Book of Diverse Crafts, known as Kao Gong Ji in Chinese, is the earliest extant book on handicrafts and technology. The book abundantly records first-hand information on the manufacturing and administration system around the time of the book's publication (roughly 2,500 years ago), and gives a paramount view on China's scientific and technological history as well as its art and culture history up to that point.

There have been longstanding different opinions about the author as well as the exact year of publication. Currently, one of the most acknowledged views is that the book was an official book by the Qi State scholar in the Eastern Zhou Dynasties (770-221BC). The main part of the content was finished at the juncture of the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC) and the Warring States Period (476-221BC), while some parts were added in the middle and late Warring States Period. The book was included as part of Zhou Li (an ancient Chinese classic) in the Western Han Dynasty (206BC-24AD).

Though not very lengthy, the book contains a great deal of scientific information, including that on how to make carts, weapons, ritual articles, and bells, as well as information on the dyeing process, construction, irrigation, and other handicrafts. The book also covers a wide range of scientific knowledge from astronomy, biology, mathematics, and physics.

Because of its rich contents, scholars throughout history, such as Zheng Xuan in the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), Jia Gongyan in the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and Dai Zhen, Cheng Yaotian, and Sun Yirang in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), have made notes and researches towards the book.

With the influx of the western science and technology in the 20th century, the research towards Book of Diverse Crafts entered a new stage. The researchers began to use modern scientific methods and did a lot of experiments. A lot of papers on the subject have since been published.

Author: Jeff

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