Regarding Chinese gadgetry, 's been a while since I studied Ancient Chinese History...
But the Qin and Han Dynasties are regarded as China's Golden Age in terms of technology and culture. The Qin period was 221-206 BC, and the Han after that.
I vaguely recall the Emperor Qin Shihuangdi having something like...a giant scale metal model of China. Or something. With complex mechanical bits. Flowing mini-rivers of mercury, that kind of thing.
Then there's the Han Dynasty scientist Zhang Heng, who invented the world's first seismograph. Well, seismoscope, to be technical, but it was an incredibly cool piece of machinery. Hey, y'gotta love a scientific device that involves little balls and metal frogs. Yeap. Frogs.
I think the Han also had some kinda clever large-scale apparatus to facilitate salt-mining, tho I forget the details.
Don't know much about earlier periods of China. Historical records are pretty clear up to around 2000-ish BC, but I've never seriously studied their tech level. I can vaguely describe what their art and money looked like, but tech? Sorry.
But the Qin and Han Dynasties, yeah I can picture them doing mecha, although in typical Chinese fashion, it'd probably be incredibly ornate with lots of textured fiddly bits, and have a sorta stylized animal motif going.
It should be noted...while I've never actually seen any comic book or movie use the conceit of...well, ancient Chinese walker mecha... I've seen a fair bit of period drama that's utilized giant Chinese war machines. Some of those things might be considered mecha in the broader sense of the term. Not humanoid or even on-legs, tho. I'm talking mobile forts and vehicle-type things. But the idea that the Golden Age dynasties could do that kinda craziness, well, it seems well-accepted.
I still don't know what you'd do for a power source, however. A wheeled fortress can be driven by, say, a bunch of horses on treadmill-like things, or, hell, human soldiers. That's what I've seen used in Chinese fiction thus far, for that kinda thing. But that's not going to work for a walking mecha, so I don't know.
I do think that rubberised Chinese tech is up to the challenge of making it mechanically possible...and certainly, of, y'know, balancing a robot enough to keep it from falling over. But motive force? Y'got me.
-- Acyl
But the Qin and Han Dynasties are regarded as China's Golden Age in terms of technology and culture. The Qin period was 221-206 BC, and the Han after that.
I vaguely recall the Emperor Qin Shihuangdi having something like...a giant scale metal model of China. Or something. With complex mechanical bits. Flowing mini-rivers of mercury, that kind of thing.
Then there's the Han Dynasty scientist Zhang Heng, who invented the world's first seismograph. Well, seismoscope, to be technical, but it was an incredibly cool piece of machinery. Hey, y'gotta love a scientific device that involves little balls and metal frogs. Yeap. Frogs.
I think the Han also had some kinda clever large-scale apparatus to facilitate salt-mining, tho I forget the details.
Don't know much about earlier periods of China. Historical records are pretty clear up to around 2000-ish BC, but I've never seriously studied their tech level. I can vaguely describe what their art and money looked like, but tech? Sorry.
But the Qin and Han Dynasties, yeah I can picture them doing mecha, although in typical Chinese fashion, it'd probably be incredibly ornate with lots of textured fiddly bits, and have a sorta stylized animal motif going.
It should be noted...while I've never actually seen any comic book or movie use the conceit of...well, ancient Chinese walker mecha... I've seen a fair bit of period drama that's utilized giant Chinese war machines. Some of those things might be considered mecha in the broader sense of the term. Not humanoid or even on-legs, tho. I'm talking mobile forts and vehicle-type things. But the idea that the Golden Age dynasties could do that kinda craziness, well, it seems well-accepted.
I still don't know what you'd do for a power source, however. A wheeled fortress can be driven by, say, a bunch of horses on treadmill-like things, or, hell, human soldiers. That's what I've seen used in Chinese fiction thus far, for that kinda thing. But that's not going to work for a walking mecha, so I don't know.
I do think that rubberised Chinese tech is up to the challenge of making it mechanically possible...and certainly, of, y'know, balancing a robot enough to keep it from falling over. But motive force? Y'got me.
-- Acyl