China, ancient arts

Of the earliest date at which it was known In China, their own evidence is defective but Utf fa NO, an Italian author, affirms that not only gunpowder, but ordnance, was in use in that nation in the year 85, and that in his day cannon were remaining from the most ancient times in some of tho maritime provinces, mado both of iron and of brass, nenee some writers presume that the Chinese communicated the invention to the Indians whilst it lias also been said, but on no sufficient authority, that they themselves received it from Tartnry —a nation respecting wkich little or nothing is known and in which one would not be inclined to look for an eariy acquaintance with the arts. This, however, refers to a date so late aa 917 so that, if there is uny dependence to he placed on the Indian and Chincso hypothesis, the Tartars must themselves have borrowed the invention from those to whom they are said to have lent it. 

Traditions of ancient writers attribute some discoveries in these lines to India or Persia, or other Asiatic countries, but as to whether any of these countries contributed in any important way to the development of Egyptian chemical knowledge, or whether at some time these countries learned their arts from Egypt, we cannot safely determine from such tradition. It is quite certain that both in China and in India the chemistry of the metals and alloys, methods of dyeing and the use of certain chemicals in medicine were practiced at ancient periods, but their chronology is diffi-... 

Massage is one of the oldest forms of remedial therapy which was probably first practiced in a structured way in China and Mesopotamia more than 5000 years ago. The art of massage was already well known to the physicians of ancient Greece when Hippocrates, the father of medicine, wrote in the 5th century b.c. that the way to health is a scented bath and an oiled massage every day. ... 

The art of using mixtures of chemicals to produce explosives is an ancient one. Black powder—a mixture of potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur—was being used in China well before 1000 a.d. and has been used through the centuries in military explosives, in construction blasting, and in fireworks. The DuPont Company, now a major chemical manufacturer, started out as a manufacturer of black powder. In fact, the founder, Eleuthere du Pont, learned the manufacturing technique from none other than Lavoisier. 

Distillation is an art that was practised long before the Christian era by the ancient Egyptians and was cultivated and protected as secret science by temple priests. It also appears to have been carried out in early times in India, Persia and China. Schelenz [1] is of the opinion that the discovery of distillation must be ascribed to the Persians, who employed the art for the preparation of rose water. Another view shared by v. Lippmann [8 — 10] is that the principle of distillation found its origin in the carbonization of wood, since descending distillation is referred to in the Ebers papyrus of about 1500 B.C., so that the process would be almost 3500 years... 

The Sexual Arts of Ancient China as Described in Manuscript of... 

Smithsonian Institution. The Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery contain collections of ancient ceramics with important examples from China and the Near East, www.asia.si.edu... 

Without even knowing that microorganisms existed, ancient people learned to put them to work. The anciet art of cheese-making involves fermentation of milk. For thousands of years, the soy sauces of China and Japan have been made from fermented beans. For centuries, the Balkan people have enjoyed fermented milk, or yogurt, and members of Central Asian tribes have found equal pleasure in sour camel s milk, or kumiss. Bread, which... 

---