Inventions

Gunpowder

An explosive mixture produced by combining sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate). Imagine their enemy's surprise when the Chinese first demonstrated their newest invention in the eighth century AD. Later, new weapons were rapidly developed, including rockets and others that were launched from a bamboo tube. Once again, the raw materials at hand, like bamboo, contributed ideas for new technologies.

Nearly all uses up to this time were for warfare or fireworks, but there is an interesting old Chinese legend that reported the use of rockets as a means of transportation. With the help of many assistants, a lesser-known Chinese official named Wan-Hu assembled a rocket- powered flying chair. Attached to the chair were two large kites, and fixed to the kites were forty-seven fire-arrow rockets On the day of the flight, Wan-Hu sat himself on the chair and gave the command to light the rockets. Forty-seven rocket assistants, each armed with torches, rushed forward to light the fuses. In a moment, there was a tremendous roar accompanied by billowing clouds of smoke. When the smoke cleared, Wan-Hu and his flying chair were gone. No one knows for sure what happened to Wan-Hu, but it is probable that if the event really did take place, Wan-Hu and his chair were blown to pieces. Fire-arrows were as apt to explode as to fly.

Compass

Literally "a needle that points South" as opposed to Western thought where compasses traditionally point North.

By the third century AD, Chinese scientists had studied and learned much about magnetism in nature. For example, they knew that iron ore, called magnetite, tended to align itself in a North/South position. Scientists learned to "make magnets" by heating pieces of ore to red hot temperatures and then cooling the pieces in a North/South position. The magnet was then placed on a piece of reed and floated in a bowl of water marked with directional bearings. These first navigational compasses were widely used on Chinese ships by the eleventh century sea farer Zheng-He.

Also perhaps add at bottom as a wry observation: one of the most influential Chinese 'inventions' is the 'civil service':

The system of scholar-officials in Imperial China is one of the very first examples of what is now known as a 'civil service'. Today 'mandarin' is a term which refers to high ranking civil servants in Whitehall (UK). The scholar-civil servants in Imperial China were known as 'Mandarins' as Mandarin was the official language of the bureaucracy.