I have
planned the telling from the standpoint of how China has impacted their
individual lives. The story as follows with pictures and references to
handouts.
Everyday life
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ANCIENT CHINA DISCOVERY
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Time
|
Time of Western development
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What
do you do when you wake up?
1.
You look at
your goldfish
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Goldfish
bred
from Carp with rare colors.
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618-906,
Tang
Dynasty
During
Song Dyansty only Imperial families could own goldfish.
|
1611
brought to Portugal
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2.
check the time
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Clocks
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First
Mechanical 725 (Tang Dynasty)
First
water clock ?4000BC (China & India)
First
Astonomical clock 1088
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Mechanical
1176 France.
The
Salisbury clock 1386 still works.
Water
clock, Babylon & Egypt 15th CenturyBC
Astronomical
clock 1336
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3.
brush your
teeth
|
Bristle Toothbrush
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618-906
Tang
Dynasty
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Europe,
1690 is the earliest recorded date
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4.
for whatever
reason use toilet paper
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Toilet Paper
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589,
Sui Dynasty
Recorded
in poetry
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1857,
New York
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5.
get dressed ...
in silk!
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Silk
Sericulture is silk production/farming from silkworms.
|
3000
BC
Age
of ancient scraps of silk.
Chinese
legend says silk discovered around 2300BC by a princess
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400BC
silk reached the west.
300AD
Japan learned the secret.
552AD
Byzantine Empire learns secret of sericulture when 2 monks sneak out silkworm
eggs.
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6.
heat up your
tea with matches
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Tea
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1500BC
Tea
as medicine.
3rd
Century AD
Tea
as a drink
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1285,
Marco Polo wrote of Chinese Tea Taxes.
1557
Portugal establishes Macau and tea spreads to West.
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7.
( matches)
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Matches
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577AD
Invented
by ladies trying to cook while under siege
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1826
England
Invents
friction match.
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8.
you ride to
school on your horse
If you ride in your carriage you’ll need: |
Horse Harness,
Ox-harnesses
were used on horses but this choked them and made it inefficient. The horse
harness was 4X more effective.
|
300BC
|
Europe
600AD
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a) Ox harness chokes b) Chinese horse harness
horse.
c) Modern Harness
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9.
Otherwise if
you ride your horse you’ll need:
|
Stirrups
Considered
as important as the wheel and printing press and gunpowder, the stirrup transformed
warfare
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322
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6th
or 7th century Europe
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10.
if it’s raining
you’ll need
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Umbrella
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300BC
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Europe
17th century.
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11.
snow?
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Snow crystals
observed
as hexagonal which is a significant discovery. Observation was very important to the study
of nature and the Universe
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135BC
Becomes
a regular part of literature and science.
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Europe
1591
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12.
If it’s early
you might see some stars
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Astronomy, star charting, celestial spheres, and armillary
spheres.
China
was an early expert in astronomy, developing complex and sensitive tools,
inventing armillary spheres and celestial globes.
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79-139AD
Han Dynasty catalogued 2500 stars.
Tang Dynasty most advanced star chart of 1350 stars.
Armillary
sphere was invented in the 4th Century BC
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1515
was the first European star chart and in
1693 they’d only catalogued 1564 stars.
Armillary
sphere in the west was invented by Eratosthenes, 276 –194 BC
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13.
school starts
with:
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Bell
|
2000
BC
|
5th
Century Italy where Benedictine monks learned hot to cast iron and create
bells.
|
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14.
Writing
assignment?
|
Paper
One
of what China calls “the Four Great Inventions”
China
invented books, wrapping paper, envelopes, paper cup, paper napkins, toilet
paper, and Paper Money
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2BC
|
751 Arabs
11th
Century, Europe
1400
Germany
13th
Century India
Independently:
Mayan 5th Century
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Paper
was different from other mediums for writing in that it had a uniform
surface, was flexible, and quite durable. (Papyrus for example could not be
folded and its uneven surface made its use inconsistent and it deteriorated
rapidly outside of dry climates).
Paper
became a powerful medium for recording information, expressing ideas, and
sharing these things.
Paper
& Printing gave rise to the Rennaisance.
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15.
Read:
Princess? Cinderella. Herioc warrior? Art of War the most famous military text of all time. |
Cinderella
Sun
Tzu’s Art of War
“war is a necessary evil that must be avoided whenever
possible”
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850-860AD
(Art
of War
6th
-5thCentury BC)
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1634
Italy.
1697
Perrault’s Little Glass Slipper
(Art
of War translated to French in 1772 )
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16.
