Great Wall of China

Author: Li Di, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-08-01
Features: In 1984, four experts and professors in the history of Chinese mathematics proposed to compile a comprehensive and monumental work on the historical development of traditional Chinese mathematics, titled The Great Series of the History of Chinese Mathematics. These four professors (in order of age) are: Professor Bai Shangshu of Beijing Normal University; Professor Shen Kangshen of Hangzhou University; Professor Li Di of Inner Mongolia Normal University; and Professor Li Jimin of Northwest University. Traditional Chinese mathematics has a long and profound history, with its own unique ideological system and developmental path. From ancient times to the Song and Yuan dynasties, it was a major force in the development of world mathematics for a long period. However, since the Ming Dynasty, due to various political and social reasons, as pointed out by Xu Guangqi at the end of the Ming Dynasty, on one hand, "scholars who focus on theory and neglect practical matters" and on the other hand, "superstitious practices that falsely claim numbers have mystical properties," traditional Chinese mathematics was on the verge of extinction. Later, it was completely replaced and dominated by the Western Euclidean tradition. Although there was a brief period of emphasis during the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns, it was merely limited to the excavation and interpretation of ancient texts. By the mid-20th century, Li Yan and Qian Baocong wrote specialized works on the history of Chinese mathematics to introduce it, ensuring that ancient Chinese mathematics continued to survive. The time range covered in this section extends from ancient "arithmetic books" to the late Qing Dynasty, with some extending to the early years of the Republic of China. The spatial range includes mathematical works written by Chinese people, translated from foreign languages into Chinese, as well as those written by foreigners in Chinese.