Civilizational Heritage 文明遗产
指南针——开启海洋的发明 English The compass completed the system of the Four Great Inventions. Paper provided the medium for knowledge; printing multiplied it; gunpowder changed the application of force. The compass changed direction — literally. By providing a reliable means of determining…
火药——改变世界的意外发明 English Gunpowder was not invented by anyone trying to invent it. It was discovered, almost certainly by accident, by Taoist alchemists in Tang dynasty China who were searching for the elixir of immortality — a substance that would extend…
古印度的独特馈赠 English Ancient India is the last of the four ancient civilizations in this series, and in some respects the most intellectually surprising. Its contributions to the modern world include what may be the single most consequential conceptual invention in…
古巴比伦的独特馈赠 English The civilization of ancient Mesopotamia — the land between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in what is now Iraq — produced some of the most consequential inventions in human history, several of which are so completely absorbed into…
印刷术——使知识得以倍增 English Paper made it possible to write cheaply. Printing made it possible to copy at scale. These are related but distinct transformations: the first democratizes the act of writing; the second democratizes access to what has already been written.…
造纸术——让知识变得便携 English Before paper, the materials available for writing imposed severe limits on the movement of knowledge. Stone inscriptions were permanent but immovable. Clay tablets were portable but heavy and fragile. Silk could carry text across distances but was prohibitively…
古中国的独特馈赠 English The four ancient civilizations — China, Egypt, Babylon, India — are often discussed as a group. What is less often discussed is what each one contributed that the others had not. This post is not about which civilization…
古埃及的独特馈赠 English Ancient Egypt endured in a recognizable form for more than three thousand years — from the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt around 3100 BCE to the Roman conquest in 30 BCE. Its contributions to the human story…