Assessment Chinese Discoveries And Inventions: Fill & Download for Free

An empirical and philosophical answer to the question.When the world was almost “physically” infinite and travel was limited by horseback or camel, civilization developed into various part of the earth, and some developed extremely well. Such successful civilization has brought culture to the people which include language, literature, philosophy, scientific & medical discoveries and inventions, astronomy, system of government and religion.Thus in planet earth, there were ancient civilizations Aztec in South America, Egyptian in Africa; followed by the Greeks and Roman in in Europe; India and China in Asia. It would appear that India and China may possess the longest continuous civilization on earth.The culture is only dominant in the geographic location of their civilization. With limited communications, the existence of one culture may not be known to another, let alone an objective comparison of culture.I strongly believe in the equality of all races on earth and for the same reason, I strong believe that every culture is unique and there is no such thing as a “superior” culture.Even with today’s mass communication and rapid transit where cultural studies are interchangeable and cross-referenced, it is still difficult to say objectively, that one culture is superior than another or more dominant than another.With the world shrinking in size, the interaction between civilizations occurred more frequently and more intensely. This could bring a new way of assessing “culture”, not how good or bad is by comparison with another, but how resilient it is to the people within a civilization that embraces that culture.Such a collision of cultures will ultimately bring forth a phenomena of cultures being convergent or merged. Components of a culture that is not resilient (ie. not resistant to change) will be left behind and replaced by a better component from elsewhere.I based my hypothesis in the blending of culture from my bi-cultural upbringing, being completely educated in the Western culture and literature and with traditional Eastern culture passed down from my parents.I considered that I am lucky to understand the Western mind better than my parents and yet it was them who pushed me to study the West.My wish is for more people in the West to learn about the East – that way is a sure guarantee of peace on earth for all mankind.One day, the earth will have a universal culture which will be blended from all the good and resilient of past cultures.

Okay, not an exhaustive one obviously, but a list that summarize what may well be known in the scientific community. Here we go;1. Definitive descriptions of smallpox and was the first to differentiate smallpox from measles - Al Razi (wiki)"One of his most innovative assertions related to measles and smallpox. Previously they were lumped together simply as a disease that caused rashes, but through careful observation al-Razi recorded the differences in appearance of the skin inflammations as well as the accompanying physical symptoms, and proposed correctly that they were indeed two distinct diseases"Abu Bakr Mohammad Ibn Zakariya al-Razi (Rhazes) (c. 865-925)2. Pulmonary circulation was first described by Ibn al-Nafis (wiki)"Ibn al-Nafis (1213–1288) was an Arab physician who made several important contributions to the early knowledge of the pulmonary circulation. He was the first person to challenge the long-held contention of the Galen School that blood could pass through the cardiac inter ventricular septum, and in keeping with this he believed that all the blood that reached the left ventricle passed through the lung"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2612469/3. Inductive experimental method, the earliest by Al Hazen/Ibn al-Haytham (wiki)"The origins of the scientific method hearken back to the Islamic World, not the Western one. Around 250 years before Roger Bacon expounded on the need for experimental confirmation of his findings, an Arab scientist named Ibn al-Haytham was saying the exact same thing."Ibn al-Haytham: The Muslim Scientist Who Birthed the Scientific Method | RealClearScience“Alhazen's experiment may seem simplistic today, but his methodology was ground-breaking: he developed a hypothesis based on observations of physical relationships (that light comes from objects), and then designed an experiment to test that hypothesis. “https://science.missouristate.edu/assets/science/PosterAlhazen.pdf4. One of the most accurate estimation of Earth Radius, by Al Biruni"He was the first able to obtain a simple formula for measuring the Earth’s radius. Moreover, he thought possible the Earth to revolve