium of Herbs") was a masterpiece of scientific research. It summarized and systematized Chinese medical knowledge from all centuries, eliminated errors and included many new recipes collected from practicing doctors, which Li often tested on himself.
We had occasion to point out earlier that science depends on support of the ruling class. The beginning decline of China's science support, at the time when Europe had just gone through its Renaissance and was excited by new scientific ideas, can be seen in the fate of Li's work. He undertook the task of a new Materia Medica on his own but had hoped for Imperial sanction after it was completed. The emperor's response when Li's son submitted the work to him after his father's death was a terse note: "Taken notice of; to be kept in the Ministry of Rites."
Li's son eventually had the work printed privately. It went through at least 15 reprints and three updated editions and was translated into Japanese, Latin, French, English, Russian and German. It remained the official medical standard reference in China until 1959, when the communist government sponsored and published a new Materia Medica, the Zhong Yao Zhi.
Given the violent times and frequent assassinations of feudal rulers it does not come as a surprise that forensic medicine was well developed already in the Warring States Period (475 - 256 BC) and continued to flourish through the centuries. The work Hsi Yuan Lu ("Collected Writings on the Washing Away of Wrongs," also known as "Instructions to Coroners"), published in 1247, is considered the first known book on forensic medicine and a classic of forensic literature. It gives detailed instructions how to proceed in the investigation of suspicious deaths.
The treatment of pain through acupuncture arose before 2500 BC. It is the one area of Chinese medical practice that not only survived to this day but spread into other parts of the world and is now an established treatment in other civilizations as well.
Acupuncture involves the insertion of needles into the body at one of the many well-defined insertion points. Once inserted to the prescribed depth, which varies between 3 and 10 mm but can occasionally be as deep as 25 cm, the needles are twisted or otherwise activated. In modern applications a low voltage current is sometimes used.
Moxibustion, also known as moxa treatment, uses the same points, but the stimulation is produced through the burning of small cones of dried leaves, mostly from the wormwood plant Artemisia moxa. Outside China the treatment is practiced mainly in Japan.
Different acupuncture treatment requires needles of different shape, and archaeological evidence shows that the main needle types were developed and used before 200 BC. Monographs on acupuncture and moxibustion are known from the Warring States Period (475 - 256 BC), and during the Tang dynasty (618 - 907) courses on acupuncture and moxibustion were given at the imperial medical academy.
Modern science still has not found the physiological basis for acupuncture treatment. Some Chinese practitioners are convinced that acupuncture and moxibustion can not only provide relief from pain but cure some diseases. Without a clear scientific understanding of the treatment it is difficult to assess such claim. The effectiveness of acupuncture for anaesthesia has been demonstrated through complicated surgery performed on fully conscious patients.
Wang Weiji, the government's medical officer of the Sung dynasty during 1023 - 1031, made use of Chinese bronze casting technology for the acupuncture classes in the medical academy. He introduced life-size human figures for student practice. Life-size models made from plastic are still in use today.
As in other civilizations important technological advances in China were made by the working classes. The invention of the breast-harness around 200 BC greatly expanded the use of animals for plowing and pulling carts. Unlike the throat-and-girth harness, which restricts the weight that can be pulled by an animal to a maximum of 500 kg, the breast harness allows the animal unrestricted breathing while pulling and led to great savings in animal husbandry. Carts with one shaft drawn by two animals were replaced by carts with two shafts drawn by a single animal. Europe introduced the breast harness during the Middle Ages, some 1300 years after its invention in China.
Another invention that originated from the common people was the wheelbarrow, an apparently simple innovation that other civilizations had to import from China. Unlike horse-drawn carts it does not require a prepared roadway and was thus particularly useful in areas without a developed road system.
China's feudal system with its extensive government bureaucracy and state enterprise and teaching system also offered good conditions for state-sponsored technological innovation, and some of China's technological achievements relied on the availability of vast resources. Some of these, such as the building and maintenance of China's extensive canal system and road network, do not go beyond the achievements of other early civilizations.
Other inventions were promoted to perfection through the interest of the feudal class in luxury goods. Porcelain (generally known across the world as "china") is one of the four great technological inventions that spread from China into all other civilizations. It has its origins in coloured pottery of the Stone Age, which exists in outstanding archaeological specimens. Excavations from the Longshan culture dating from 2300 - 1900 BC contain objects as thin as the shell of eggs.
