The specific social and historical conditions that nurtured the birth of Chinese philosophers have not only contributed to the features of Chinese philosophy, but also influenced the characters of Chinese people. The Confucian world outlook is generally based on two questions: a person's understanding about heaven, and people's relationships with heaven. The significance of the human being is highly valued -- even as great as heaven and earth are with one's own efforts and creation. Kongzi attributed a lot to the development of Confucian Philosophy.

The Silk Road winds its way through numerous lands and deserts, colorfully stretching its way through the civilizations of Asia, Europe and Africa. It was through the Silk Road that the four great ancient Chinese inventions of papermaking, gunpowder, the compass and printing were diffused across the world. Likewise, breathtakingly splendid silk production, Chinese tea and porcelain were also spread throughout the globe.

During the second century, China began to produce writing paper with hemp or bark fibers. Later on, technological processes and equipment for papermaking were further developed. This attributed a lot to the development of the world papermaking.

From the Qin dynasty (221-206BC), Chinese characters developed rapidly. A book titled Shuo Wen Jie Zi that was written in the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220) contained 9,353 characters; and a book titled Yu Pian that was written in the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-589) contained more than 22,000 characters. With the development of Confucianism, Taoism, and various other scholars' thoughts, more and more works appeared. Under those situations, Chinese people invented the printing technology, offering humanity's development a generous gift in the process.

The invention of gunpowder had a close relationship with the advanced ancient workmanship of smelting industry. People began to know a lot of chemistry knowledge about the nature of different mineral materials during the process of smelting operation. With the knowledge, ancient necromancers tried to seek the elixir of immortality from certain kinds of ores and fuel.
Although they failed to get what they were looking for, they discovered that an explosive mixture could be produced by combining sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter (potassium nitrate). This mixture finally led to the invention of gunpowder although its exact date of invention still remains unknown.

China was the earliest country to discover and use magnetic materials. Large-scale sifting and smelting of iron ores led to the discovery of magnets, while the booming navigation on the high seas called for direction-pointing instruments; these social demands motivated the progress of such instruments.