China: The Asian Civilization - The Wise World Traveler: Becoming a Part of All that You Meet - page 241

Figure 16.3. Foot Binding
In the waning days of the Manchus, the Dowager Empress was a formidable power.
She made national policy, disposed of rival claimants to the throne, secretly sent troops to
aid the Boxer rebels, and spent huge sums from the royal treasury (intended to modernize
the navy) on a personal pleasure palace. In Communist China, the widow of Mao Tse
T'ung, Chiang Ch'ing, headed a small cabal (the Gang of Four) that ruled the country for
about a decade.
These, of course, are exceptional women. More usual was the woman who shared the
husband's hard work in the fields and, beyond that, bore and raised children, did washing,
cooking, sewing, shopping, cleaning house, and provided for the family's comfort.
THE GENIUS OF CHINA
As Robert Temple writes, “Possibly more than half of the basic inventions and discoveries
on which the modern world rests come from China.” [215] China invented movable type,
gunpowder, and the compass—inventions that made it possible for Europeans to conquer
and colonize America, Africa, and Asia. [216] China also invented paper (second century
BCE), while Europe was still using sheepskin parchment in the late Middle Ages, wheel-
barrows (third century BCE; not used in Europe until the thirteenth century), umbrellas,
shipboard waterproof compartments, and the post and stern rudder, which made big ships
possible.
In the sixth century BCE Chinese farmers were using the iron plow and moldboard to
turn over the soil; in the second century BCE the seed drill and rotating winnowing fan, in
the fourth century BCE cast iron (which did not reach Europe until the 1300s), and by 100
BCE China was making steel. Porcelain was made in China in the third century CE. It was