Invention and Artisan Production
	• The Han were the most technologically innovative of all classical civilizations. • Innovations included the introduction of the brush pen and paper, watermills powering mills and workshops, rudders, and compasses. • Improved techniques appeared in mining, silk making, and ceramics. • The advances led to the growth of a mostly urban artisan and manufacturing class. • Artisans, although relegated by the scholar gentry to a social status inferior to peasants, surpassed them in living standards.