Find a secondary text (couple pages) that you want others to read

Maybe an example problem or something?

Fun famous problems/solutions?

Key Information to Include:

● Context and motivation surrounding mathematics at the time (and earlier)
○ Very early then move into late BC, then even later maybe
● What is preserved from ancient chinese math? What texts?
● Significant methods
○ How did they write about/present math?
○ Who was affected by math? -- did they apply it?
○ Who mainly did math? Nobility? How was it regarded
● Include specific stuff around 2nd and 3rd century BC probably, because that’s around the time of
Euclid and Archimedes
● Conformity with the rest of the world? When did they adopt arabic numbers and other common
conventions?
Potential Readings
● ****Chp 8 rectangular arrays Problem 1
○ Pg 48 of Concise History, pg 399 of Nine Chapters
○ Problem about solving a linear system for different types of rice paddies - Array Rule
○ Demonstration of very modern technique (Guassian elimination) still used today, done
1500 years before the West did it
■ Still used in math 214 all the time -- your TI 84 can do it
■ People recognize this now, but it lacks a sound proof, only has a demonstration
Agenda
● Context
○ Developed basically independently of Western math
● Very beginnings of Chinese Math
○ Almost entirely from chapter 1 of Concise History
● Major Texts/developments -- Begin around 200 BC → 200 AD
○ Chp 2 of Concise history + some from Math Art
○ 1 page for two minor, 1 slide for Nine Chapters
■ 2 (3?) slides total on nine Chapters -- tell how it’s structured etc.
■ Liu Hui’s commentary?
● Specific example from Nine Chapters (from reading)
○ Explain/walk-through, significance of it, maybe relate it to what we’ve seen with Greek
○ Why did I choose this?
● Later methods (abacus etc.)
● Collision with western math
● Conclusion
===========================================================================
NOTES ON BOOKS

Chinese Mathematics: A Concise History

 ● In general
○ Gives context to and tells history of math in China
■ Includes much less on actual methodologies, but can be very useful for
understanding why things happened the way they did
● Beginnings
○ Very early methods and tools
■
○ Three texts that contain the vast majority of early theory about mathematics
■ Book on Numbers and Computation (Suàn shù shū)
● 202 BC - 186 BC
● Written on the backs of bamboo strips
■ Zhoubi Suanjing
● Contains a lot of complex math, but mostly presents knowledge acquired
from studying astronomy -- not specifically math
● Ex: Contained very complicated calculations with fractions, but it lacked
a systematic way to discuss those results
■ Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art (Jiǔzhāng Suànshù)
● Most well known
● Compiled by several generations from 11th cent. BC → 2nd cent. BC
○ Allows you to see progression of mathematics
● Comprised of 246 problems in question and answer form
○ Method of induction: Going from specific instances into a
generalized conclusion
○ Gives one or more problems, solves them in some particular
method, then explains method
● Liu Hui wrote a famous commentary on it (included in reading text)
where he provided solutions and commentary
● Contains some useful/relevant topics related to the times such as “Field
Measurement” and “Fair Levies”
● Chapters are relatively structured, moving from introductory ideas to
more complex ideas --- i think read pedagogy sections in NC
● Specifics from the Nine Chapters (go through text snippet you provided)
○ Look at example, show steps he takes and explain solution
○ Extract methods and general ideas
■ What did Liu Hui add -- a lot but what?
● Collision of Chinese Mathematics with western ideas
○ Much later
○ Matteo Ricci, Jesuit missionary, enters China with two books:
■ Clavius’s Epitome of Practical Arithmetic and Euclid’s Elements
● Orally translated by Matteo and recorded by someone else
● Overall -- greeks are more axiomatic, while

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