Ancient Chinese Contributions: Row Planting

Ancient China has played a significant part in many famous inventions that have had a major impact in our lives from day to day. No matter how small they seem to be their inventions have helped us in so many ways that we have taken for granted. How many of us have ever given a thought to those that have made our lives easier by their inventions? There are quite a few from the Ancient Chinese that I was not aware of and was amazed at how many of these we do use in our lives every day and never stop to think where these items were invented. So what are some of the amazing things the Ancient Chinese have invented? 1) Row planting was first planted in the feudal period-6th century BC. This way of planting allows the crops to grow faster and stronger and they also realized that as the wind travels there is less damage in crops planted in rows due to the wind passing through gently. It is also more efficient in watering, weeding and harvesting the crops. (Stevenh) 2) The compass was created in the feudal period-4th century BC and was made of lodestone. The compass was first used by fortune-tellers before it was applied to the cardinal direction. Then the Chinese’s started using the compass to point to the south because they considered south not north their cardinal direction. 3) Gunpowder has been credited to certain Chinese alchemists around 9th century but the legend has it as gunpowder being accidently discovered by alchemists looking for a concoction that could create immortality in humans. 4) Paper was invented in AD 105 by Cai Lun by creating a mixture of wood fiber and water pressed into a woven cloth. This allowed the moisture in the pulpy mixture to seep out resulting in a rough paper. Paper currency was first introduced by the Chinese and the earliest documentation of this invention is in the 800 BC. 5) Seismograph was created by Chang Heng a imperial astronomer during the Han Dynasty in the early 2nd century. This was used to detect earthquake tremors

References: Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderland, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, May 5). General format. Retrieved from http: // owl. English. Purdue. edu / owl / resource/560/01/ Clark, Josh, “Top 10 Ancient Chinese Inventions. Retrieved from http://history.howstuffworks. com/asian-history/10-ancient-chinese-inventions10.htm Stevenh, “10 Great Ancient Chinese Inventions.” April 18, 2009: Retrieved from http://listverse. com/2009/04/18/10-great-ancient-chinese-inventions/ Sharma, Supriya, “Save Paper, Save Trees, Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Save- Paper,-Save-Tree&id=3897971