中國的四大發明之一指南針(compass)是用來辨别方向的工具，發明時間最早可以追朔到戰國時代（西元前475年-西元前221年），當時人們已知道利用天然的磁石雕琢成一個勺子的形状，並放在刻有方位的盤上，因為勺柄有指南的作用，所以在那時候又稱為司南，也是指南針的前身，經過一千多年後，直到宋朝（西元960-1279年）才有我们現在所謂的指南針。在指南針發明前，古人辨别方向是以星象為主，但要是遇到天氣不好的時候，大家也就没輒了，指南針被發明後，人們除了把它廣泛的運用在航海上，對於國與國之間貿易和文化往來也產生很大的影響。
連結網頁
- Page 762 of Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia by Christopher Kleinhenz describes the early use of the compass in Europe, and is available for viewing with Google Books.
- Susan Silverman's description of early compass use at the Smith Collage museum website.
- A very fine short article on Chinese inventions at Webster University (one of the historylines collaborators is a graduate of Webster) describes the compass.
- A cute little web site in Chinese language that describes early compass inventions and use in China.
連結網頁
- Page 762 of Medieval Italy: An Encyclopedia by Christopher Kleinhenz describes the early use of the compass in Europe, and is available for viewing with Google Books.
- Susan Silverman's description of early compass use at the Smith Collage museum website.
- A very fine short article on Chinese inventions at Webster University (one of the historylines collaborators is a graduate of Webster) describes the compass.
- A cute little web site in Chinese language that describes early compass inventions and use in China.