around the Sun and developed the idea the geological eras succeed one another "https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1312/1312.7288.pdfCalculation methodhttp://www.jscimath.org/uploads/J2011172AG.pdf5. The Canon of Medicine, a medical encyclopedia which became a standard medical text at many medieval universities and remained in use as late as 1650 (wiki)6. The earliest tin-glazed pottery in Abbasid, Iraq (wiki)"But the technique appears to have been forgotten until Islamic potters in Mesopotamia reinvent it, in an attempt to imitate the richly colored T'ang earthenware arriving from China.During the following centuries tin glazes spread through the Muslim world during a very creative period of Islamic pottery. They are used in the prosperous and lively western extremity of Islamic civilization, that of medieval Muslim Spain, and from here they eventually reach Christendom - inspiring great interest in Renaissance Italy.The route of that last leg of the journey gives tin-glazed wares their first European name. In about 1400 they are exported from Spain to Italy by merchants of Majorca. They become known to the Italians as Majorca-ware, or majolica."HISTORY OF POTTERY AND PORCELAIN7. Most sophisticated water-powered astronomical clock & an early example of a programmable analog computer by Al Jazari (wiki)"Because of its extremely accurate timing, complex pulley system, and ability to be re-programmed, Al-Jazari's water clock is considered one of the earliest forms of a programmable computer "History of Computers - Al-Jazari's Castle Clock8. Among the earliest mention of the idea of the Laffer Curve (wiki)"The Laffer Curve, by the way, was not invented by me. For example, Ibn Khaldun, a 14th century Muslim philosopher, wrote in his work The Muqaddimah: "It should be known that at the beginning of the dynasty, taxation yields a large revenue from small assessments. At the end of the dynasty, taxation yields a small revenue from large assessments"The Laffer Curve: Past, Present, and Future9. The first known recorded explanation of crypt-analysis was given by 9th-century Arabian polymath, Al-Kindi (also known as "Alkindus" in Europe) (wiki)"Al-Kindi’s breakthrough, known as frequency analysis, may seem obvious to modern eyes, but at the time it was a radical breakthrough that destroyed the security of the existing encryption system.He realised that letters of the alphabet appear with varying frequencies in written text, e.g., on average E accounts for 12.7 per cent of letters in an English text, whereas J, Q, X and Z combined add up to less than 1%"Arab Code Breakers"He gave the first known recorded explanation of cryptanalysis in his work, Manuscript on Deciphering Cryptographic Messages. He is credited with developing the method known as "frequency analysis", whereby variations in the frequency of the occurrence of letters could be analyzed and exploited to break ciphers."Brief Introduction to Al Kindi. Compiled by Mari Garcia and Joy Usher10. Earliest recorded coffee trade & drinking culture in Arabia (wiki)Arab Coffee House"Coffee cultivation and trade began on the Arabian Peninsula. By the 15th century, coffee was being grown in the Yemeni district of Arabia and by the 16th century it was known in Persia, Egypt, Syria, and Turkey. Coffee was not only enjoyed in homes, but also in the many public coffee houses — called qahveh khaneh — which began to appear in cities across the Near East.The popularity of the coffee houses was unequaled and people frequented them for all kinds of social activity. Not only did the patrons drink coffee and engage in conversation, but they also listened to music, watched performers, played chess and kept current on the news. Coffee houses quickly became such an important center for the exchange of information that they were often referred to as “Schools of the Wise.”The History of Coffee11. The first complete surgical treatise by Al Zahrawi @ Albucasishttp://www.rcpe.ac.uk/journal/issue/journal_41_1/ex-libris.pdf"One of the key players who made the real breakthrough in surgical instrumentation wa Al Zahrawi a.k.a. in the West as Albucasis. Albucasis practiced extensively in the Arab nations and kept the evolution of surgical tools ongoing."http://heinrichmedika.