From toys for children to weapons of war, ancient inventors sent many things into the sky
Emperor Shun, a legendary ruler of way back when in Chinese folk belief, had a tough childhood filled with mistreatment from his father and stepmother, but that might have made him the first in China to attempt to fly.
According to Records of the Grand Historian (《史记》), one day Shun’s father ordered him to repair the roof of their barn, but as soon as Shun climbed up, his father lit the barn on fire. In order to survive, Shun jumped from the roof while holding up two big bamboo hats, and landed safely.
Shun’s hats might not qualify as the first parachute, but he was not the only ancient Chinese to attempt to fly (or at least fall with style). With hot air balloons in the news recently, it‘s worth remembering Chinese inventors have churned out flying contraptions for centuries, from soaring kites to intricate bombs used in war.
Egg balloons and hot lanterns
“Burning Chinese mugwort can make an eggshell fly,” says the Huainan Encyclopedia of Ten Thousand Technologies (《淮南万毕术》), a Western Han dynasty collection describing phenomena in chemistry and physics by Daoist Liu An (刘安, who is also often believed to be the inventor of tofu). Balloon enthusiasts around the world have not reached a consensus on whether hot air balloons as we now know them have Chinese roots, but this text at least shows that about two thousand years ago, people in China more or less understood the basic principle.
Sun Jiahui is a freelance writer and former editor at The World of Chinese. She writes about Chinese language, society and culture, and is especially passionate about sharing stories of China's ancient past with a wider audience. She has been writing for TWOC for over six years, and pens the Choice Chengyu column.
