page_title: List of Chinese inventions
section_title: Pre-Shang
hierarchical_section_title: List of Chinese inventions / Pre-Shang
caption_attribution_description: English: Bronze Dagger-Axe Eastern Zhou Dynasty - Warring States Period (475 - 221 B.C.) Excavated at Xinzheng, Henan Province, 1971 This dagger-axe came from Zheng Youku; Zheng being the capital of the State of Han, and Youku the depot for the manufacture and storage of weapons. Weapons such as this had long handles of bamboo or wood, and those made of jade, stone, or bone were used for ceremonial purposes.
context_page_description: China has been the source of many innovations, scientific discoveries and inventions. This includes the Four Great Inventions: papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, and printing. The list below contains these and other inventions in China attested by archaeological or historical evidence.
  The historical region now known as China experienced a history involving mechanics, hydraulics and mathematics applied to horology, metallurgy, astronomy, agriculture, engineering, music theory, craftsmanship, naval architecture and warfare. By the Warring States period, inhabitants of the Warring States had advanced metallurgic technology, including the blast furnace and cupola furnace, while the finery forge and puddling process were known by the Han Dynasty. A sophisticated economic system in imperial China gave birth to inventions such as paper money during the Song Dynasty. The invention of gunpowder during the mid 9th century led to an array of inventions such as the fire lance, land mine, naval mine, hand cannon, exploding cannonballs, multistage rocket and rocket bombs with aerodynamic wings and explosive payloads.
context_section_description: Inventions which originated in what is now China during the Neolithic age and prehistoric Bronze Age are listed in alphabetical order below. 
  Bell: Clapper-bells made of pottery have been found in several archaeological sites. The earliest metal bells, with one found in the Taosi site, and four in the Erlitou site, dated to about 2000 BC, may have been derived from the earlier pottery prototype. Early bells not only have an important role in generating metal sound, but arguably played a prominent cultural role. With the emergence of other kinds of bells during the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1050 BC), they were relegated to subservient functions; at Shang and Zhou sites, they are also found as part of the horse-and-chariot gear and as collar-bells of dogs.
  Coffin, wooden: The earliest evidence of wooden coffin remains, dated at 5000 BC, was found in the Tomb 4 at Beishouling, Shaanxi. Clear evidence of a wooden coffin in the form of a rectangular shape was found in Tomb 152 in an early Banpo site. The Banpo coffin belongs to a four-year-old girl, measuring 1.4 m (4.5 ft) by 0.55 m (1.8 ft) and 3–9 cm thick. As many as 10 wooden coffins have been found from the Dawenkou culture (4100–2600 BC) site at Chengzi, Shandong. The thickness of the coffin, as determined by the number of timber frames in its composition, also emphasized the level of nobility, as mentioned in the Classic of Rites, Xunzi and Zhuangzi. Examples of this have been found in several Neolithic sites; the double coffin, the earliest of which was found in the Liangzhu culture (3400–2250 BC) site at Puanqiao, Zhejiang, consists of an outer and an inner coffin, while the triple coffin, with its earliest finds from the Longshan culture (3000–2000 BC) sites at Xizhufeng and Yinjiacheng in Shandong, consists of two outer and one inner coffins.
  Cookware and pottery vessel: The earliest known pottery vessels, dating to 20,000 to 19,000 BP, were excavated in Xianrendong Cave located in the Jiangxi province of China. The presence of scorched surfaces on the pot shards indicates that they were likely used as cookware. An excavation of Yuchanyan Cave in Hunan province found pottery dating to 18,300 to 15,430 BP. The manufacture of pottery by hunter-gatherers in East Asia predates the emergence of agriculture in that region by 10,000 years, challenging the traditionally held belief that pottery resulted from the Neolithic Revolution.
  Dagger-axe: The dagger-axe or ge was developed from agricultural stone implement during the Neolithic, dagger-axe made of stone are found in the Longshan culture (3000–2000 BC) site at Miaodian, Henan. It also appeared as ceremonial and symbolic jade weapon at around the same time, two being dated from about 2500 BC, are found at the Lingjiatan site in Anhui. The first bronze ge appeared at the early Bronze Age Erlitou site, where two were being found among the over 200 bronze artifacts (as of 2002) at the site, three jade ge were also discovered from the same site. Total of 72 bronze ge in Tomb 1004 at Houjiazhuang, Anyang, 39 jade ge in tomb of Fu Hao and over 50 jade ge at Jinsha site were found alone. It was the basic weapon of Shang (c. 1600 – 1050 BC) and Zhou (c.1050–256 BC) infantry, although it was sometimes used by the "striker" of charioteer crews. It consisted of a long wooden shaft with a bronze knife blade attached at a right angle to the end. The weapon could be swung down or inward in order to hook or slash, respectively, at an enemy. By the early Han Dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), military use of the bronze ge had become limited (mostly ceremonial); they were slowly phased out during the Han Dynasty by iron spears and iron ji halberds.
  Deepwater drilling: Some of the earliest evidence of water wells are located in China.  The Chinese discovered and made extensive use of deep drilled groundwater for drinking. The Chinese text The Book of Changes, originally a divination text of the Western Zhou dynasty (1046 -771 BC), contains an entry describing how the ancient Chinese maintained their wells and protected their sources of water
caption: A bronze dagger-axe from the State of Han, Warring States period (403–221 BC); this type of weapon has existed in China since the Neolithic period
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