What are the three earliest chemical processes in ancient China?

China is one of the four ancient civilizations in the world, with a long history and splendid culture. In chemistry, China had very important inventions and far-reaching achievements in ancient times.

In the late summer and early Shang Dynasty (BC16th century), China entered the Bronze Age. Simu Wuding weighs 875kg, ranking first in the world. Among them, the four main processes of bronze mining, smelting, modeling and casting are recorded in writing. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period (722 BC ~ 22 BC1year), the rise of iron smelting industry greatly promoted the progress of agricultural production, but it was not until the end of 13 that pig iron smelting appeared in some western European countries. In Ming Dynasty and Song Dynasty, Heavenly Creations recorded many iron and steel smelting techniques in China. In addition, the smelting of brass, white copper and zinc and "wet copper smelting" are earlier than other countries in the world. These are all important contributions to the development of chemical metallurgy technology.

Papermaking is recognized as one of the four great inventions of ancient science and technology in China. From a chemical point of view, it is mainly from natural plant fibers such as hemp, bark and bamboo that impurities are removed by chemical methods to obtain relatively pure cellulose, which is then made into pulp and finally made into paper. After long-term practice, the working people in our country invented papermaking at the beginning of the 2nd century A.D. and put it into production. Later, it spread eastward to Korea and Japan; Spread westward to Central Asia, Arabia, France, Spain and other countries. The invention and dissemination of paper greatly improved the conditions of writing, preservation and dissemination, and played a great role in promoting the development of human civilization.

Gunpowder was invented by ancient people in China through practice, especially the practice of alchemy, on the basis of gradually understanding carbon, sulfur and saltpeter. By the tenth century, China had used gunpowder in the military, which promoted the development of gunpowder weapons. It was not until 1225~ 1248 that gunpowder was introduced into Arabia through India, and it was not until the middle of14th century that it was introduced into Europe.

The word "China" refers to both porcelain and porcelain. As early as the 5th century BC, China made primitive porcelain. In the long-term practice, the working people have mastered the high-temperature sintering technology as high as 1000℃, which is the key to making porcelain. Exquisite, diverse and colorful porcelain is a rare cultural and artistic treasure in the world.

In addition, in ancient China, there were brewing, dyeing, painting, tanning and other processes, all of which were closely related to chemistry. In the book "China ranks first in one hundred worlds" written by a British scholar, chemistry ranks first in 14. The brilliant achievements of ancient chemistry in China fully prove that the Chinese nation is a great nation full of wisdom and creativity.

Editor-in-chief Chang, publishing house, solving chemistry problems in senior three.