The Four Great Inventions of Ancient China (known in Chinese as ????, Pinyin: sì dà f?míng) are papermaking, the compass, gunpowder and printing. These inventions are particularly celebrated in Chinese culture for their historical significance and as signs of ancient Chinas advanced science and technology.
These four discoveries had an enormous impact on the development of Chinese civilisation as well as considerable global impact. According to English philosopher Francis Bacon, writing in Novum Organum, "Printing, gunpowder and the compass: These three have changed the whole face and state of things throughout the world; the first in literature, the second in warfare, the third in navigation; whence have followed innumerable changes, insomuch that no empire, no sect, no star seems to have exerted greater power and influence in human affairs than these mechanical discoveries." (Novum Organum, Liber I, CXXIX - Adapted from the 1863 translation)
Karl Marx also commented that, "Gunpowder, the compass, and the printing press were the three great inventions which ushered in bourgeois society. Gunpowder blew up the knightly class, the compass discovered the world market and founded the colonies, and the printing press was the instrument of Protestantism and the regeneration of science in general; the most powerful lever for creating the intellectual prerequisites." (Economic Manuscripts of 1861-63, Division of Labour and Mechanical Workshop. Tool and Machinery)
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