Ginning machine, hand-cranked, and treadle
17th century AD
Gluten from wheat
AD 530
Gold, purple sheen
200 BC
Grafting
AD 806
Gravimetry
AD 712
Great Wall of China
3rd century BC
Grid technique, quantitative, used in cartography
AD 130
Guan xien system
240 BC
Gunpowder, formula for
9th century AD
Gunpowder, firecracker and fireworks
12th century AD
Gunpowder, government’s department and monopoly on
14th century AD
Gunpowder, used in mining
Ming
Handcarts
681 BC
Handgun
AD 1128
Harness, breast strap
250 BC
Harness, collar
AD 477
Helicopter top
AD 320
High temperatures, firing of clay at
2nd millennium BC
Hodometer
110 BC
Holing-irons
AD 584
“Hot streak” test
AD 1596
Hygrometer
120 BC
Indeterminate analysis
4th century AD
Interconversion of longitudinal and rotary motion
AD 31
Kite
4th century BC
Knife, rotary disk, for cutting jade
12th century AD
Lacquer
13th century BC
Ladders, extendable
4th century BC
Leeboards and centerboards
AD 751
Lodestone, south-pointing ladle
AD 83
Magic mirrors
5th century AD
Magic squares
AD 190
Magnetic declination noted
AD 1040
Magnetic thermoremanence and induction
AD 1044
Magnetic variation observed
AD 1436
Magnetism, used in medicine
AD 970
Malt sugar, production of
1st millennium BC
Mangonel
4th century BC
Maps, relief
AD 1086
Maps, topographical
3rd century BC
Masts, multiple
3rd century AD
Matches (nonstriking)
AD 577
Melodic composition
AD 475
Metal amalgams used to fill cavities
AD 659
Metals, to oxides, burning of
5th century BC
Metals, densities of
3rd century AD
Mill, wagon
AD 340
Mills, edge-runner
200 BC
Mills, edge-runner, water-power applied
4th century AD
Mining, square sets for
5th century BC
Mining, differential pressure ventilation
Mirror with “light penetration surface”
11th century BC
Mold board
2nd century BC
Mountings, vertical and horizontal
1st century AD
Mouth-organs
9th century BC
Moxibustion
3rd century BC
Multiple-spindle silk-twisting frame
AD 1313
Negative numbers, operations using
1st century AD
Noodles (filamentous) including bread
AD 100
Nova, recorded observation of
13th century BC
Numerical equations of higher order, solution of
13th century AD
Oil lamps, economic
9th century AD
Paktong (cupronickel)
AD 230
Paper (invention of)
300 BC
Paper, money
9th century AD
Paper, toilet
AD 589
Paper, wall
16th century AD
Paper, wrapping
2nd century BC
Parachute principle
8th century AD
“Pascal” triangle of binomial coefficients
AD 1100
Pasteurization of wine
AD 1117
Pearl fishing conservancy
2nd century AD
Pearls in oysters, artificial induction of
AD 1086
“Pi,” accurate estimation of
3rd century AD
Piece molding for casting bronze
2nd millenium BC
Place-value number system
13th century BC
Placenta used as source of estrogen
AD 725
Planispheres
AD 940
Plant protection, biological
AD 304
Planting in rows
3rd century BC
Playing cards
AD 969
Polar-equatorial coordinates
1st century BC
Polar-equatorial mounting of astronomical instruments
AD 1270
Porcelain
3rd century BC
Potassium, flame-test used in identifying
3rd century AD
Pound-lock canal gates
AD 984
Preservation of corpses
166 BC
Printing, bronze type
AD 1403
Printing, movable earthenware type on paper
11th century AD
Printing, multicolor
12th century AD
Printing, with woodblocks
7th century AD
Propeller oar, self-feathering
AD 100
Prospecting, biogeochemical
6th century AD
Prospecting, geological
4th century BC
Qin and sezither
Recording of sun halves, parhelic specters, and Lowitz arcs
AD 635
Reel on fishing rod
3rd century AD
Refraction
4th century BC
Rocket arrow
13th century AD
Rocket arrow launchers
AD 1367
Rocket arrows, winged
AD 1360
Rockets, two-stage
Roller-harrows
AD 880
Rotary ballista
AD 240
Rotary fan
1st century BC
Sailing carriage
16th century AD
Sails, mat and batten
1st century AD
Salvage, underwater
AD 1064
Seawalls
AD 80
Seed, pretreatment of
1st century BC
Seed drill, multiple-tube
AD 155
“Seedling horse”
11th century AD
Seismograph
AD 132
Ships, construction principle of
1st century BC
Ships, paddle-wheel
5th century AD
Silk, earliest spinning of
2850 BC
Silk reeling machine
AD 1090
Silk warp doubling and throwing frame
10th century AD
Sluices
3rd century BC
Sluices, riffles added to
11th century AD
Smallpox, inoculation against
10th century AD
Smokescreens
AD 178
Snow crystals, six-sided symmetry of
135 BC
Soil science (ecology)
5th century BC
South-pointing carriage
AD 120
Soybean, fermented
200 BC
Sprouts, for medicinal and nutritional purposes
2nd century BC
Spindle wheel
5th century BC
Spindle wheel, multiple spindle
11th century AD
Spindle wheel, treadle-operated
1st century AD
Spooling frame
AD 1313
Square pallet chain pump
AD 186
Stalactites and stalagmites, records of
4th century BC
Stars, proper motion of
AD 725
Steamers, pottery
5th millenium BC
Steel production, cofusion method of
6th century AD
Sterilization by steaming
AD 980
Steroids, urinary
AD 1025
Still, Chinese-type
7th century AD
Stirrup
AD 300
Stringed instruments
9th century BC
Tea, as drink
2nd century BC
Thyroid treatment
1st century BC
Tian yuan algebraic notation
AD 1248
Tilt-hammer, water-powered spoon
AD 1145
Toothbrush
9th century AD
Trebuchet (simple)
4th century BC
Trip hammers
