Ep. 3 | The Four Great Inventions
Today we look at the Four Great Inventions, in Chinese known as the 四大发明, that Lord Francis Bacon hailed as having done more than anything else to transform completely the modern world and mark it off from antiquity and the Middle Ages.
The four great inventions are the compass, gunpowder, paper, and printing, and today we explore the origins, uses, and impact each one of these things had on the world.
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Terms in Episode
| Pinyin/Term | Chinese | English/Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Si Da Fa Ming | 四大发明 | The Four Great Inventions |
| Zhi Nan | 指南 | Compass |
| Shen Kuo | 沈括 | Writer of the Dream Pool Essays（梦溪笔谈） |
| Wujing Zongyao | 武警总要 | Collection of the Most Important Military Techniques, first described gunpowder |
| Bi Sheng | 毕升 | Credited with inventing moveable type |
| Cai Lun | 蔡伦 | Credited with inventing paper during the Han Dynasty |
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Related Episodes
The series concludes in this Part 5 episode that takes the history up to the Qing Dynasty