During the Iron Age, people across much of Europe, Asia and parts of Africa began making tools and weapons from iron and steel. Photograph your local culture, help Wikipedia and win! The steel industry in China has been driven by rapid modernisation of its economy, construction, infrastructure and manufacturing industries. The steel industry was small and sparsely populated at the start of the twentieth century and during both world wars.
Iron would become, by around BCE, the preferred metal for tools and weapons in China. China was the top exporter of steel in the world in Export volumes in were As of steel exports faced widespread anti-dumping taxes and had not returned to pre levels. It was successful: In April, the EU imposed 17 percent duties on stainless steel made by Tsingshan and its Indonesian subsidiaries, and But China preempted the Europeans by raising its anti-dumping duties on European stainless steel from The differences between the two processes are many, but the most significant is that direct or bloomery smelting produces a soft, heterogeneously carburized, solid-state mass of iron known as a "bloom," while the indirect or blast furnace process produces a hard, high-carbon but brittle molten iron that can then be cast.
Both products then needed further fining treatments. According to Tylecote , 40—41 , ironworking of the early European Iron Age focused on smelting and hot forging. The latter could have been known first and practised on meteoric iron. In China, the earliest evidence of bloomery iron production are two unidentified objects dated to the fourteenth century BC that were excavated in Gansu Province Chen et al. In ancient China, it was the blast furnace, cast iron method that was the primary means of iron and steel production.
The earliest cast iron objects appeared in China no later than the Spring and Autumn period eighth-century BC Han , In contrast, for example, to family-based iron smelting activities in Britain in the second century BC Cunliffe , , in ancient China, ca. The iron smelting activities in ancient China at this time were large-scale and well controlled by the central government. When cooled, these liquated lumps can be broken up and re-melted in a crucible in a hot smithing forge and then cast like bronze.
The furnaces that produced cast iron in ancient China are called "iron blast furnaces" or "blast furnaces. The iron forms in the furnace in the molten state and is then cast, either as "pigs" ingots for later remelting, or, as in early European practice, directly into moulds of the intended products. A blast furnace is vastly more efficient than a bloomery furnace, and in modern industry virtually all iron is produced in blast furnaces Wagner , The blast furnaces discovered in China have been dated to as early as the third-century BC, and are inherently oriented towards large-scale production.
It is almost technically impossible to produce less than perhaps a half-ton of iron per day, and efficiency rises dramatically as production increases. Efficiency also requires that the furnace be operated continuously over long periods; under pre-modern conditions, perhaps a week or a month at a time. The operation of a blast furnace thus requires a greater degree of reliability in all aspects of production, especially with respect to fuel and ore sources, labour, markets, and transportation Wagner , The original size of the Western Han blast furnace from Guxingzhen, Zhengzhou, Henan Province was reconstructed according to the ruined foundation as being about 2.
Percy , applied the word "fining" to the operation of converting cast iron into malleable iron by a specific process, or series of processes—in a hearth or open fire, or driven by a blast of air with charcoal as the fuel. The products obtained from the fining process are called fined iron. Post-smelting, the fining process involved liquifying cast iron in a fining hearth and removing carbon from the molten cast iron through oxidation Pigott , — This process produced different qualities of steel and wrought iron in a small furnace, usually a bowl-shaped furnace in the Han dynasty BC—AD , and possibly a square furnace in the Ming dynasty AD —, Song , Of the four biggest geographic basins in China, the Sichuan Basin has the southernmost latitude and the lowest altitude.
It is densely populated and relatively developed in terms of transportation and economy. The basin can be divided into two parts: the mountainous margin and the central basin Chengdu Plain. The altitude of the margin is mostly between 1, and 3, meters and [End Page 94] the altitude of the central basin or Chengdu Plain is between and meters Zhongguo , The total area of Pujiang is The site is 37 meters E-W and Slag, refractory material, and iron sand residue from the ore crashing and selection processes can be found all over the ground within the site area.
Map showing contours and the excavated trenches at Xuxiebian in red squares and black squares. Two excavations were carried out during May and June of and December of Details of the excavated trenches are shown in Table 1.
A total of four furnaces, five pits, two trenches and one post-hole were discovered in the two excavations. A total of coordinate data were collected by using a total station. In labeling the excavated trenches and features, the first two digits represent the excavation year, followed by three letters "PSX" indicating the excavation location, and in which P means Pujiang County; S means Shouan Town, and X means Xuxiebian.
The excavation year and location are usually omitted in the figures. The stratigraphy and deposits of the site are indicated by using the north section of 11PSXTG2 as an example Figure 3. There are four layers in total that have been excavated, and below the fourth layer is virgin soil. The inclusions consist of plant roots, modern porcelain sherds, rocks, iron ores, and slags.
The inclusions are plant roots, rocks, blue and white porcelain sherds, furnace bricks, charcoal, and slags. The inclusions are slags, charcoal, porcelain sherds of the Tang and Song Dynasties, and furnace bricks. The inclusions are iron ores, refractory materials, a small amount of charcoal, clay pottery, and slags. In the excavations of and the following features were excavated: five pits, two trenches, one foundation pole, and four furnaces Figure 4.
This pit was rectangular in plan and contained large amounts of pottery, porcelain sherds, and smelting remains, including charcoal debris, burned soil, and slags. This pit was discovered in the trial excavation in and was not excavated completely in order to preserve it for systematic excavation in the future.
