The Suàn shù shū , “Writings on reckoning”: Rewriting the history of early Chinese mathematics in the light of an excavated manuscript

The Suàn shù shū , “Writings on reckoning”: Rewriting the history of early Chinese mathematics in the light of an excavated manuscript
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《算数书》:根据出土手稿改写中国早期数学史

DOI:
10.1016/j.hm.2005.11.006
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发表时间:
2007
影响因子:
0.5
通讯作者:
C. Cullen
C. Cullen
中科院分区:
人文科学4区
文献类型:
--
作者:
C. Cullen

文献摘要

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《算数书》是一部中国古代数学著作集,长约 7000 个字符,写在 190 个竹简上,出土自一座似乎于公元前 186 年关闭的坟墓。这本匿名合集并不是一本连贯的书,而是由大约 69 个独立的文本部分组成,这些文本似乎是从各种来源收集而来的。处理的问题范围从基本的分数计算到假位置规则的应用以及计算各种固体形状的体积。 《算数书》是目前最早有定年资料的中文数学资料。本文讨论了它与通过抄写流传的古代著作的关系,例如所谓的“九章”,即《九章算书》,它首次被提及是与公元 100 年左右的事件有关,但可能是在大约一个世纪前编写的。有人建议,通过与中国技术文献的另一个领域(医学领域)同期发生的情况进行比较,可以理解中国数学文献在这两个文本之间的几个世纪的演变。
The Suàn shù shū is an ancient Chinese collection of writings on mathematics approximately 7000 characters in length, written on 190 bamboo strips, recovered from a tomb that appears to have been closed in 186 B.C. This anonymous collection is not a single coherent book, but is made up of approximately 69 independent sections of text, which appear to have been assembled from a variety of sources. Problems treated range from elementary calculations with fractions to applications of the Rule of False Position and finding the volumes of various solid shapes. The Suàn shù shū is now the earliest datable extensive Chinese material on mathematics. This paper discusses its relation to ancient works known through scribal transmission, such as the so-called “Nine Chapters,”Jiuˇ zhāng suàn shù, which is first mentioned in connection with events around A.D. 100, but may have been compiled about a century earlier. It is proposed that the evolution of Chinese mathematical literature in the centuries that separate these two texts may be understood through comparison with what is known to have taken place during that time in another area of Chinese technical literature, that of medicine.