Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The magnetic compass was first invented as a device for divination as early as the Chinese Han dynasty and Tang dynasty (since about 206 BC). [1] [3] [34] The compass was used in Song dynasty China by the military for navigational orienteering by 1040–44, [22] [35] [36] and was used for maritime navigation by 1111 to 1117. [37]
A red wire or thread that crosses the earth plate and heaven dial at 90-degree angles is the Heaven Center Cross Line, or Red Cross Grid Line. [1] This line is used to find the direction and note position on the rings. Small feng shui compass, c. 1800–1894, from the Oxford College Archives of Emory University.
The compass's origins may be traced back to the Warring States period (476–221 BC), when Chinese people utilized a device known as a si nan to point in the right direction. During the early Song dynasty, a spherical compass with a small needle made of magnetic steel was created after steady development.
The Chinese polymath Shen Kuo (1031–1095) of the Song dynasty (960–1279) was the first to accurately describe both magnetic declination (in discerning true north) and the magnetic needle compass in his Dream Pool Essays of 1088, and the Song dynasty writer Zhu Yu (fl. 12th century) was the first to mention use of the compass specifically ...
The compass was then used from the 11th century during the Song dynasty, Yuan dynasty, Ming dynasty, and Qing dynasty in the study of geography. One of the most famous explorers in Chinese history was the 15th century admiral Zheng He , known for the Chinese exploration of the Pacific and his treasure voyages .
The Jesuit China missions of the 16th and 17th centuries introduced Western science and astronomy, while undergoing its own scientific revolution, at the same time bringing Chinese knowledge of technology back to Europe. [1] [2] In the 19th and 20th centuries the introduction of Western technology was a major factor in the modernization of China.
The Song dynasty was the first in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty saw the first surviving records of the chemical formula for gunpowder, the invention of gunpowder weapons such as fire arrows, bombs, and the fire lance.
Although literary references for mechanical revolving repositories and book cases of Buddhist temples trace back to at least 823 during the Tang dynasty, [28] they came to prominence during the Song dynasty. [28] The invention of the revolving book case is considered to have happened earlier, and is credited to the layman Fu Xi in 544. [29]