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Article ID: CBB802619065

Numerical Tables in Chinese Writings Devoted to Mathematics: From Early Imperial Manuscripts to Printed Song-Yuan Books (2016)

Chemla, Karine Carole (Author)

East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine
Issue: 44
Pages: 69-121

URI: http://www.eastm.org/index.php/journal/article/view/779

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This article establishes that the discursive parts of the earliest known mathematical manuscripts in Chinese were composed of (at least) two types of elements, marked by two types of texts. The manuscripts alternate continuous text, and text for numerical tables (what I call table-relations). I show that in these manuscripts, the latter were written down as ‘textual tables,’ and that two basic types of style were used for these textual tables. By contrast, tabular layouts have been used for a Qin period object and a Dunhuang manuscript carrying numerical tables. I suggest that these artifacts should be interpreted as computing tools. I further argue that, at least from the eleventh century onwards, diagrammatic tables were introduced into mathematical writings. They were used to write down new types of numerical tables. Diagrammatic features of such texts, like horizontal, vertical and oblique lines, played a key part in the reading, interpretation and use of these table-relations. In this sense, they can be compared with the Qin computing tool. I conclude that the fact that in Song-Yuan times these diagrammatic tables are referred to as ‘diagram tu 圖’ curiously echoes with the history of visual tools attested to in relation to mathematical activity in China.

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