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4. China

In the latter years of the 20th century and the opening decade of the 21st, one of the most dramatic developments affecting the global economy has been the rise of China to economic superpower status. However, China’s position as an economic power goes back millennia and along with this goes an equally long history of mining. China’s reputation as a centre for inventions and thus technological advance is well deserved, with paper, printing, gunpowder and the compass as four important examples. Paper was invented early in the 1st century AD in the Han Dynasty, and the other three items appeared in the middle of the 11th century, just before the cut-off date used in this book when we move from the Ancient World to the Middle Ages. These four were, though, inventions where metals had only a minor role.

It is interesting to note that in those ancient times China was responsible for the development of a considerable number of technologies that were metal related and this underpinned its position then as one of the most developed, if somewhat opaque, countries in the world. Amongst those inventions that benefited from the advances made possible by the working of metals were crossbows and arrows from the 5th century BC, and a rather sophisticated bronze steamer from the 10th century BC. Nearer the millennium, around 200 BC, a number of technical advances were made by the Chinese in the area of iron smelting, leading to the co-fusion process for making rudimentary steel in the 6th century AD.

Archaeological investigations have provided some broad parameters regarding the development of metal use in ancient China. One or two objects have been found that suggest the usage of metals in China in the 3rd millennium BC, but the evidence is not conclusive. Copper artefacts found in the north east of China in Shandong and Inner Mongolia provinces date from the Longshan Dynasty in the 2nd millennium BC. Bronze metallurgy existed in the Shang Dynasty in the latter part of the 2nd millennium BC, and it has been suggested that the Chinese may have in part skipped the copper age and gone straight to bronze due to their early appreciation of the results of alloying tin with copper.

Written records of historical Chinese mining are small in number, partly as a result of the country’s social hierarchy system which meant that mining was not considered an activity for the educated. Mines tended to be owned by rich landowners and although as the 1st millennium AD progressed mining was one of China’s most important industries behind agriculture and textiles, the landowning class did not get involved in it directly. So prospective ground was developed and the mine workings were leased to interested parties, with the landowner taking a rent or profit share from the operator but staying well clear of the business of mining.

The upshot of this disinterested attitude was that as little capital as possible was employed in the mines, which consequently were dangerous with poor working conditions. Mines were also mostly small scale and labour was both plentiful and cheap, so there was little incentive for mine owners and operators to spend much capital in upgrading working methods. Interestingly, the workforce often contained women and children.

Though China invented gunpowder there are no signs that it was deployed in ancient mining – for centuries rock continued to be broken using fire setting and basic leverage tools. Exploration was also fairly rudimentary, with traditional cultural techniques such as divining and fengshui being used, along with more scientific methods such as looking for surface indications of mineralisation, promising outcrop features and even associated plant growth.

Mining at Tonglushan

One of the best preserved of the ancient Chinese mining sites is Tonglushan, a copper mining area only a few miles from Huangshi in Hubei Province, dating back at least 3000 years to the 1st millennium BC. This area is still a substantial producer of a wide range of metals today but its ancient expertise was in the mining and smelting of copper ores.

The methods used by the Chinese in mining beneath Tonglu Mountain, where the rich copper ore lay, appear to have been quite sophisticated. Substantial numbers of shafts were sunk to access the ore, and drives and tunnels were constructed to transport the ore to the numerous smelting furnaces attached to the mining operation. Some of the tunnels were also used for bringing water to the workings, as well as removing water table inflows caused by some shafts having been sunk below the water table’s level. The mines were worked between 1000 BC, the time of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the early part of the 1st century BC, the time of the Han Dynasty. It is estimated that Tonglu Mountain could have produced between 80,000 and 120,000 tonnes of copper over this long period.

In 2007 extensive sampling of lake sediments from Liangzhi Lake near Tonglushan threw more light on the history of mining in this province. A study, written following this exercise, suggests that before 3000 BC, the pre-Bronze Age, metal shows in the sediments were very low, indicating natural slow leaching from the background mineralisation but no mining. Entering the Bronze Age metal shows in the sediments increased significantly, suggesting the start of organised mining of copper, nickel and lead, a sure indication that metallic items including bronze were being manufactured by the ancient Chinese.

The period from around 500 BC to 200 BC was one of conflict within China, and the use of copper and lead increased significantly indicating an upsurge in weapons manufacturing. During the Han Dynasty there was strong growth in agriculture, which led to an increase in the use of iron tools, and this continued through until 200 AD. Also during this period, ceramics and iron began to replace bronze as the raw materials for domestic vessels and tools.

Mining at other sites

Another significant copper mining and smelting site was found at Tongling in Jiangxi Province, which carbon dating places in the middle period of the Shang Dynasty around the 14th century BC. Jiangxi abuts Hubei and also Anhui Province, where further 1st millennium BC copper activities have been uncovered at the Muyushan site. This whole area in the east of China, south of Beijing, clearly has a long history of mining and this continues to this day.

In the period of the Shang Dynasty there was a significant and advanced civilisation in the north of China not far from the last Shang capital of Anyang. Here archaeological work has uncovered the remains of a bronze foundry and furnace; records of the supplying mines were also found, some close to Anyang and none more than 200 miles away. All this points to a relatively sophisticated civilisation, not dissimilar from those of Asia Minor, and one with considerable skills in mining and the working of metals.

Copper and bronze artefacts dating back to the 1st millennium BC have also been found in Xinjiang Province in the far north west of China on the border with Kazakhastan. Much of the evidence of mining, smelting and manufacturing, as we have and will continue to find, comes from the artefacts and metal slag uncovered during archaeological digs. Some of the finds in Xinjiang, due to its proximity to Kazakhstan, have led to speculation that there may have been interaction in terms of trade between China and the Near East. As a consequence of this we cannot be sure of the provenance of the technology that led to the establishment of mining and metallurgy in regions like Xinjiang, which lie on ancient trade routes.

There is evidence of iron mines in the north of China and a number of 1st millennium BC iron ore smelting sites have been uncovered. The process used in those days would almost certainly have led to the production of wrought iron and later, as Chinese technology advanced and higher smelting temperatures were attained, cast iron. The source of the iron ore would have been a combination of meteoritic iron and surface ores. The essential requirement was that the iron ore deposit would have been relatively high grade, as there tended to be a considerable loss of dross metal in the early smelting process. In the 1st century BC ironworks unearthed in Henan Province also pointed to coal mining activity in the region, with coal being used in the works but probably not in the smelting process, as coal only supplanted charcoal in the process in 7th century AD.

The progress made in iron working in China over the centuries allowed local engineers to develop sophisticated techniques in a variety of areas, one example being the building of bridges. To begin with the first bridges were more like pontoons than bridges as we understand them, and this meant that crossings were of rivers rather than aerial gaps. It is, however, thought that around 600 AD Chinese engineers may have built the first cast iron chain suspension bridge in Yunnan province, although some historians think that the first iron chain suspension bridge could well have been constructed even earlier.

The table summarises some of the more significant Chinese metal developments in the ancient period.

Significant historical Chinese metal developments