2nd century BC
Trip hammers, water-powered
AD 20
Vinegar
2nd century BC
Water mills, geared
3rd century AD
Waterwheel, horizontal
AD 31
Weather vane
120 BC
Wet copper method
11th century AD
Wheelbarrow, centrally mounted
30 BC
Wheelbarrow, with sails
6th century AD
Windlass, well
120 BC
Windows, revolving
5th century BC
Winnowing machine
1st century BC
Wu tong black palatinated copper
15th century AD
Zoetrope
AD 180
Appendix II: States, Kingdoms, and Dynasties of China (Principal Unified States in Capitals)
Xia Kingdom
2000–1520 BC
Shang Kingdom
1520–1027 BC
Western Zhou
1027–771 BC
Eastern Zhou
771–221 BC
FIRST UNIFICATION
QIN
221–207 BC
WESTERN HAN
206 BC–AD 9
Xin interregnum
AD 9–25
EASTERN HAN
AD 25–220
First partition
Three Kingdoms
AD 220–265
SECOND UNIFICATION
WESTERN JIN
AD 265–316
EASTERN JIN
AD 317–420
Second partition
Southern Song
AD 420–478
Southern Qi
AD 479–501
Southern Liang
AD 502–556
Southern Chen
AD 557–588
Northern Wei
AD 386–553
Eastern Wei
AD 534–549
Western Wei
AD 535–557
Northern Qi
AD 550–577
Northern Zhou
AD 577–588
THIRD UNIFICATION
SUI
AD 580–618
TANG
AD 618–907
Third partition
Five Dynasties
AD 907–960
Ten Kingdoms
AD 907–979
FOURTH UNIFICATION
SONG
AD 960–1279
LIAO
AD 916–1125
WESTERN XIA
AD 1038–1227
JIN (Tartar)
AD 1115–1234
YUAN (Mongol)
AD 1279–1368
MING
AD 1368–1644
QING
AD 1644–1911
REPUBLIC OF CHINA
AD 1911–1949
PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC
AD 1949–PRESENT
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My first thanks must go to Mike McCabe of Salisbury, Connecticut, who in 1995 sold me my first book from the Science and Civilisation in China series. It was a secondhand copy of Volume IV, Part 3, Civil Engineering and Nautics; and the fact that his Lion’s Head Books—a store now long defunct and still greatly missed—had the book in stock and priced very nearly affordably allowed me to snap it up on impulse, to read it outside in the store’s parking lot, and to be rendered instantly enthralled by the sweep and scope of the mind behind it—the extraordinary mind of Joseph Needham.
The Needham Research Institute in Cambridge—where the ashes of Joseph, Dophi, and Gwei-djen, now commingled by time, lie beneath a tree in the gardens—is the present-day keeper of the flame, and I owe the very greatest of thanks to its director, Professor Christopher Cullen, who made me most welcome and allowed me full access to all those papers and artifacts that did not happen to be held in the immense collection of Needham documents across Grange Road in the Cambridge University Library. John Moffett, the NRI’s librarian, was also tirelessly helpful; both he and Dr. Cullen read the first draft of the typescript and each made many valuable suggestions. I hope that what appears now meets with their approval; should any errors of fact or judgment either remain or have crept in, they are my responsibility alone.
I wish to record my thanks also to the institute’s longtime administrator, Sue Bennett, as well as to archivist Joanne Meek; former director Ho Peng Yoke; and Sir Geoffrey Lloyd, scholar-in-residence and onetime chairman of the East Asian History of Science Trust, which generally oversees the institute. Lady Pamela Youde, who is the widow of the fondly remembered governor of Hong Kong, Sir Edward Youde, and who succeeded Sir Geoffrey as chairman of the trustees, was also extremely supportive.
At Caius College, Cambridge, I wish to record my thanks to the Master—and former British ambassador to China—Sir Christopher Hum; to Yao Ling, the college president; to Iain Macpherson, a fellow of Caius, a longtime friend of Needham’s and executor of his estate; the distinguished fellows Mikulas Teich, Anthony Edwards, John Robson, and Jimmy Altham; the historian and archivist Christopher Brooke; and the college librarian Mark Statham. While I worked in Cambridge, the Master of Darwin College, Professor William Brown, placed rooms, as well as dining and research facilities, at my disposal, for which I am most grateful.
I should like to thank the unfailingly helpful staff of the Documents Room at the University Library, Cambridge; I was also ably assisted here by Helen Scales, a marine scientist and expert on seahorses, who took time out from her own work and very kindly sought out some much-needed Needham papers for me; and by my son Rupert, who helped as he so often does with my book projects, in this case by sedulously transcribing scores of pages from Needham’s China diaries.
Staff at the China offices of the British Council were perhaps naturally predisposed to help a visitor who was researching the life and work of their most distinguished predecessor, who happened to be first-ever council officer based in the Middle Kingdom: So I was assisted generally by Michael O’Sullivan and Robin Rickard in the Beijing headquarters, and later and more especially, by David Foster and his delightful wife, Connie Lau, in Chongqing. The British consul-general at Chongqing, Tim Summers, together with his wife, Lucy Chan, proved the most hospitable of guides. Peter Bloor in the council’s
London offices also looked up some valuable archival material for me.