And Cai Lun in the Eastern Han Dynasty improved the art of papermaking, resulting in paper in the modern sense. Papermaking became one of China's four great inventions.
During the Eastern Han Dynasty, Zhang Heng made the world's first weathering wind geodesic instrument capable of predicting earthquakes. The Tai Chou Calendar, developed by Lok Ma-te and others, incorporated the 24 solar terms into the calendar for the first time. Zhang Zhongjing was honored as the "Sage of Medicine" and the ancestor of traditional Chinese medicine because of his "Treatise on Typhoid Miscellaneous Diseases". Hua Tuo was the first doctor in the world to use general anesthesia (the authenticity of which is now being questioned by Chen Yin Ke and others). The Zhou Thigh Calculations of the first century B.C. and the Nine Chapters of the Mathematical Art of the early Eastern Han Dynasty are masterpieces in the field of mathematics. Among them, the Nine Chapters of the Mathematical Art is a summary of the development of mathematics during the period of the founding and consolidation of the ancient societies of the Warring States, the Qin, and the Han, listing the four operations with fractions, the art of presenting the present (known in the West as the method of the three rates), the art of opening the square and opening the cube (including the numerical solution of quadratic equations), the art of making up a surplus or a deficit (known in the West as the method of making up a deficit), the various formulae of area and volume, the solution of systems of linear equations, the rules of adding and subtracting the operations of positive and negative numbers, and the solution of the hook-and-square formulae (especially the The method of calculation (especially the theorem of hook and strand and the method of finding the number of hook and strand) formed an independent system centered on calculation and completely different from that of ancient Greek mathematics. The Han Dynasty was also the era when porcelain firing was first invented in China. This period also saw the invention of distillation, the water-powered mill, the prototype of the modern horse yoke and belly band, lacquer ware, the reciprocating piston bellows for metallurgy, the unicycle which appeared at the end of the Han Dynasty, the waterwheel, and the drawbridge. Shipbuilding had already adopted watertight compartments, multiple masts and stern post rudders, and the use of compasses had begun. In addition, blood circulation was first discovered at this time. During the Two Han Dynasty, China's smelting technology also developed and progressed significantly, and money casting technology matured, such as the three-baht and five-baht coins. Painting techniques were unique, such as the painting on silk unearthed at Mawangdui, and a variety of household items were available, such as the bronze mirror known as the "Magic Mirror of the Han Dynasty". Salt-boiling techniques were also improved, and distilled wine appeared in the two Han dynasties, perfecting the level of winemaking. Agricultural technology has improved dramatically, the early Eastern Han Dynasty appeared in the water row and other new irrigation tools.