Navigating the Seas with the South Pointing Chariot
In the thousand-year history of the Silk Road, during the Song Dynasty (960 - 1279 AD), shipbuilding and navigation technologies developed rapidly. Ships conquering the sea broke through reefs and storms, greatly improving the long-distance navigation capacity of merchant ships, and the Maritime Silk Road further flourished. All of this is attributed to one of China's Four Great Inventions: the "South Pointing Chariot (Sinan)".
As early as the Warring States Period, people had made the "Sinan" according to the magnetic properties of magnetite pointing to the north and south, which was the earliest compass instrument in the world. By the Northern Song Dynasty, people invented the method of artificially magnetizing iron needles, made an improved version of the Sinan, and began to apply it to navigation, which gradually spread to Arabia and Europe. The Sinan traveled north, south, east, and west, promoting the prosperity of the Maritime…