We have always been proud of the four great inventions of ancient China, so what is the evaluation of the four great inventions in foreign countries?
We are all very clear that the four great inventions of ancient China refer to papermaking, compass, gunpowder and printing, which was first proposed by the British scientist Joseph Joseph and was inherited by many later Chinese historians, and it is generally believed that the four great inventions of ancient China have had a huge role in promoting the political, economic and cultural development of ancient Chinese society and even world society, and these inventions have been transmitted to Western countries in various ways, which has also had a huge impact on the history of the development of world civilization.
Ancient China produced many "four greats", such as the four masterpieces, the four beauties, etc., but the concept of the four major inventions actually came from the evaluation of China by Western scholars, and was later accepted by Chinese.
As early as 1550, the Italian mathematician Jerome was the first to point out: "The three major inventions that have an impact on the world in China are the compass, printing, and gunpowder." Here he does not mention papermaking, but he argues that in the whole of antiquity there was no invention in the world that rivaled these three. In 1620, the English philosopher Bacon also mentioned this.
Not only them, but even Marx, Engels and others also gave high praise to the three great inventions of ancient China, and then the missionary Joseph Ejør who came to China for the first time included papermaking in the above three major inventions, and called them the "Four Great Inventions of Ancient China".
The status and influence of the four great inventions of ancient China in the world should not be low, and Marx once wrote in his book "The Role of Machinery, Natural Forces, and Science": "Gunpowder, the compass, and printing -- these are the three major inventions that herald the arrival of bourgeois society, gunpowder blows the knightly class to pieces, the compass opens the world market and establishes colonies, and printing has become a tool for scientific revival."
The four major inventions are a string of glorious footprints left by the ancient Chinese ancestors for the world, a symbol of the great progress of human civilization, the invention of papermaking has set off a revolution in human writing carriers, the invention of movable type printing has greatly promoted the spread of culture, the invention of the compass has provided conditions for the navigation activities of European navigators, and the invention of gunpowder weapons has accelerated the historical process of Europe.
As Marx said, the three major inventions are particularly important for the evolution of capitalism, but It is a pity that China has used them to make fireworks, watch feng shui, and divination.