Ancient Chinese Innovation in Technology

Impact

There were many types of impacts caused by written language.

For example, the culture was one of them. Culture spread because people wrote prayers.

It also had economic impacts. People relied on written records and even wrote the prices of goods for business in markets.

A social impact is that it was a much easier way of comunicating. To add on, the only reason we know about the past, our ancestors and their daily life is because they wrote about it in the past. Moreover, written language led to new social classes, asa well as laws.

Finally, writing's environmental impact is negative. You didn't need many natural resources for this. You only needed ink, which was made with materials such as ones that were burnt, plant dye and graphite. Also, you needed something to write on. It could be on objects like silk, pottery and bronze. You actually didn't need ink until paper came out. This is because you could just carve it. When paper came out, trees were sacrificed and cut down.

The people who knew how to write were in the higher class, while the ones who didn't were on the lower class.

Cited Sources in MLA

“Inkstick.” Wikipedia, 18 Oct. 2022, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inkstick#:~:text=The%20earliest%20artifacts%20of%20Chinese. Accessed 5 Mar. 2024. (unknown author)

Blair, Hudson. "Chinese Innovation in Currency." 25 Feb. 2024 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fVlHB1IBHlTvCIjeU9aOAOxrXNCddkwttwHQkvTnGTo/edit. Accessed 26 Feb. 2024.

Mark, Emily. “Chinese Writing.” World History Encyclopedia, 7 Apr. 2016, www.worldhistory.org/Chinese_Writing/. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024.

“Chinese Writing Timeline.” Www.worldhistory.org, www.worldhistory.org/timeline/Chinese_Writing/. Accessed 5 Mar. 2024. (unknown author and date published)

“The History of Money (from Barter to Bitcoin).Mp4.” Google Docs, drive.google.com/file/d/1Ss6EzeVZ1U3fgDCU1dqfTTg_ZrpJdzZ7/view. Accessed 26 Feb. 2024.

How does it work?

People had different types of products, and they traded to have a variety of different ones.

Some products they traded were food and necessary items for the daily life or precious objects like silk, which only people in the upper class could wear, metals, architecture and paintings.

This was trading products for different products, which is also called bartering. Even though it's still used today, it isn't very popular or used as much, which is why people exchange money for products instead. It could still be the same objects that were mentioned earlier, but it would be any of those for money.

Problems Solved

Writing let people keep records about the government and economy. Not only that, it also enabled another way to comunicate.

People could express their feelings and emotions with written language. Also, there were many popular and memorable works of literature.

Adding on, it helped people trade their products more easy.

Ancient Chinese Innovation in Technology

Currency

Brief History

Timeline of the years each currency was used

806 CE

1200 BCE

1000 BCE

Shells

Paper currency

Metal money and coins

By: Irene

Problems Solved

Currency evolved from shells to coins and finally, to metal money to paper currency. There are many reasons why and problems it solved.

The currency changed again because of this. This time to coins. Coins were worth different amounts. An example is that a 1 cent coin wasn't the same as 5 cents coin. The problem now was that it was easy to forge.

To solve that, they changed the shape of the edge and even added a stamp to the coin that only the ruler had. Unfortunately, coins were hard to carry because they were heavy. Also, someone could see you holding many coins, and they would know you are rich. They could steal from you because of this.

This is why paper money was invented. It was much lighter and easier to carry.

How does it work?

In the past, people wrote on items like wood, bamboo and oracle bones.

They wrote about their daily life in pictographs. Writing in pictographs was to write characters that represent and are similar to the real objects. For example, the symbol for a tree looked like a tree and a forest was the same, except it had 2 more trees.

Also, they used written language for divination, which is to predict the future and make desicions by using oracle bones. To do this, they had to carve a question on the bone and heat it. The oracle bone would crack, and that would be their answer.

Many kings and rulers relied on this.

Written Language

Brief History

Timeline of the year each chinese script was developed

.

700 BCE

500 BCE

1046 BCE

1000 BCE

1600 BCE

Writting is developed during the Shang Dynasty (1600 BCE - 1046 BCE)

Dazhuan Script (1000 BCE - 700 BCE)

Lishu "Clerky Script" (500 BCE)

Jiaguwen Script (1600 BCE - 1000BCE)

Xiaozhuan Script (700 BCE)

Written language evolved from pictographs, which represent how they look like, to the meaning of it. For example, in the system used today, there is a symbol that represents shells. Since shells used to be the currency used in the past, all words that have that symbol are related to money.

Problems Solved

Introduction

Currency solved many different problems. One of them was inacuracy. At that time, people didn't know how much every product was worth, which is why you could trade something for and item that wasn't worth as much without knowing.

This is why people changed the currency to shells, specifically cowries. You could trade based on the amount of cowries you had. There was a problem though. If something was worth a lot, it would be hard to count and you could give them the wrong amount.

Ancient chinese people innovated in tecnology with the help of many inventions. Nine of them are the written language, currency, paper, the Great Wall of China, the silk road, compass, printing, silk and gunpowder.

Written language was the most impactful, and currency was second. This prezi will tell you why written language was the most impactful as well as why currency wasn't the most impacful and was second instead.

Why Currency Wasn't First and Why Written Language was First

Writing was more impactful than currency. Currency does have the the face of their ruler stamped, but other than that, it's not very impactful in culture. Also, as I mentioned before, people wrote about their daily life. Something that they wrote could be about their culture, like prayers. Adding on, even though buying and selling is economic, writing was more important. This is because people in the past relied on written records. That means that they wrote about it on paper. Moreover, a social impact for written language is that it makes comunication easier. On the other hand, currency doesn't really have a social impact, but it is true that people comunicated when buying and selling products. One more thing is that we have a lot of money today that was made out of paper. However, writing did need more natural resources to be used. You needed something to write on, which could be natural resources like wood, oracle bones and bamboo. After, people used paper, which as mentiioned before, people had to cut down trees for it. Also, you could just carve the material, but later on, people used ink, which was made out of graphite. Currency was very impactful, but not as much. Written language was more impactful whether it was positive or negative. This proves that written language was more impactful.

Impact

Currency, just like written language, was impacted in many ways. Culturally, economically, socially and environmentally.

The stamp of the face of the ruler that only he had meant that that coin was from their country.

People bought and sold many goods for other goods, which turned into money for goods. Furthermore, most of the money we use today is made out of paper. This means that if paper wasn't invented, paper money wouldn't exist and we would have to carry heavy money.

A social impact is that people would start a conversation when buying and selling.

Lastly, paper money was impacted environmentally. This is negative because people had to cut down trees to make paper. Then, they used paper to create paper money.