Ruan Yuan
Ruǎn Yuán ( born February 21, 1764 in Yangzhou, † November 27, 1849 ) was a Chinese historian of mathematics, mathematician and senior officials ( governor of several provinces ).
Life
Ruan Yuan came from a respected family ( grandfather was a general ) and was accepted after passing the civil service exam in 1790 in the Imperial Hanlin Academy. He was a supporter of a new direction of higher studies in China, which drew on the original works instead of the standard comments of the classics, which is why the Chinese emperor in 1772 in search of old issues as possible in order was to enable critical editions.
Ruan Yuan held several high positions and was the Ministry of Education of Shandong Province and in 1795 in Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou. There he began his collection of biographies of important mathematicians and astronomers together ( Chouren zhuan ), for which he is best known, and a collaborative work with colleagues such as Li Rui ( 1765-1814 ) is. But he also took other scholars and engineers ( even musicians and poets ) and 275 not only Chinese, but also 41 Western scholars. The work also included extensive quotations from the works of authors such as Ptolemy and Copernicus, which have been partially made first known Chinese readers. The actual biographical data relate mainly to official positions in the sense of the Confucian tradition of biographies. A major goal of Ruan Yuan was to demonstrate the origin of many Chinese have become known by the Jesuits in China achievements of Western astronomy. In the Western scholars Ruan Yuan and colleagues ran a serious error ( as is Copernicus listed twice under different names ), many are listed primarily for its ties to China ( as Jesuit scholar ) and some of Listed surprise from today's perspective ( as a British captain named Auguste Lendy ). For the book he collected and searched for old books, which he continued in his further career. The book was published in 1799. Several new editions with supplements (for example, 44 new biographies by his student Luo Shilin for the edition of 1840 ) published (1829, 1840, 1842, 1888) and in 1935 and 1955 it was reprinted. A Supplement edition of Zhu Kebao appeared in 1886 with 129 new biographies and one of Zhongjun Huang 1898.
In 1799 he became professor of mathematics at the Imperial Academy ( guozijan ). In 1800 he was also governor of the province Zheijang. He also wrote a dictionary for the study of the classics and founded a school for classical literature ( Gujing Jingshe ). In 1806 he became Chancellor of Henan Province. 1809 his career got a kink because of an incident at the state examinations for civil servants, for which he was responsible. He was downgraded and went as a scholar to the Hanlin Academy. In 1810 he became director of the Historical Library. In 1814 he became governor of Jiangxi Province and in 1817 governor of the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi in southern China. He also founded an own Xuehaitang Academy in Guangdong. In 1826 he became governor of the provinces of Yunnan and Guizhou and 1835, he was Grand Secretary. In 1838 he went into retirement.
Besides books, he also gained ritual bronze cauldron, whose inscriptions he wrote a book in 1804.