Editing Wrought iron (section)

===China===
During the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), new iron smelting processes led to the manufacture of new wrought iron implements for use in agriculture, such as the [[Seed drill|multi-tube seed drill]] and [[Plough|iron plough]].<ref>{{cite book |title=A Short History of China |last=Kerr |first=Gordon |publisher=Pocket Essentials  |year=2013 |isbn=978-1842439692}}</ref> In addition to accidental lumps of low-carbon wrought iron produced by excessive injected air in ancient Chinese [[cupola furnace]]s. The ancient Chinese created wrought iron by using the [[finery forge]] at least by the 2nd century BC, the earliest specimens of [[Cast iron|cast]] and [[pig iron]] fined into wrought iron and [[steel]] found at the early Han dynasty site at Tieshengguo.<ref>{{cite book |last=Needham |first=Joseph |title=Science and Civilisation in China |year=1995 |volume=5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology |section=Part 3: Spagyrical Discovery and Invention: Historical Survey from Cinnabar Elixirs to Synthetic Insulin |page=105 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oH-TYyjgAj0C|isbn=9780521210287 }}</ref><ref name="Piggot1999">{{cite book |last=Pigott |first=Vincent C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AjUy9SA3vqcC |title=The Archaeometallurgy of the Asian Old World |year=1999 |publisher=UPenn Museum of Archaeology |isbn=9780924171345}}</ref>{{rp|186}} Pigott speculates that the finery forge existed in the previous [[Warring States period]] (403–221 BC), due to the fact that there are wrought iron items from China dating to that period and there is no documented evidence of the [[bloomery]] ever being used in China.<ref name="Piggot1999" />{{rp|186–187}} The fining process involved liquifying cast iron in a fining hearth and [[decarburization|removing carbon]] from the molten cast iron through [[Redox|oxidation]].<ref name="Piggot1999" />{{rp|186}} Wagner writes that in addition to the Han dynasty hearths believed to be fining hearths, there is also pictorial evidence of the fining hearth from a [[Shandong]] tomb mural dated 1st to 2nd century AD, as well as a hint of written evidence in the 4th century AD Daoist text ''[[Taiping Jing]]''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wagner |first=Rudolf G. |year=2001 |title=The Craft of a Chinese Commentator: Wang Bi on the Laozi |pages=80–83}}</ref>