By the second century BCE the Chinese had developed a "vast, complex and highly centralized bureaucratic state", with a long-stable realm in the form of the Zhou Dynasty stretching back long before that. Chinese administrative organization, and to an extent technology like metallurgy, would be "far in advance of the rest of the world" until "nearly the end of the eighteenth century", influencing western administrative practices not later than the twelfth century and playing a significant role in the development of the modern state, including use of the examination. The Song dynasty would be the first government to nationally issue banknotes or true paper money, and also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as the first discernment of true north using a compass.