An Age of Asian Technology, AD 700-1100

History of Science & Technology in nonWestern Civilizations is a relatively new

field of study.
History of science and technology in
China:
Joseph Needham (1900 1995)

SCIENCE AND
CIVILISATION
IN CHINA SERIES
7 volumes

 The interaction between population

and technology
Increases in population have often been a
spur to technological innovation,
especially when more food and other
necessities have to be produced from a
fixed area or land.
Survival technology >> New cropping
patterns in China, West Asia, and Europe
from AD 700 >>> technological change

Great Silk Road >>

technological change

Trade and

 Trade in luxury goods

between China and West
Asia was a stimulating
factor in technological
change both in the West
and the East.
Export of Chinese silk
was a stimulus to textile
industry in the West.

 Chinese paper-making
techniques spread as a
result of contacts along
the trade routes.

Iranian windmills became

known in China which
eventually led to invention
of a different type of
windmill there.

 Trade links also means that commercial

prosperity in one region could influence
economic conditions in very distant
areas.

W. H. McNeil, historian,
says: the growth of
commerce in China
during centuries on
either side of the year
1000 was such that it
tipped a critical balance
in world history.

William Hardy McNeill, (born

Oct. 31, 1917, Vancouver, B.C.,
Can.), prominent historian whose
The Rise of the West, covering
the entire span of recorded human
history, had a major effect on
historical theory.
(Encyclopedia Britannica)

 Rapid Expansion of Iron Industry in China

Hebei and Henan provinces: Iron ore +
coal
Wood or charcoal fuel for furnaces was
becoming scarce because of
deforestation, and the expansion of the
iron industry depended on an increased
use of coal and coke.

Hebei iron-working
The drawing based on the
earliest known picture of a
blast furnace in China,
dating from 1334

Bellows
(sometimes driven
by watermills)

Liao Empire

Hebei& Henan
Iron Industry
Canals

Chinese
Iron
Industry

Chinese Hydraulic Engineering

Spillways + Pound locks

 Total output reported by tax officials:

32,500 tons per year in AD 998
- 90,400 tons in 1064
- 125,000 tons in 1078

Liao threat:
Song China built up an
enormous army, exceeding
1000,000 men by the 1040s

 Much of the iron produced in the Hebei

region went to manufacture military
equipment:
suits of armor,
Arrow-heads (16,000,000 iron arrow-heads
per year for the crossbow men.
Other users of iron:
Buddhist temples (to make bells)
Farmers: to make ploughs and farm tools

 The north of the country, in the Yellow

River basin, has a cool climate, and the
economy depended on wheat and millet
crops rather than rice.
>> Gradual movement of farmers to the
warmer, wetter southern regions (also
because of the Jin tartars threat)
A smaller area of land
there had to support the
growing population
and feed the army.

 The Government Interference:

Introduction of a new variety of rice from
Champa, in what is now Vietnam: Champa
rice >>> quick-growing rice
Could be planted early, leaving time after it was
harvested for a second crop to be grown.
It could be grown on land where there was an
insufficient water supply for ordinary rice.

- Pre-modern R&D

 Geography and Technology:

Islamic territories:
Dry climates
Importance of irrigated agriculture

<<< Survival Technology>>>>

The problem of water:
Dry lands in the Middle East

Qanats
Dams

the Qanat

the Qanat

http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=La76Yl1wuGM

Noria

Persian Windmill

Indian Ocean Trade

 Spread of:
Indian Cotton Industry
Steel Making >> Damascus steel
Irrigation/ Windmills/labor-saving
techniques
Ship-making technology
Spice / Food trade
Gunpowder
Compass
Printing press

One of the major themes of Asian history is

the relationship between the nomadic
peoples of the northern grasslands and
the settled civilizations of China, India
and Iranian plateau.

 Mongols:
Invasion of both Iran and China: 1260s

Mongols:
Economy: sheep and horse raising
No knowledge of irrigated farming systems
Major damages in irrigation canals and
qanats
Decrease in food production led to decline of
population in central Iran and Iraq

Social turbulence in Islamic states>>

migration of scholars/scientists/engineers
to more westerly locations

 Horses were central to the nomadic

economy
Export
Transport
Milk + fermented milk >> alcoholic drink
Riding for hunting / war

The key technology associated with the

nomads horses was the harness, and the
key element here was the iron stirrup

The stirrup had evolved in

China and Mongolia in the 6th
century, but was still not
universally used. This gave
the nomadic armies with their
mounted archers a decisive
advantage in many conflicts.
The bow used by Turkish and
Mongol archers was a
compound device used
animal products such as
horn and sinew as well as
having a wooden frame.
It was stiffer to pull than the
English longbow, even
though it was fired from
horseback. It had
considerable range and a
lethal effect.

 The consequences of Mongols invasion to Iran and India

Destructive effects in learning, technology,

Destruction of libraries, educational institutes,
observatories, irrigation systems
Elimination of Buddhism in N. India
Spread of some technologies such as
stirrup/harness making, spinning
wheels

 Spinning wheels:
The earliest clear illustrations of the spinning
wheel come from Baghdad (1237), China
(1270), and Europe (c. 1280)
It is said that the spinning wheel has an Iranian
origin.
Technological dialogue: there might be
numerous minor innovations, and once the winding
wheel was known, some form of wheel for spinning
may have been suggested to the minds of a
number of individuals in quite different places.

 Independent regional inventions:

Thread produced in the Islamic countries
(and Europe) was always twisted to make it
stronger, whereas Chinese manufacturers
avoided it.
Mechanical devices to twist the thread have
been invented in the West rather than in
China.

