Research on Identifying the Period for Seafarers to use Mariner′s Compass in the East and the West

Up to now it has been widely conceived that mariner's compass was introduced to Europe from China via the Arabic people. But the proofs to support the above orthodox dissertation have not been found yet. In general it has been approved that the Chinese used the compass for navigation in the 11th century and European did in the 12th century. During the above period the communication between the Europe and the China was made only by the mediation of the Arabic people. But it is known that the beginning of Arabic people's compass usage was one century later than that of the European. It may raise a historical question about ‘was mariner's compass introduced to Europe from China via the Arabic people\ulcorner’ In this paper the authors tried to prove the simultaneity of the mariner's compass usage by the European with the Chinese by reviewing historical materials and modern researches. The results are as following; The first, there is a strong similarity in the evolving steps of compass appliance of both civilizations, such as from using magnetized and pivoted needle to fixing card thereto. Second, the Chinese and the European started to use the mariner's compass almost at the same time, and they developed it independently.

항해 나침반의 사용 시점에 관한 동서양 비교 연구

이 논문에서 필자들은 유럽과 중국에서 거의 비슷한 시기에 나침반이 항해에 이용되었음을 역사적 기록과 최근까지의 연구성과들을 검토함으로써 밝히고자 하였다. 그 연구 결과는 다음과 같다. 첫째, 동서양 문명권에서 항해자들이 나침반을 항해에 이용하기까지 비슷한 과정을 거쳤다. 즉 표침, 축침, 콤파스 카드 순으로 항해용 나침반을 개발하여 사용하였다. 둘째, Frode의 사가(saga)를 고려해 볼 때 중국과 유럽에서는 11세기 경에 나침반을 항해에 이용하였다. 결론적으로 중국인들이 세계 최초로 나침반을 항해에 이용했다는 기존 주장과는 달리, 중국인들과 유럽인들은 거의 비슷한 시기에 서로 독자적으로 나침반을 항해에 이용하였다.