Makers
Inventor
People who devised or improved printing, papermaking, firearms and ingenious devices
17people
In a workshop, a craftsman at a wooden vat lifts a bamboo-framed sheet from the pulp beside stacks of white paper and a tub of pulp, while others hang sheets to dry and work at a long table of carved printing blocks, and a water wheel turns outside the window.
Inventors are people who devised or improved techniques and objects, in printing, papermaking, textile tools, firearms, astronomical instruments and machinery of many kinds. Inventions credited to early figures often come from later tradition or retelling, and these are marked as tradition. They differ from engineers in being defined by creating a specific new technique or device rather than directing construction.
People in this role
- Lu BanDates unknown; late Spring and Autumn to early Warring States
- Ding HuanDates unknown; Western Han
- Du ShiBirth unknown–38 CE
- Cai Lunc. 63 CE–121 CE
- Ma JunDates unknown; reign of Emperor Ming of Wei
- Yan Su961 CE–1040 CE
- Su Song1020 CE–1101 CE
- Bi ShengDates unknown; active in the Qingli era of Northern Song
- Huang DaopoDates unknown; returned from Yazhou in the Yuanzhen era (1295–1297)
- Bi Maokang1571 CE–1645 CE
- Bo JueDates unknown; late Ming
- Huang Luzhuang1656 CE–death unknown
- Zou Boqi1819 CE–1869 CE
- Gong ZhenlinDates unknown; active in the 1840s
- Yu Peilun1886 CE–1911 CE
- Hou Debang1890–1974
- Yang Jingming1918 CE–1994 CE
No people in this role for that dynasty.