True porcelain made from caolin clay appeared during the late Shang dynasty (around 1600 - 1100 BC) when people had learned to produce the required high temperatures of 1200°C. (China Internet Information Center, 2001c) Over the centuries different kilns developed different types of porcelain by varying the temperature and the iron content of the clay. A busy trade with porcelain developed under the Sung dynasty (960 - 1279). Feudal courts in Europe were the best customers for Chinese porcelain. They also invested great effort in the discovery of its secret, but without success until the 18th century.
The Iron Age in China began at about the same time as it took hold in Europe, but China took the art of iron smelting to an entirely new level. European iron was of the wrought-iron or mild steel type. It was useful for farm implements but was too soft to be of use for hand weapons. More important for medieval armies was the development of tempered steel, which requires hammering at much higher temperatures to include carbon in the mixture.
Swords made from tempered steel kept their shape and sharpness and were highly prized and expensive trade items. China knew how to achieve the required high temperatures and was the source of the best swords of the world. During the entire Middle Ages China, India and Persia (who had copied the Chinese technology) were the suppliers of swords to the European knights.
For about 1000 years China was the leading seafaring nation on earth. Large warships were already built during the Spring and Autumn Period (771 - 476 BC). Their design was improved during the Han dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD), when the external steering blade was replaced by the helm and internal steering gear. The invention of the compass allowed masters of Chinese vessels to leave the coastal route and cross the open ocean.
When the Chinese navigator and explorer Cheng Ho went on his voyages during the early 15th century his fleet consisted of more than 300 ships. 62 of them were over 100 m long; his largest vessel had nine masts and a crew of 500 men. The Santa María, Columbus' largest ship with which he sailed to America nearly a century later, was only 26 m long and minuscule in comparison.
The question why America fell to European colonialism and was not conquered by China a century earlier will occupy us in Lecture 17. There is no doubt that technology cannot have been the decisive factor; Chinese maritime technology was vastly superior to that of any other nation at the time.
Military inferiority can also be ruled out: Gunpowder is a Chinese invention, a result of experiments in alchemy. How to mix nitre, sulphur and carbon in the correct proportions was known in the 9th century. The first gunpowder recipe appeared in 1044, more than 250 years before gunpowder became known in Europe. (China Internet Information Center, 2001d) Cannons, rifles, rockets, hand-grenades and flamethrowers were in use by about 1100 at the latest.
We conclude this much too short overview of Chinese science, civilization and society with the remaining three inventions that were taken up by the world. The compass was already mentioned. The first compass was the sinan, a magnetic ladle balanced in such a way that its handle always pointed south. It was in use around 300 BC. Some 500 years later it had developed into a rod mounted in the centre of a round bronze plate. The floating compass, in which the needle is immersed in water to reduce the effect of movement, was described some time around 1100. It allowed the use of a compass at sea and opened the high seas for ship voyages.
Paper is such a common everyday product that the ingenuity of its inventor is rarely appreciated. Before paper was invented people carved important information into animal bones or stone, burnt them into clay and pottery, cast them into bronze plates or wrote them on bamboo strips. The first prepared writing material that can be called paper originated in China during the Western Han Dynasty (202 BC - 16 AD). Today's technique of paper production is due to Cai Lun, who used tree bark, bits of rope, old fishing nets and rags as raw material and presented his first batch of paper to the emperor in 105. Cai's paper was thin, had a smooth finish and was so durable that documents from the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 - 220) unearthed today are still clearly legible.
Smooth paper was the basis for printing. The European civilization credits the invention of the printing press usually to Johannes Gutenberg, who produced the first printed Latin book in 1455. China used carved blocks for printing before 900, and Bi Sheng invented printing with movable type in about 1040. His movable types consisted of individual characters made from baked clay, which could be used many times over. His technique is essentially the same as all later printing techniques, which used movable type made from wood, copper or lead.
Anderle et al. (1966) Weltgeschichte in Daten. VEB Deutscher Verlag der Wissenschaften, Berlin.
China Internet Information Center (2001a) Formation of the Chinese civilization: Astronomy and Mathematics. http://china.org.cn/e-gudai/6.htm (read 23 November 2003).
China Internet Information Center (2001b) Formation of the Chinese civilization: Medicine. http://china.org.cn/e-gudai/7.htm (read 23 November 2003).
China Internet Information Center (2001c) Formation of the Chinese civilization: Home of Ceramics. http://china.org.cn/e-gudai/3.htm (read 23 November 2003).
China Internet Information Center (2001d) Formation of the Chinese civilization: The Four Great Inventions. http://china.org.cn/e-gudai/8.htm (read 23 November 2003).
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