Plan of the Xuxiebian site showing the main excavation area and the locations of all the features excavated in This pit was irregular in plan, slightly U-shaped in section, with straight walls, and a flat bottom Figure 5. The pit was 28—59 cm in depth and 10—28 cm from the surface. The deposit of the pit had three layers: the first layer is reddish brown clay with inclusions 5—10 cm in size, and included irregular slags, small limestone fragments, furnace bricks, and cylindrical charcoal fragments.
The second layer was a charcoal deposit with most of the charcoal fragments up to fifteen centimeters long and four centimeters in diameter. One of the charcoal. The inclusions of the third layer were similar to the first layer except that the furnace bricks found in this layer had a more intact square shape with a diameter of about thirty cm. There was a rectangular-shaped foundation discovered on the east side of the pit.
Elliptical in plan, the pit was U-shaped in section, with a curved wall, and flat bottom. The pit was 10—12 cm in depth and 11—13 cm from the surface.
The deposit was a dark grey sandy soil with a loose structure. The inclusions were 5 cm-sized slags, and 5—15 cm-sized broken furnace bricks with different colours of red and grey. This pit was irregular rectangular in shape, with a slightly U-shaped section, straight wall, and flat bottom. The pit was 9—20 cm in depth and 40—42 cm from the surface.
The deposit consisted of grey and yellow clay with a tight structure. The inclusions were 2—10 cm-sized slags and 5—20 cm-sized broken furnace bricks with colours in red, orange and grey. Half-elliptical in plan, it was slightly U-shaped, with a straight wall and flat bottom. The pit was 7—17 cm in depth and 22—24 cm from the surface.
The deposit consisted of dark red clay with a loose structure. The inclusions were porcelain sherds, 2—4 cm-sized slags and 2—4 cm-sized broken furnace bricks.
It was rectangular in plan, with a curved wall and bottom. The trench was 12—21 cm in depth and 10—22 cm from the surface. The deposit had two layers: the first was reddish brown clay with a small amount of charcoal debris, and the second was grey sandy soil with no inclusions. This pit was rectangular in plan, with a straight wall and curved bottom. The trench was 60—82 cm in depth and 7—17 cm from the surface. The deposit had two layers: the first was reddish brown clay with a tight structure, and the second was yellowish brown clay with a loose structure.
Neither layer had any inclusions. This pit was circular in plan with a diameter of 13 cm, straight walls, and a curved bottom 8 cm in depth.
The deposit of the trench consisted of reddish brown and yellow clay with a loose structure and no inclusions. This furnace was circular in plan with a diameter of — cm. The furnace wall was approx.
The colours of the furnace wall from outside to inside were dark grey, orange, and red. The surrounding area of the furnace wall had an orange layer of 5—7 cm. The interior furnace wall was fully covered by a slag layer, which was magnetic and thicker in the north part.
There were two rectangular gaps about 10—15 cm wide on the northern furnace wall. Limestone bars about 2. The remaining depth of the furnace was 56 cm Figure 6. The furnace fill was reddish brown sandy clay with inclusions of slags, iron ores, and furnace bricks made of rocks and limestone.
The overall structure of furnace L2 was the same as L1 and had a diameter of 90—92 cm. There were also two rectangular gaps about 10—15 cm wide on the northern furnace wall. The remaining depth of the furnace was 35 cm. The furnace fill was a reddish brown sandy soil with inclusions of slags 2—10 cm in.
On the other hand, Wagner's critical sense does not seem in any way to stunt the speculative powers of a genuinely creative mind. The book is full of stimulating hypotheses, always identified as such. Some have a relevance that goes well beyond the subject of this volume.
Thus he suggests for example that Chu society during the Zhou was in some ways more egalitarian than contemporary societies in the north and that Qin may have been the first multi-ethnic society in China both on p. Nevertheless, these speculations arise unmistakably from a thorough command of the subject and therefore always deserve at least serious consideration.
We can all be grateful that Wagner has been so well served by his publisher, E. This may well be the most profusely illustrated monograph on Chinese history ever published illustrations, plus or minus, depending on how one chooses to define a single illustration.
This enables the author to include among a host of other items illustrations of "[v]ery nearly every pre-Han iron artifact type known The value of the illustrations is maximized by the very complete captions. Moreover, anyone aware of the general quality of the originals the publisher had to work with will be pleasantly surprised at the technical quality of the illustrations. This in itself perhaps justifies this volume's use of glossy paper which, as with all papers of this type, produces an annoying glare in most kinds of light.
One can only wish that, since this volume will be so widely used as a handy reference for these illustrations, a list of illustrations, maps, etc. This could also have alerted readers to items that might otherwise be overlooked. Though there are only two maps, they appear to include all the places mentioned in the text.
To some extent, the problem of finding specific items is mitigated by the excellent index. Chinese characters are liberally inserted throughout the book, in text, footnotes, captions, bibliography, etc. Admittedly, the size of the characters often had this reviewer reaching for his most powerful reading glasses, but that is a small price for the convenience of not having to turn frequently to a glossary.
One final point deserves mention in the interest of the international scholarly collaboration that is so well exemplified in Wagner's work. He declares himself in agreement p. At the same time, he suggests that "there is very little to be gained by complaining about practices which are so solidly based in traditional Chinese bureaucratic culture. They do not. Many of them also freely condemn such actions as having no proper place in an international academic community where openness is crucial for the advance of knowledge and understanding.
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