Reflections | The Chinese invented firearms but others improved them – why creators and copycats should collaborate
There are many instances in history of inventions being improved by those who did not come up with them, and of those tweaks being adopted by the original creators
I was in a ramen restaurant in Tokyo when a Chinese man sitting at the table next to mine started pouring forth a deluge of invectives in Mandarin. The man, who was dining with a group of mainlanders whose conversation suggested that they were residents of Japan rather than visitors, had been slighted earlier in the day by a Japanese.
After ranting and raving about how aspects of Chinese culture – ramen, sumo, the writing system – had been borrowed by the Japanese, he made the bold but not quite cogent claim that “if not for us Chinese, the Japanese would be illiterate!” According to his argument, not only is the creator the rightful owner but also somehow superior to those who appropriate the creation.
I’m not sure I agree with him. Just as there are expiry dates on patented inventions and intellectual property, aspects of culture should be detached from their nations of origin and should be considered part of the universal human experience after a period of time. For example, tea is no longer exclusively Chinese nor are denim jeans American.
On many occasions, inventions have been improved upon by others, with the original creators themselves adopting the amendments made by those who had earlier “copied” them. A famous example occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the Chinese adopted words invented by the Japanese, written in Chinese characters, that referred to modern but foreign concepts at the time such as “communism”, “democracy”, “science” and so on. Another example is firearms.
The Chinese invented early prototypes of firearms and cannons during the Song period (960–1279). The technology, which had become sophisticated by the end of that period, was acquired by China’s neighbours through various means, principally through contact on the battlefield. During their invasions of Vietnam in the late 13th century, the Mongols used firearms against them and it was in the course of these wars that the technology was transferred to the Vietnamese.