The book --
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Printing
books, wrapping paper, envelopes,
paper cup, paper napkins, and toilet paper - Paper Money
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2nd
Century, Buddhism helped the spread of printing
11th
Century China Ceramic movable type, 13th Century Koreans invented metal
moving type
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c.1300
europe
(1455
Gutenberg Bible)
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Printing changed the world. It is one of the greatest discoveries of all
mankind, like the wheel and fire.
It enabled the sharing of knowledge easily so everyone
could have the opportunity to read and learn.
In
1455 with the Gutenberg bible, high quality and cheap prints spread and helped
start the Renaissance.
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If
you study math:
17.
Negative
Numbers,
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Negative Numbers
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179AD
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Europe
1545
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3 – 5 = -2
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18.
Decimal System
(Decimal fractions)
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Decimal Fractions, the foundation of the decimal system.
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13th
Century BC
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Europe
1530
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for example:. or
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19.
pi (best
version until 15th century)
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pi
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5th
CenturyAD
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Not
improved until
15th
Century India & Persia
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20.
Eat lunch? How
about Noodles or Pasta
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Noodles / Pasta
And
Stir Fry
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2000BC
(possibly
as far back as 4,000 BC)
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1154
Sicily spaghetti.
(Probably
learned from the Libyans)
1st
CenturyBC Rome (Lasagna pasta)
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21.
You’ll need a
plate: Porcelain/Fine China
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Fine Porcelain /China
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2nd-4th
Century
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Reached
Europe in 18th Century.
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$9.5Million bowl.
$18Million vase (20th or late 19th Century)
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22.
Paper Money,
Gold Standard.
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Paper Money
came
about because of Paper and Printing and lots of Gold & silver.
1120’s, true money under Song
Dynasty, when the government backed it. At first it was regional and limited
to 3-years. Soon it was nationalized
(1264-1274). 1273 The Yuan dynasty (Mongol
empire) made money without time limits and backed by gold or silver. 1694,
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1273
Money
backed by the government, and gold and silver (to fight inflation)
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1855
Bank of England
1862
USA
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23.
Playing Cards,
Dominoes, Mahjong, & Hacky Sack
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Playing Cards
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618-906,
Tang
Dynasty
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1334
Spain
|
|
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Dominoes
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960-1279,
Song
Dynasty
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18th
Century Italy
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Mahjong
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500BC
(by Confucius) or
1850
by soldiers during Taiping Rebellion, or
1870
by Shanghai nobles.
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1895
America
|
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Hacky Sack
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1AD
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1972
America
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24.
Kites
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Kites
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1000BC
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16th-17th
Century Portugal
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25.
Ping Pong
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not
a Chinese invention
Named
from an 1884 song by Hacre.
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1901
introduced to China.
1930’s
Edgar Snow comments on the popularity of Ping Pong in China.
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1885
(invented
in England) but China men have won 60% of all international competitions, and
women all but 2.
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26.
Merit System
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Merit System
Tests
decide placement and job
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2nd
Century BC
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17th
Century India & England
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How did
Chinese inventions go west? Trade and War.
The Mongol
dynasty encompassed most of Asia, the middle east and Europe from Vietnam, to
Korea, to Iran, to Poland, and Hungary, down to Iran.
Baghdad, Moscow,
Kiev and Cracow were some western cities under the empire. (Calendar handout -
attached)
The Chinese
Zodiac calender is used by most of Asia and was used by Bulgaria, Romanians,
and Huns. It is also when the West learned of firecrackers and guns.
Some Chinese
inventions were secret, others were difficult to understand, and others in
plain sight or sound.
Bells
inspired people who hear them.
The Chinese
understanding of the compass was easy to understand and very useful.
One famous
person, Marco Polo, was one of the first traders to write about his
travels. Because he wrote about China,
more people learned of it. No one even
remembers that his father went to China before him.
Though he
did not bring pasta to Italy, Marco Polo did inspire Christopher Columbus. He
went to China 800 years ago and he is still famous. A Thousand years from now, people will still
remember his name.
Paper and
Silk by contrast were imperial secrets and China maintained a monopoly for on
paper for almost 800 years, and on silk for at least 3 thousand years.
Paper -
Muslims captured 2 papermakers in a war and learned it from them.
Silk was
made from silkworm cocoons. The Romans though the Chinese made silk from tree
leaves. 300BC Japanese kidnapped 4 silkfarmers and some eggs. Then in 552, some
monks snuck silkworms out of china.
Money was
not adopted by other countries for almost 600 years because it requires a very
organized government to manage and the technology is not easy either since you
dont want forgeries. so you need to understand paper and printing. early chinese money was printed in 6 colors
with imperial seals, and the paper had bits of color to make it hard to copy.
Porcelain is
a very difficult technology that even if you know what to do, it is very hard
to do. Many civilizations knew how to
make pottery but none could replicate the technology to make fine china until
recently.