Most of us are tired of hearing about China’s great contributions to society: paper, rice, blah, blah, blah. Part of that reaction stems from a sense of inadequacy – China invented gunpowder and paper money. America? Peanut butter and spreadable (or sprayable) cheese food. There’s also a great deal of debate around China’s role as a force for technological invention in the 21st century; some wonder, is China still resting on 5000 year old laurels? Pabst Blue Ribbon has been boasting about that same old ribbon since 1894, but gunpowder? That was so 1200 years ago.

While doing research for a future article on China’s modern day technological accomplishments, I came across an amazing Wikipedia list of Chinese inventions, many of them tirelessly catalogued by Joseph Needham in his epic multi-volume Science and Civilisation in China Series. It’s a long list, and doesn’t even include some of the medical and biological discoveries made in China, so this here is a ‘best of’ list of Chinese inventions throughout the ages.

Photo: Mark Bussinger

High-alcohol Beer
While those suckers in Babylonia and Ancient Egypt were drinking beer with a mere 4-5% alcohol content, Shang Dynasty Chinese (1600-1050 BC) were drinking 11% brews and, according to oracle bone inscriptions, sacrificing the beer to the spirits. (There’s got to be a good pun for that last sentence, I just can’t think of it.) 2000 years before Italians discovered how to break down the starches in grain that keep it from reaching a high alcohol level during fermentation, Chinese cracked the secret, and by the Zhou Dynasty were writing poems about the process.

Fermented Beverage
That’s right, all those years of drinking, from Boone’s Farm to baijiu to Black Label; brought to you by China. Archeologists digging around in Henan found ceramic jars still bearing traces of residue from a fermented beverage 9,000 years old. Apparently the syrrrup Chinese were sippin’ on 9,000 years ago was a heady mix of, “hawthorn fruit and wild grape, beeswax associated with honey, and rice.” Nearby, archaeologists found a jade tablet engraved with the words, “Fruity with traces of vanilla and black pepper, goes perfectly with the terrine of saber tooth tiger, delightful paired with the wooly mammoth filet.” Which brings us to…

The Restaurant Menu
Another shocker. When the leaders of the House Committee on Un-American Activities took a lunch break at the local diner did they know they were utilizing a Commie invention? During the dawn of the Song Dynasty (a 100+ year period from 960 to 1279 AD) the rising merchant middle class didn’t have time to return home and prepare meals, and so they started patronizing all manner of dining establishments from tea houses to temples. Because of the amount of migration at the time, cuisine was becoming increasingly diverse, and restaurants advertised the kind of dishes they served by way of a handy little invention called ‘the menu’. No word on whether or it was a picture menu, and if everything on the menu was called ‘zhe ge’.

Reproduction of a Song Dynasty era illustration of the Pen Huo Qi

Fork
Bet you didn’t see that one coming. Not only did the Chinese invent the glorious chopstick – a wonderful little tool that allows you to snag the tastiest bits of a meal from a dish all the way on the other side of the table, but they invented the fork, too. In fact, the fork predated the chopsticks – bone forks have been found in Bronze Age burial sites (2400 – 1900 BC) and in Shang Dynasty tombs as well. The spork was patented first in the US and later in the UK, so far no China connection has been found, although it’s probably only a matter of time until one is dug up out of 3 Sovereigns and 5 Emperors era tomb.

Flame Thrower
Turns out Duke Nukem owed quite a bit to the Chinese. Actually, the Greeks were already inventing flame throwing weapons and using the so-called Greek Fire on their ships as early as 1st century AD. Impressed by the Greek Fire, the Chinese used a gasoline-like substance they invented around 919 AD in the Pen Huo Qi – a sort of shanzhai fire throwing machine. The substance was mixed with oil so that it could not be extinguished with water and a siphon projector-pump was used to spray the ‘fire oil’ over other ships. A manuscript dating back to 1044 AD describes how the Chinese had managed to engineer the device so it shot out a continuous stream of flame. Later, fire throwers were attached to wheeled carts so they could be used on land.

This is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of Chinese inventions (icebergs are one of the few things Chinese did not invent). Next time, I’ll be letting you know how the Chinese invented CSI, modern dentistry, and even India ink. Stay tuned.

***

Related Articles
Zheng He: Legend of the Giant Ships
No Sex or Kung-fu for Confucius
In China…Get on the Bus! Part 2!

Warning：The use of any news and articles published on eChinacities.com without written permission from eChinacities.com constitutes copyright infringement, and legal action can be taken.