Guo, Jinsong (Author)
Elman, Benjamin A. (Advisor)
This dissertation seeks to integrate the history of mathematical knowledge in middle-period China with the history of its learned culture. It challenges the traditional historiographic image of Chinese mathematics and astronomy as socially and epistemically isolated enterprises, and argues that their significant development in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries was in deep connection with the primary programs of learning for the literati and for those who aspired to become one of them—reading texts and comprehending tradition. In so doing, the study stresses the overlapping ventures of knowledge making under the broad rubric of “number” (shu 數) and the communication between divergent intellectual groups in a time when the hierarchy of “learning” (xue 學) was flexible and contestable.This dissertation is divided into two parts, each in turn consisting of two chapters in the form of case studies. Part I mainly focuses on mathematics in the Southern Song (1127–1279), highlighting the connected endeavors of mathematicians and literati in the making and application of numerical knowledge largely outside of state sponsorship or control. Part II turns to Chinese mathematical astronomy under the Mongol Empire (1206–1259) and the early Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), featuring a stronger presence of political power as well as cross-cultural elements.In the first part, chapter 1 analyzes and compares three Southern Song publishers of mathematical books, who belonged to divergent social groups of literati and practitioners but displayed parallel efforts to make mathematical knowledge more accessible through printed texts. Chapter 2 discusses literati scholars' and mathematicians' shared engagement with numerical problems related to milfoil divination and the Classic of Changes (Yijing 易經).In the second part, chapter 3 looks into the uses of textual investigations in the calendar reform of the Yuan around 1280, highlighting the astronomers' precise choice of hermeneutical stance and its relation with contemporary classical scholarship. Chapter 4 examines the Chinese study of meridian differences in the Eurasian context and shows how contacts with Islamic knowledge brought about a new spatial as well as cultural awareness in the Chinese conception of astronomical knowledge.
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Article
Tang, Quan;
(2007)
The Shicha Parallax Algorithm in the Shoushi Calendar and Huihui Calendar
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Book
Charlotte Victorine Pollet;
(2020)
The empty and the full: Li Ye and the way of mathematics : geometrical procedures by section of areas
(/isis/citation/CBB703705286/)
Article
Yuda Yang;
Nanny Kim;
(2019)
Texts and Technologies in Chinese Silver Metallurgy, Twelfth to Nineteenth Centuries
(/isis/citation/CBB305546264/)
Article
Chen, Jiujin;
(2003)
The Scientific Significance for Discovering the Phase and the Date of Calendar on the Wu Lai Tripod Cauldron
(/isis/citation/CBB000500513/)
Article
Chu, Pingyi;
(1999)
Sanjiao hanshu yu Mingmo de Zhongxi lifa zhi zheng: Kexue de wuzhi wenhua shitan
(/isis/citation/CBB000203106/)
Book
Sivin, Nathan;
(2009)
Granting the Seasons: The Chinese Astronomical Reform of 1280, with a Study of Its Many Dimensions and a Translation of Its Records
(/isis/citation/CBB000952080/)
Book
Martzloff, Jean-Claude;
(2009)
Le calendrier chinois: Structure et calculs, 104 av. JC-1644: Indétermination céleste et réforme permanente: La construction chinoise officielle du temps quotidien discret à partir d'un temps mathématique caché, linéaire et continu
(/isis/citation/CBB001220030/)
Thesis
Buhrman, Kristina Mairi;
(2012)
The Stars and the State: Astronomy, Astrology, and the Politics of Natural Knowledge in Early Medieval Japan
(/isis/citation/CBB001567376/)
Article
Dong, Yuyu;
(2014)
A Study on the Forged Phenomena and the Reasons for Their Occurrence in Northern Song Astronomy
(/isis/citation/CBB802487525/)
Article
Dong, Yuyu;
(2008)
A Study on the Performance of the Northern Song Government's Managing Astronomical Activities by Analyzing Fengyuan Li Reform
(/isis/citation/CBB000933524/)
Article
Guo, Shirong;
(2008)
On the Deficiency of Astronomical Communication between Chinese and Arabic Astronomers: A Case Study of the Astronomical Education in an Observatory of the Yuan Dynasty
(/isis/citation/CBB000952279/)
Article
Longfei Chu;
Haohao Zhu;
(2019)
Re-examining the impact of European astronomy in seventeenth-century China: a study of Xue Fengzuo’s system of thought and his integration of Chinese and Western knowledge
(/isis/citation/CBB719816395/)
Article
Guan, Yuzhen;
(2015)
Eclipse Theory in the Jing chu li: Part I. the Adoption of Lunar Velocity
(/isis/citation/CBB001202212/)
Article
Chen, Meidong;
(2002)
Zu Chongzhi's Works on Astronomy and Calendar-Making: In Memorial of the 1500th Anniversity of Zu's Death
(/isis/citation/CBB000340142/)
Article
Asko Parpola;
(2013)
Beginnings of Indian Astronomy with Reference to a Parallel Development in China
(/isis/citation/CBB873958610/)
Book
David Brown;
Jonathan Ben-Dov;
(2018)
The Interactions of Ancient Astral Science
(/isis/citation/CBB920028822/)
Thesis
Sun, Xiaochun;
(2007)
State and Science: Scientific Innovations in Northern Song China, 960--1127
(/isis/citation/CBB001560524/)
Article
Trömel, Martin;
(2002)
Himmelsbeobachtung in karolingischer Zeit. Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Frage der drei erfundenen Jahrhunderte
(/isis/citation/CBB000300226/)
Book
Jiren Feng;
(2012)
Chinese Architecture and Metaphor: Song Culture in the Yingzao Fashi Building Manual
(/isis/citation/CBB148044905/)
Article
Schröder, Wilfried;
(2004)
Bemerkungen zu “Himmelsbeobachtung in karolingischer Zeit: Zugleich ein Beitrag zur Frage der drei erfundenen Jahrhunderte” von Martin Trömel
(/isis/citation/CBB000411128/)
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