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Insight-Into-The-Old-Surgical-World.pdf12. Algebra (by Al Khwarizmi)“He later wrote The Compendious Book on Calculation by Completion and Balancing, which established algebra as a mathematical discipline that is independent of geometry and arithmetic.Later, Persian and Arabic mathematicians developed algebraic methods to a much higher degree of sophistication. Although Diophantus and the Babylonians used mostly special ad hoc methods to solve equations, Al-Khwarizmi's contribution was fundamental. He solved linear and quadratic equations without algebraic symbolism, negative numbers or zero, thus he had to distinguish several types of equations”Algebra - Wikipedia13. Introducing Hindu-Arab Numeral“They originated in India in the 6th or 7th century and were introduced to Europe through Arab mathematicians around the 12th century (see al-Khwarizmi). They represented a profound break with previous methods of counting, such as the abacus, and paved the way for the development of algebra.”Hindu-Arabic numerals14. Transmission of paper-making technology (wiki)"It took several hundered years for the ancient Chinese art of papermaking to reach the west. In 750, Chinese knowledge of papermkaing reached NOrth Africa from the prisoners taken at the battle of Samarkand. The 1st recorded use of paper for packaging was in 1035, when a Persian traveler in Cairo market noted vegetables etc., wre wrapped after they were sold"https://web.archive.org/web/20110716105826/http://faculty.quinnipiac.edu/charm/CHARM%20proceedings/CHARM%20article%20archive%20pdf%20format/Volume%2012%202005/288%20twede.pdf15. The oldest continuously-operating degree-granting university in the world by the Guiness Book of World Records.“The al-Karaouine mosque was founded by Fatima al-Fihri in 859 with an associated school, or madrasa, which subsequently became one of the leading spiritual and educational centers of the historic Muslim world. It was incorporated into Morocco's modern state university system in 1963. It is the oldest existing and continually operating educational institution in the world according to UNESCO and Guinness World Records[5] and is sometimes referred to as the oldest university, although some scholars dispute whether the term can be properly applied historically to institutions outside the European model.[6]”FAMOUS ALUMNIAllal al-FassiLeo AfricanusAbd el-Krim el-KhattabiIbn KhaldunMaimonidesMuhammad Taqi-ud-Din al-HilaliAbdullah al-GhumariUniversity of Karueein

This will be a highly unpopular answer among Europeans; my apologies in advance. I harbour no ill-will; I am just stating it like it is. I shall try to be as neutral as it is possible for me. Europe achieved more than anyone in the past 150 - 200 years for reasons that by and large, have nothing to do with inventions and discoveries and enterprise.First off, on an overall timescale of total human history spanning 12000 years, no one civilization can hold claim to being the greatest, for the perfectly simple reason that the term greatest is very vague. How do you define greatest? In what terms? Thus, any claims to being the greatest by anyone - Indians, with our uninterrupted 10000+ years civilization, or Europeans, with their comparatively recent and sudden rise, the Romans, who ruled for 600 years, or,...On a similar vein, it is also not possible for anyone to lay claim to having achieved more than anyone else; for the cumulative impact of inventions cannot be ignored. As a famous Indian song goes - jab zero diyaa mere bhaarat ne, duniyaa koh tab ginti aayi / taaro ki bhaashaa bhaarat ne duniyaa ko pehele sikhlai / detaa naa dashamlav bhaarat toh yunh chaand pe jaanaa mushkil thaa, dharti aur chaand ki doori kaa andaazaa lagaanaa mushkil thaa! Translated, it means: The world leant to count when Indians gave it the zero; India was the first in Astronomy; without the Indian decimal,. it would not have been possible to go to the moon...My point is not jingoistic jargon; it is straight and simple: it took a series of cumulative inventions and discoveries over a long period of time that allowed the results that we have seen in the past 100 or so years. You cannot differentiate and allocate percentage of achievements among the various components that go into each subsequent invention and discovery. Neither is this desirable.Moving forward, if you have to analyse European achievements, you would then have to do a 360-degree analysis of the same ----->Next, the assumption that Europe was ahead in the 1700s as compared to China and India is quite possibly based in wishful thinking. This is what the famous American historian Will Durant has to say on this topic, and I quote:""India was a far greater industrial and manufacturing nation than any in Europe or Asia, producing textile, Metal works, Jewelry, Precious Stones, Pottery, Architecture. She had great merchants, businessmen, ship building - nearly every kind of manufacture known to the civilized world was already in India" / "This was not the destruction of a minor civilization produced by an inferior people. It ranks