Ancient Chinese ancestors had long known to use the rudder to change the course of a ship. The rudder is a stern steering tool used to control the course. It evolved from wood pulp and went through the stages of technological evolution such as pulp support, towing rudder and shaft rudder.

The early oars paddled on the side of the ship to push the ship forward, and when the oars on both sides were asymmetrical, the ship turned, so the oars also had the function of steering the course. Later, the functions of propelling and operating the course of the propeller were gradually separated. The propeller located at the stern was specially used to control the course of the ship and expand the blade area, which gradually evolved into a rudder.

China had a rudder in the Eastern Han Dynasty. In 1955, a model of a pottery ship was unearthed from an Eastern Han tomb in Guangzhou. There is a rudder in the center of the stern. Its characteristic is that the rudder stock is located in the middle of the rudder surface, and the rudder surface is irregular square, but it cannot be along the vertical rudder stock. Axis rotation, this is a primitive rudder. During the Kaiyuan period of the Tang Dynasty (713-741 A. D.), a landscape painting by Zheng Qian showed the image of a rotating shaft rudder. Its characteristic was that the rudder column entered the water vertically, and the rudder blade was perpendicular to the water surface and could rotate around the axis. This was the real tail rudder. This shows that before the Tang Dynasty, the ship's stern rudder with the rudder blade rotating around the axis had appeared in China.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, the shaft rudder was widely used. The stern of the ship depicted in the "Qingming Shanghe TU" all uses a rotating shaft rudder and has developed into a balanced rudder.

The characteristic of the balanced rudder is that there is also a part of the rudder blade in the direction of the rudder stock towards the bow, and the point of action of the rudder force is closer to the rotating shaft, thus making it more labor-saving when turning the rudder.

There is also a kind of perforated rudder in ancient China, which is characterized by many small holes on the rudder surface, which can also save effort in turning the rudder, and due to the surface tension of water, it will not affect the performance of the rudder.

In ancient China, the stern was installed on the stern seal plate, so it was called the stern rudder. The rudder building was built at the stern of the large ship, which was specially used to control the rudder. Due to the different depths of the waters when the ship sailed, the rudder later evolved into an elevator, adjusting the height of the rudder according to the water depth, and lifting the large rudder with a windlass.

The western ship's stern rudder is installed on the stern column, called the stern column rudder. It has been used since the 13th century, 5 centuries later than China. The stern rudder is one of the most important inventions of ancient Chinese shipbuilding technology. Its development history and technical form show the superb achievements of ancient navigation technology, and have a significant impact on the world's shipbuilding and navigation industry.