Mural guide
Practitioners arrange counting rods beside an abacus and spoon compass, with papermaking and a bronze seismograph in the workshop beyond.
Armillary spheres, water clocks, counting tools and medical instruments: science and measurement in objects
Counting rods establishing algebra, seismographs remote-detecting the earth: how the classical Orient deduced the laws of nature using pure physics and physical computational hardware.
Sciences
Counting rods laying out numbers, a seismoscope registering distant earthquakes: how people in early China studied the workings of nature through observation, calculation and instruments.
Counting Rods & DecimalsWarring States period to presentCounting rods laid out in decimal place value, an efficient tool for complex calculation.
Nine Chapters on the Mathematical ArtWestern Han to presentA key work of practical mathematics in early China, setting out methods for systems of linear equations.
Zhang Heng SeismoscopeEastern Han dynastyZhang Heng's instrument sensed the direction of a distant earthquake by means of a central pillar and eight dragons.
Paper InventionWestern Han to presentPaper made from bark, hemp, rags and old fishing nets, cheap and portable, making writing and knowledge easier to spread.
Traditional MedicineHan dynasty to presentWhole-person medicine treating by pattern, from the Mawangdui texts to Zhang Zhongjing's Treatise and Li Shizhen's Compendium.
GeomancyHan dynasty to presentChoosing house and tomb sites by mountains, water, soil and wind, with the Book of Burial's 'shelter wind, gain water'.
Abacus ArithmeticYuan dynasty to presentAn abacus of two upper and five lower beads, used with rhymed rules for trade and fiscal sums.
Movable Type PrintingNorthern Song to presentSingle movable characters, from Bi Sheng's clay type to Wang Zhen's wooden type and the Wuying Hall's Juzhen editions.
Compass NavigationNorthern Song to presentArtificial magnetization put to work on the open ocean, guiding Zheng He's fleets along needle routes to the Western Ocean.
Gunpowder WeaponryTang dynasty to late QingFrom Tang alchemy texts on saltpetre and sulphur and the Wujing Zongyao's three formulas to the Ming Shenjiying firearms unit.