Zhoubi suanjing

The Zhōubì suànjīng (Chinese周 髀 算 经/周 髀 算 经, W.-G. Chou -pi suan -ching, Arithmetic Classic of the Zhou gnomon ', in short:周 髀, Zhōubì, Zhou Gnomon ') is one of the oldest and most famous ancient Chinese mathematical texts, whose roots are ( 11th century BC to 771 BC) date back to the Western Zhou Dynasty. It is one of the oldest books in the series of "Ten mathematical classics " ( Suanjing shi shu ).

Content

The book was written about 100 BC in the time of the early Han Dynasty ( 206 BC -9 AD) for the first time and contains all important to the ancient Chinese astronomy. It dealt with on the basis of observations and mathematics cosmological speculations to the size of the universe and it is stated, how can a gnomon to determine the positions of celestial bodies. In an illustrated talk of the Duke of Zhou (周公 旦) with his minister Shang Gao explains how a gnomon can be applied. The " Zhou Gnomon " also includes calculations for the movement of celestial bodies and the so-called " hypotenuse figure" (Xian -tu ), the example of the right triangle ( Gougu ) with sides 3, 4 and 5 a proof of the theorem of Pythagoras ( Gougu theorem) illustrates.

The commentary of Zhao Shuang from the maybe 3rd century AD also contains a list of 15 formulas for right triangles. Other comments attributed Zhen Luan ( 6th century AD) and Chunfeng Li ( 602-670 AD).

Chinese editions and textual criticism

  • Photographic reproduction of wood panel pressure of the Ming period in Sibu collection congkan (四部 丛刊)
  • ( Qing ) Feng Jing冯 经: Zhoubi suanjing shu (周 髀 算 经 述) ( Lingnan yishu disiji岭南 遗书 第四集)
  • ( Qing ) Gu Guanguang (顾观光): Zhoubi suanjing jiaokan ji (周 髀 算 经 校勘 记) ( Wuling Shanren yishu武陵 山人 遗书)
  • Qian Baozong:
Wade–Giles The Ten Computational Canons Li Chunfeng Christopher Cullen (sinologist) Michael Loewe Book on Numbers and Computation Helmuth Gericke
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