Tang And Song Dynasties

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As different regions have progressed and grown, the world has become more and more interconnected, and people from different regions have looked to exchange with each other, seeking new products and goods. The international trade system seen today in the world was not always the reality, and trade circles such as the Indian Ocean Network, the Silk Road, and the Trans-Saharan Trade Network were very isolated and smaller than they grew to become. More global (at least in the eastern hemisphere) trading patterns started to become obvious around the time of the crusades in the 11th and 12th centuries (Aczel 13). Due to the excess number of knights and nobles attempting the journey to the Holy Land from Europe, new routes were established between …show more content…
While Europe was just emerging from its feudalistic cocoon, China had already been the fundamental manufacturer along both the Silk Road and Indian Ocean Trade Network. The dominance and power China possessed through dynasties like the Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties was simply unparalleled in any part of the world at the time. Their prominence came mainly front a host of products and inventions throughout its “Middle” period: paper, silk, porcelain, rockets, gunpowder, and paper money, to name a few (Aczel 3). While these objects were made immediately useful and valuable, some were not. For example, the discovery of the lodestone by the Chinese around the 4th century BCE. The lodestone was the earliest form of the compass, and when allowed to float freely, it was able to point south by aligning with the Earth’s magnetic field (Kreutz). Originally, this metal was used to help the Chinese align their houses as a custom to allow for better “Feng Shui,” which was thought to give the family better …show more content…
This same process occurred during the earliest known discovery of the lodestone, in China. The Chinese were the first civilization to magnetize iron and steel using lodestones, and this led to many more advances in metallurgy being made. Their experiments found that higher grade, higher carbon steels not only stayed magnetized the longest, but also were the most durable and long lasting (“The Chinese Invent…). The Chinese also made had important realizations about the now named “Curie point” of steel, noting that when steel was heated to red hot, it no longer could be magnetized. The temperature where the steel can no longer be magnetized is the Curie point. They also found that when the steel was cooled below the Curie point, it would stay magnetized forever (“The Chinese Invent…”). All these discoveries eventually assisted in the creation of the handheld mariner’s compass, as well as other steel based technologies. In Europe, the lodestone sparked scientific invention. Several examples of devices and contraptions involving the lodestone are noted in the letter of French scientist Peter Peregrinus in 1269 AD; “The Construction of an Instrument for Measuring the Azimuth of the Sun the Moon or any Star on the Horizon” (Peregrinus 25). This device could have been used in place of the astrolabe, in order to tell the time
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