The history of the development of the mathematics in China was originated from the 2,700 A.D and has had been under continuous development till now, which covers a history of more than four thousand years. It is an outstanding figure to be taken by people who’d like to study Chinese in China.
It has had been point out in the Characteristics of Chinese Mathematics written by the famous Japanese mathematician Sanshang Yifu, that the prolonged history of development of the Chinese mathematics is incomparable in its amazing length with any other countries in the world. Then friends who’d like to learn Chinese in China may also be quite impressed by the Chinese mathematics.
The development of mathematics in ancient Greece was from the 6A.D. to 4B.C. which was no more than one thousand years, and the history of development of mathematics in ancient Arab was just confined to the period from 8A.D to 13B.C, while the summit in mathematical development was during the period 1603~1867, which ranges for about 300 years, and it may also be well-known by friends who’d like to study Mandarin in China that some of the European countries had got histories of mathematics only after the 10B.C.
It is worth-noticing for friends who’d like to study Chinese in China that the development of the Chinese mathematics can be divided into five phases:
The first period of historical development of the Chinese mathematics ranges from the 2700 A.D. to 200 A.D., which is referred to as the Ancient period. Legends has it that the people who were good at math includes, the fú xī, Yellow emperor, lì shǒu, zhuì, etc. And people who’d like to learn Chinese in China may have had been quite interested about the specific contributions they have had down to the development of Chinese mathematics.
Well, the major achievements they have had done, which is going to be introduced to friends who’d like to study Mandarin in China, includes the tie knotting, the numeration, rule drawing, multiplication table, denary scale, and the mathematics education.
The second phase of development of the Chinese mathematics ranges from the 200A.D till the 1,000B.C, which has had been referred to as the Medieval period. And the leading mathematicians during this phase, who are going to be introduced to the friends who’d like to study Chinese in China, includes the liú wēi of the Wei Dynasty, the zǔ chōng zhīof the Northern and Southern Dynasties, zǔ rì héng, etc.
And people who’d like to learn Chinese in China may have had been quite interested about the specific contributions they have had down to the development of Chinese mathematics. Well, the major achievements during this period can be concluded to be the ten books on Mathematics: which are Arithmetic in Nine Chapters. the Sea Island Mathematical Manual; The Mathematical Classics of Suntzu; The Mathematical Classics of Wang cao, zhāng qiū jiàn and xià hóu yang; the Arithmetic Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven; wǔ jīng; jī gǔ suàn jīng and the Compose Art.
Due to the loss of the Compose Art, it is often substituted by the mathematic remains, and friends who’d like to study Mandarin in China may be quite interested about the contents recorded in those books, well, the ten books on mathematics was mainly about the scores applications, the interior calculation of the Pythagorean theorem; the Least mean squares and the equation application; the two-dimensional and spatial patterns’ calculation; the input of the sān děng shù, etc.
The third phase of development of the Chinese mathematics ranges from 1, 000A.D. to 1，367B.C, which phase had been considered to be the most sophisticated, the outstanding figures of this period includes jiǎ xiàn, qín jiǔ sháo, lǐ zhì, yáng huī, guō shǒu jìng , zhū shì jié, etc.
And their major achievements of them must seem interested to friends who’d like to study Chinese in China, which are the system of equation of higher degree, twice unfolded coefficient triangles, solving the area of the triangles on the three given lines.
The fourth phase ranges from the 1,367B.C to1, 750B.C, with the major achievements to be introduced to friends who’d like to learn Chinese in China are the invention of the abacus and the manual computation. And the last phase ranges from the 1,750B.C to1, 912B.C, with the major achievements to be introduced to friends who’d like to study Mandarin in China are the inscriptions and circulation of the ten works on mathematics, as well as discussions and classifications of the old and new mathematics.