China: ancient

The most ancient uses of spices appear to be therapeutic in nature. The use of spices was common in China but tittle, if any, authentic Chinese records exist to confirm this. According to Chinese myths and legends, Shen Nung, the Divine Cultivator, founded Chinese medicine and discovered the curative powers of many herbs. He is said to have described more than 100 plants in a treatise reportedly written in 2700 BC. It has been shown, however, that no written language was available in China at that time. Although some of the herbal uses in the treatise go back several centuries BC, the work seems to have been produced by unknown authors in the first century AD. Other records on the use of cassia and ginger are known to have been written in the fifth and fourth centuries BC, in the latter case by Confucius. 

Tile. A versatile product, tile is traced back to ancient Greece, China, and Japan. Tile (35) has high fire resistance and is offered in a variety of textures and styles. Both clay and concrete tiles are relatively heavy and require a more robust stmcture than those used for asphalt shingles. 

Corrosion protection using bitumen coatings reaches back into antiquity. The most ancient occurrence of bitumen deposits was in Mesopotamia. Many writers of antiquity, such as Dido, Strabo, and Vitruvius, mention that asphalt was obtained for many years near Babylon. About 5000 yeare ago, the streets of Ur, capital of the Sumerians (north of present-day Kuwait), were lit at night with mineral oil. Natural gas was reported to be used for lighting in the Middle East and China. 

Batch crystallizers are widely used in the chemical and allied industries, solar saltpans of ancient China being perhaps the earliest recorded examples. Nowadays, they still comprise relatively simple vessels, but are usually (though not always) provided with some means of agitation and often have artificial aids to heat exchange or evaporation. Batch crystallizers are generally quite labour intensive so are preferred for production rates of up to say 10 000 tonnes per year, above which continuous operation often becomes more favourable. Nevertheless, batch crystallizers are very commonly the vessel of choice or availability in such duties as the manufacture of fine chemicals, pharmaceutical components and speciality products. 

The use of hydraulics is not new. The Egyptians and people of ancient Persia, India and China conveyed water along channels for irrigation and other domestic purposes. They used dams and sluice gates to control the flow and waterways to direct the water to where it was needed. The ancient Cretins had elaborate plumbing systems. Archimedes studied the laws of floating and submerged bodies. The Romans constructed aqueducts to carry water to their cities. 

The earliest recorded attempts at organ transplant date back thousands of years.1 More than a few apocryphal descriptions exist from ancient Egypt, China, India, and Rome documenting experimentation with transplantation. For example, an Indian text from the second century bc describes a procedure for nasal reconstruction surgery with the use of autografted skin. Also, Roman Catholic lore has saints Damian and Cosmas replacing the gangrenous leg of a man with the leg of a recently deceased man in the third century ad.1... 

Chikashige, Masumi.Alchemy and other chemical achievements of the ancient orient the civilization of Japan and China in early times as seen from the chemical point of view. Translated by Nobuji Sasaki. Tokyo Rokakuho Uchida, 1936. vii, 102p... 

Doctors, diviners, and magicians of ancient China biographies of Fang-shih translated by Kenneth J. DeWoskin. Translated by Kenneth J. DeWoskin. New York Columbia Univ P, 1983. xii, 224 p. 

Gulick, R.H. van. Sexual life in ancient China a preliminary survey of Chinese... 

Keller, Alex G. The scientific and technological sages of ancient China. Ambix 18, no. 1 (Mar 1971) 49-55. 

Needham, Joseph. "Metals and alchemists in ancient China." In To illustrate the monuments Essays on archaeology presented to Stuart Piggott, ed. J.V.S. Megaw, 282-294. London Thames Hudson, 1976. 

Needham, Joseph. "The cosmology of ancient China." In Ancient cosmologies, eds. C. Blacker and M. Loewe, 87-109. London Allen Unwin, 1975. 

Metallic zinc was already known in ancient China. Was widely applied as brass, an alloy with copper. 

Lead (chemical symbol Pb, from the Latin name for the metal, plumbum) is a gray, soft, ductile, and very poisonous metal, although its poisonous properties were probably unknown to the ancients. The metal has been used, particularly in China and India, since very ancient times. Lead is not found in nature in the native, metallic form, although tiny particles of the metal are occasionally encrusted in rocks. It is unlikely, therefore, that the metal would... 

The simplest and coarsest type of pottery is a lightweight, very porous, and typically red-colored terracotta that is fired at temperatures below 850°C. Much of ancient pottery, for example, is of the terracotta type. Excavations in the Near East have revealed that primitive terracotta vessels were being made there more than 8000 years ago characteristic types of terracotta were developed in China by about 5000 b.c. 

Silk. Silk, the only natural fiber that comes in filament form, has been and still is one of the most appreciated and valued textile fibers. Silk filaments are secreted by the larvae of several types of silk moths to make their cocoons. Most silk is derived, however, from the larvae of the Bombyx mori moth, which has been widely cultivated in China for over 5000 years. Fragments of silk fabric dated to the late fourth millennium b.c.e. were found at Qianshanyang, in the province of Zhejiang, in China. There are, however, even earlier indications of the use of silk silk remains were found together with an eleventh-century b.c.e. mummy in Egypt, probably also providing evidence of ancient trading routes between the Far and Middle East. 

Turmeric, also known as curcuma, is an easily fading yellow dye that was used in Mesopotamia many centuries b.c.e. and later became popular in ancient Rome. It is derived from the turmeric plant, Curcuma longa, and other varieties of Curcuma indigenous to China and Southwest Asia. The dye is extracted with hot water from the shredded rhizomes of the plant and then dried into a yellow powder. The coloring matter in turmeric is the organic compound curcumin. 

Gan, F., H. Cheng, and Q. Li (2006), Origin of Chinese ancient glasses - Study on the earliest Chinese ancient glasses, Science in China, Ser. E Tech. Sci. 49, 701-713. 

Guo Yanyi (1987), Row materials for making porcelain and the characteristics of porcelain wares in north and south China in ancient times, Archaeometry 29, 3-19. 

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