Chinese Imperial Civilisation

Chinese civilisation, one of the world's oldest continuous cultures dating back to the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC), produced paper, printing, gunpowder, the compass, cast iron, porcelain, silk, and the civil service examination — inventions that transformed every subsequent civilisation. China's Confucian governance philosophy shaped East Asian civilisation for 2,500 years and its 1.4 billion people today are the largest single cultural inheritance of any ancient tradition.