Suan Shu Shu: A Book on Numbers and Computations: English Translation with Commentary (2008)
In December and January of 1983--1984, archaeologists excavating the tomb of an ancient Chinese provincial bureaucrat at a Western Han Dynasty site near Zhangjiashan, in Jiangling county, Hubei Province, discovered a number of books on bamboo strips, including inter alia works on legal statutes, military practice, and medicine. Among these was a previously unknown mathematical work on some 200 bamboo strips, the MediaObjects/s00407-007-0124-1flb2.gif Suan shu shu, or Book of Numbers and Computations. Based upon other works found in the tomb, especially a copy of the MediaObjects/s00407-007-0124-1flb3.gif Er nian lü ling (Laws and Decrees of the Second Year (of the reign of empress Lü, i.e. MediaObjects/s00407-007-0124-1flb4.gif Lü Hou)), archaeologists have dated the tomb to ca. 186 BCE (Lü Hou's regency lasted from 188 to 180 BCE). The Suan shu shu, as the earliest yet discovered work devoted specifically to mathematics from ancient China, has stirred considerable interest among Chinese historians of science. The translation and commentary offered here draw extensively on the works cited in Sect. 3 below. Several appendixes devoted to specific issues related to translating the Suan shu shu, including its title and the problem of determining English equivalents for various commodities that arise in the text, may be found in Appendix II.
...MoreDescription Translation of the earliest discovered work on mathematics in China with appendixes discussing issues related to the translation into English.
Similar Citations
Article
Dorofeeva-Lichtmann, Vera;
(2010)
The Rong Cheng shi 容成氏 Version of the 'Nine Provinces': Some Parallels with Transmitted Texts
(/isis/citation/CBB001034886/)
Article
Chemla, Karine;
(2003)
Generality above Abstraction: The General Expressed in Terms of the Paradigmatic in Mathematics in Ancient China
(/isis/citation/CBB000740739/)
Article
Guan, Xiao-wu;
(2007)
An Interpretation of Temperament Lengths Recorded in Iüshu of Shi Ji
(/isis/citation/CBB000760551/)
Article
Chen, Binhui;
(2005)
A New Inquiry on the Value of Ultimate Light Distance in Zhou Bi Suan Jing
(/isis/citation/CBB000502041/)
Article
Dahai Zou;
(2017)
An Elementary Study of the Unearthed Mathematics Book, Suanshu Shu
(/isis/citation/CBB378241867/)
Article
Zou, Dahai;
(2003)
The Ratios of Several Kinds of Rice in Ancient China: A New Research Based on the Suanshu Shu and Qin Bamboo Strips
(/isis/citation/CBB000500508/)
Article
Watanabe, Junsei;
(2005)
A Manchu Manuscript on Arithmetic Owned by Tôyô Bunko: “suwan fa yuwan ben bithe”
(/isis/citation/CBB000651327/)
Article
Duan, Yaoyong;
Zou, Dahai;
(2003)
New Collations of the Two Paragraphs “Yi Yuan Cai Fang” and “Yi Fang Cai Yuan” in the Unearthed Mathematics Book Suanshu Shu
(/isis/citation/CBB000500423/)
Article
Siqinbilig, ;
Guan, Shou-yi;
Luo, Jian-jin;
(2012)
The Solar Term Problem of Zhangjiashan Han Bamboo Script Calendar
(/isis/citation/CBB001250695/)
Article
Han, Jishao;
(2009)
Exploration in Alchemy of Western Han Dynasty
(/isis/citation/CBB000933764/)
Article
Ma, Liping;
(2008)
Position of the Sun in Ancient Chinese Records of Solar Eclipses
(/isis/citation/CBB000933512/)
Article
Han, Jishao;
(2007)
A New Inquiry into the Taoist Text Thirty-six Methods for Bringing Solids into Aqueous Solution
(/isis/citation/CBB000933496/)
Article
Huang Xing;
Qian Wei;
(2013)
A Comparative Study on the World Bellows before the Industrial Revolution
(/isis/citation/CBB834149662/)
Article
TJ Hinrichs;
(2015)
The Catchy Epidemic: Theorization and its Limits in Han to Song Period Medicine
(/isis/citation/CBB142133285/)
Article
Li, Qiang;
(2008)
A Brief Comment on Feng Rui's Assumption for His Model of Seismometer
(/isis/citation/CBB000933538/)
Article
Noa Hegesh;
(2021)
Mind the Gap: Acoustical Answers to Cosmological Concerns in First-Century b.c.e. China
(/isis/citation/CBB852060209/)
Article
Xing, Gang;
Shi, Yunli;
(2005)
On the Solar Eclipse Records from the Han Dynasty and Their Application to the Analysis of the Precision of the Systems of Calendrical Astronomy of the Han Dynasty
(/isis/citation/CBB000501896/)
Article
Li, Jender;
(1999)
Han Wei Liuchao de rumu
(/isis/citation/CBB000203118/)
Article
Shmidt, F. R. A.;
(2002)
Die Redefigur “Substanz A produziert Wirkung B” in den frühen Rezeptarien und der materia medica der chinesischen Textkultur
(/isis/citation/CBB000300692/)
Article
Ma Biao 馬彪;
(2017)
The Question of Pangxing 旁行 and Xieshang 邪上 in the “Sandai shibiao” 三代世表 (Genealogical Tables of the Three Dynasties) of the Shiji 史記 (The Grand Clerk’s Records)
(/isis/citation/CBB263512153/)
Be the first to comment!