Culture, Religion and technology

Buddhist technology:
- Bells
- Status >> Bronze Buddha: 13 meters
height, 380 tons
- metal structures
- Bridge construction / repair
(example: impact of Islamic
rituals on astronomy)
- Printing

 The concept of Tool Complex and Technology

Complex in Survival Technology
No sign of complicated labor-saving
technologies (such as water mills, compound
pulleys, transfer of force using gears, etc.) in
India before the 1200s.
Was India backward compared to Iran?
Complementary tools
Role of Environmental conditions (climate, soil,
ecology) + Kind of ownership + population density

 Patronage: Science and Technology

Islamic fine technology
The concept of prestige technology
Technology connected with gardens
Technology connected with
astronomy
Automata ( Banu Musa brothers, alJazari: book on Mecanical Devices)

Fine Technology in Islam: Sophisticated mechanisms employed in gardens

(fountain systems, pumps, water jets, etc.) and
Astronomy (astrolabes, clocks, map making tools, etc.)

Islam in North Africa

Transfer of:
Islamic schools / Mosques
Irrigation systems/ watermills
Social revolution in dress
in some parts:
Rich people adopted Islam but poorer
people continued to go nearly
naked!

 Europe after the 12th century

Improved agriculture
Strong economy
Trade with other states, especially Muslims
Development in educational system
Need to learn practical knowledge, such as
arithmetic, medicine, astronomy
Translation Movement

The Diffusion of
Paper Making

Translation from Arabic to Latin

Translations 2.pdf

Star Names: Arabic to Latin

..\HIST 104- F08\Star Names-Arabic-Latin.xls

 Translation:
Arabic to Latin
Greek, Syriac (ancient languages) to Latin
Expansion of knowledge + Educational
reform>>
Establishment of the first universities in Europe
(University of Paris: 1150; Oxford: 1167;
Cambridge: 1209; Padua: 1222)

Development of the critical and combative

philosophical tradition known as
scholasticism.
Aristotles scholastic critics
developed important alternatives
for some of his doctrines.

 Before 1450: Three mechanically minded

cultures>> China, Islamic countries, western
Europe

After 1450 European technology was developing

faster than that of other countries, and in new
directions.

Social and political institutions in Europe

Multiplication of points of creativity

Major disasters had befallen the Islamic world

and China

>Gunpowder (had been known in China

before AD 900)
Deployment of Chinese engineers in Iran in the 1270s
Two books from E. Mediterranean regions in 1280 describe bombs,
rockets and fire-lances very similar to some types of

>Availability of high-nitrate
powder + development
of the fire-lance

Chinese weaponry.

Transfer of technology >>

transformation
The transfer of technology nearly always involve
modifications to suit new conditions, and often
stimulate fresh innovations.

>Transfer of gunpowder recipes and some

primitive hand-guns to Europe
> Invention of the Canon in Europe

Independent inventions
Sometimes quite vague information from another country,
or an unusual artifact, is sufficient by itself to stimulate
innovation in the recipient country >> the telescope
Sometimes two artifacts are so difference that they must
be regarded as independent inventions>>>Persian
windmills vs. European windmills

Earliest picture of a
European cannon, 1326

The parts of a cannon described in John Roberts' The Compleat Cannoniere, London,
1652

America Before Columbus

Scandinavian
Visits of
N. America
Before 1400
To collect timber.
Danish and
English seafarers
followed up
information from
Scandinavian
sources in
voyages to
Labrador and
Newfoundland in
1476 and 1497

The possibility of highly developed civilizations in America was hardly

grasped before Cortes arrived in Mexico in 1519.
Three major civilizations: Mayan, Aztec, and the Incas

Agriculture in the Mayan civilization

Land: ~ 6 meters by ~ 100 meters

water
Irrigation systems of the Incas
No iron, no wheel, no pulleys,
Technology Complex!
The arrival of Europeans on the mainland of
Central America in 1513: A real disaster!
Combination of military conquest and epidemic
diseases = disaster

 Smallpox
Measles
No natural immunity
Mexico is thought to have had a population of 2530 million in 1500; by 1567, only about 3 million
remained!
Such a catastrophe led people to lose
confidence in their own culture and institutions.
Effect on language
Effect on religion

In Peru, irrigation based on rivers developed before the rise of Incas (13 th century) , with long canals fed from diversion dams. One canal was 110 kilometers long
and had been carefully surveyed.

The Mongols of the seas

It seems unlikely that Chinese ships
ever visited the Americas before
Columbus
Chinese voyages in the 1400s
While the largest European vessels were
about 30 m long, Chinese ships were
mostly over 100 m long.

 Joseph Needhams argument:

Independent invention is not an adequate
explanation for similarities between terraced
cultivation in Peru and China.
Rope suspension bridges in the Americas and
China
Maya calendar and Chinese Calendar
Mulberry-bark paper

The concept of step-by-step diffusion of

techniques

 Zheng He (1371-1435); Seven Voyages: 1405-1433

 Transfer of shipbuilding technology

The effect of humidity and heat on iron
nails
European ships could not be used for
more than 2-3 years in the seas
around Southeast Asia
Oak Plank worm
Use of Indian wood
Danish seamen+ Arab merchants +
Jewish cartographers

 Exchange with Europe before 1500s

Development of mining in Europe,
especially Germany
The importance of central American
exploration

Chinese travels to Africa:

First description of the African
Flora and fauna

 Europe in the 15th century

The Renaissance
The Scientific Revolution