with the highest civilizations of history, and some would place it at the head and summit of all - like Keyserling.... when the british cannons attacked.... the hindus surrendered at once lest one of the most beautiful creations of mankind be destroyed.Who, then, were the civilized people? (The Hindus or The English?) The British conquest of India was the destruction of a high civilization by a trading company utterly without scruple or principal, overrunning with fire, sword, bribery, murder a country temporarily disordered and helpless" - Will Durant, The Case For India, 1930Furthermore, take at look at the kind of ill-gotten monetary benefits that accrued from the relentless rape, loot and plunder of a defenceless people: Colonial Damage in Numbers. This is just from India. Imagine the ill-gotten income from the Americas, Asia, Africa etc. The simple hard truth is that European growth of the past 200 years has been bankrolled by Loot, Plunder and Blood Money. Without that ill-gotten wealth, it is a foregone conclusion that Europe would not have achieved anything close to what it did.The American historian concurs, and I quote:"The result was that Manchester and Paisley flourished and Indian industries declined. India was transformed into a purely agricultural country, and her mineral wealth was not explored; artisans etc were forced to live off the land; no competition was to be allowed to English industries- Kohn"The ferocity of the rape has been documented by Europeans, which is not part of the common historical record that is in prevalance: for those who are not aware, read these statements, some even made in Parliament:"The fundamental principle of the british has been to make the whole indian nation subservient... they have been taxed to the utmost limit; the indians have been denied every honor, dignity or office".... F J Shore testifying to the house of commons in 1857"Under their dependence on the british - Oudh and Karnatic, 2 of the noblest provinces in India, were plunged into a state of wretchedness with which no part of the Earth has anything to compare" - Lt Col Brigs, 1830"The Governments' assessment does not even leave enough food for the cultivator to feed his family" - Sir William Hunter, 1875That last statement in the most brutal indictment of European rule. Tom-tom European achievements all you want; but when you are doing so, please remember that those achievements were paid for by a helpless, defenceless people in another land who paid for European successes with their dignity, their lives, their money and in the case of America and Australia their homes and their land. Entire peoples were exterminated at the altar of European success. When you are chest thumping for greatness, keep a thought in some remote corner of your mind for the remorseless brutality, inhumanity and cruelty displayed by those very same honest, decent Europeans. It was rape and plunder on a scale not witnessed since, or till then.3 continents were exterminated; several civilizations gutted into nothingness; Africans reduced to animals, chained and sold as slaves, and some who survived - like the Chinese and the Indians - were subjugated with a bestial and venal ferocity that involved taking away every dignity from them; so fierce was the repression that its after effects are still apparent 66 years after independence. Even indigenous culture and arts were denigrated and destroyed; forced religious conversions enforced for 200 years - look up The Goa Inquisition; local achievements dressed up as European achievements - read this: Sati Pratha: The Myth and The Reality. The great, great European reform of the reprehensible sati pratha has now been revealed as a total myth, for example; Sati was eradicated as a direct result of a centuries long struggle by Indians - yet, that did not stop a great "reformer" like William Carey, from writing: "For the first time during 20 centuries... the waters of the Ganges flowed unblooded to the seas".As I said, go ahead and tom-tom your achevements. But keep a thought somewhere in your hearts for the sins of the Europeans, as outlined above. No one else in documented history has done as many.And without the loot, the plunder and the blood money from colonialism, it is we Asians who would have likely been on top... that is a possibility that cannot be so lightly dismissed.Indians and Dogs not allowed... great statement, isnt it?Sometimes I wish we could make the British return the Koh-i-noor, ask them to apologise for their deeds (which they have never done - as some nations have for their misdeeds) and so on and so forth. Then I remember my teachings - forgive and move on. But forgive does not mean forget!