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Article ID: CBB783207882

How Were Western Written Calculations Introduced into China? — An Analysis of the Tongwen Suanzhi (arithmetic Guidance in the Common Language, 1613) (2018)

Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Volume: 60
Issue: 1-2
Pages: 69-86

URI: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1600-0498.12169

DOI: 10.1111/1600-0498.12169

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Transmission of texts Abacus Chinese language Mathematics Western world, civilization and culture Qing dynasty (China, 1644-1912) 17th century China

The Tongwen suanzhi (Arithmetic Guidance in the Common Language, 1613) has always been viewed as the first mathematical book to introduce Western written calculations into China. By analyzing the way in which calculations were written in the Tongwen suanzhi, this paper reveals that a place-value number system using Chinese characters was used to record operands and results in the calculations; however, intermediate calculations such as additions and subtractions were not recorded in the text. Therefore, when people in the 17th century read this book, they probably used an abacus as an aid to perform intermediate calculations for the sake of convenience. As a result, on the one hand, Western written calculations were changed in the process of transmission, and on the other hand, the writing mode in the Tongwen suanzhi influenced the way in which Chinese people studied mathematics in the Qing dynasty.

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