History of metallurgy in China
The majority of early metal items found in China come from the North-Western Region (mainly Gansu and Qinghai, 青海).
[1] Archaeological evidence indicates that the earliest metal objects in China were made in the late fourth millennium BCE.
[5] Similar sites have been found in Xinjiang in the west and Shandong, Liaoning and Inner Mongolia in the east and north.
[7] Copper manufacturing, more complex than jade working, gradually appeared in the Yangshao period (5000–3000 BCE).
Archaeologists have found remains of copper metallurgy in various cultures from the late fourth to the early third millennia BCE.
[10] The Linjia site (林家遺址, Línjiā yízhǐ) has the earliest evidence for bronze in China, dating to c. 3000 BCE.
[14] Metallurgy spread to the middle and lower Yellow River region in the late 3rd millennium BC.
[16] From around 2000 BCE, cast bronze objects such as the socketed spear with single side hook were imported and adapted from the Seima-Turbino culture.
[22] The beginning of new breakthroughs in metallurgy occurred towards the Yangzi River's south in China's southeastern region in the Warring States period such as gilt-bronze swords.
[27] The early Iron Age in China began before 1000 BCE, with the introduction of ironware, such as knives, swords, and arrowheads, from the west into Xinjiang, before it further diffused to Qinghai and Gansu.
In construction, they are both around the same level of technological sophistication [33] There is no evidence of the bloomery in China after the appearance of the blast furnace and cast iron.
[37] The primary advantage of the early blast furnace was in large scale production and making iron implements more readily available to peasants.
Certainly, though, iron was essential to military success by the time the State of Qin had unified China (221 BC).
[46] Shen Kuo's written work of 1088 contains, among other early descriptions of inventions, a method of repeated forging of cast iron under a cold blast similar to the modern Bessemer process.
[47][48][49][50][51][52][53] Chinese metallurgy was widely practiced during the Middle Ages; during the 11th century, the growth of the iron industry caused vast deforestation due to the use of charcoal in the smelting process.
[54][55] To remedy the problem of deforestation, the Song Chinese discovered how to produce coke from bituminous coal as a substitute for charcoal.
[57] These technological and artistic exchanges attest to the magnitude of communication networks between China and the Mediterranean, even before the establishment of the Silk Road.
Some metalworkers illustrate the close relationship between Chinese mystical and sovereign power and the mining and metallurgy industries.
Although the name Huangdi is absent from Shang or Zhou inscriptions, it appears in the Spring and Autumn period's Guoyu and Zuo zhuan.
According to Mitarai (1984), Huangdi may have lived in early antiquity and led a regional ethnic group who worshiped him as a deity;[full citation needed] "The Yellow Emperor fought Chiyou at Mount Kunwu whose summit was covered with a large quantity of red copper".
"[68] Chiyou was the leader of the indigenous Sanmiao (or Jiuli) tribes who defeated Xuanyuan, the future Yellow Emperor.
Yu the Great, reported founder of the Xia dynasty (China's first), spent many years working on flood control and is credited with casting the Nine Tripod Cauldrons.
