2. Papermaking: Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty, but China people invented papermaking before Cai Lun. Many ancient pieces of paper from the Western Han Dynasty unearthed in China in the 20th century can prove this point.
3. The ancient alchemists in China invented gunpowder in Sui and Tang Dynasties. The study of gunpowder began with the ancient Taoist alchemy. The ancients refined the elixir of life. The purpose and motive of alchemy are advanced, but its experimental method still has some merits, which eventually led to the invention of gunpowder.
4. Printing: According to the research of historian Deng Guangming, block printing was invented in the Tang Dynasty. In Yuan Dynasty, Wang Zhen, a famous Taoist scholar, agronomist and mechanic, invented wooden movable type and created a relatively simple turntable typesetting method suitable for the complex characteristics of Chinese characters.
Extended data:
China's four great inventions were introduced to the west before the emergence of modern European civilization, which had a certain impact on the development of western science and technology. The adoption of gunpowder and firearms destroyed the ideological shackles of Catholicism in medieval Europe. The introduction of compass made it possible for European navigators to discover America and sail around the world, which laid the foundation for the development of world trade and western handicrafts.
Needham's praise and attention to these four great inventions made this statement greatly recognized by China and written into textbooks. ?
Engles wrote in "Artillery" published in 1857: "In China, saltpeter was mixed with other igniters to make pyrotechnics long ago, which were used for military and grand ceremonies".
Gunpowder was first recorded in alchemy books at the end of the Tang Dynasty in the 9th century.
In 904 AD, Yang Xingmi led an army to besiege Zhang Yu (now Nanchang, Jiangxi), and ordered Zheng Kun and his men to "arise in Fei Huo, burn dragons and scatter them, lead strong men to the city first, and bury them urgently". This is the earliest use of gunpowder in military records, and the earliest gunpowder weapon appeared in Dunhuang murals in the Five Dynasties.
Dunhuang frescoes in the Five Dynasties period (which belonged to rebels at that time) are the earliest known depictions of muskets and grenades. The earliest metal ware in the world was unearthed in Heilongjiang, China, with the production date of 1288, and is now in the Heilongjiang Provincial Museum.
References:
Baidu Encyclopedia-Four Inventions