Baichun Zhang

Ancient Chinese Windmills

Early records of wind-driven water-lifting devices were first discovered in a book written in the twelfth century in China. In the Ming Dynasty of China (1368–1644), windmills became popular in the Southeastern area of the country. Windmills back then could be classified into two types, the vertical-axle windmill, also know as the vertical-sail windmill, and the horizontal-axle windmill. They had vanes like the cloth sail on a Chinese sailboat and were mainly used to drive water-lifting devices. The most ingenious part of the vertical-axle windmill was the self-adjustment of the sail direction in response to wind as the windmill rotated. In 1992 and in 2006, an ancient vertical-axle windmill was rebuilt by the CAS Institute for the History of Natural Science.

The Transmission of European Mechanical Knowledge into 17th-Century China

As you know, from the end of the 16th century on, Jesuit missionaries in China aimed at the Christianization of this country. The transmission of western scientific knowledge was one of their long-term strategies.

The Transmission of the European Clock-Making Technology into China in the 17th-18th Centuries

Starting in the late 16th century European religious missionaries were sent to China. Such Jesuit missionaries as Matteo Ricci played an important role in the transmission of European knowledge to China. In order to promote their religious mission, they brought European scientific knowledge, instruments and clocks to China. In the 17th century, Jesuits constructed clocks for emperors in Imperial Palace. Chinese craftsmen made copies of European clocks and they established clock-making workshops in such cities as Suzhou and Guangzhou. The main reason why Chinese people accepted European clock-making technology is the fact that European clocks were functionally superior to such traditional timepieces as clepsydra, gnomon, sundial and so on.