Astronomy And Calendars The Other Chinese Mathematics

Author : Jean-Claude Martzloff
Publisher : Springer
Page : 471 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2016-09-01
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 9783662497180

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Astronomy and Calendars – The Other Chinese Mathematics by Jean-Claude Martzloff Pdf

Presented from the viewpoint of the history of mathematics, this book explores both epistemological aspects of Chinese traditional mathematical astronomy and lunisolar calendrical calculations. The following issues are addressed: (1) connections with non-Chinese cultural areas; (2) the possibility or impossibility of using mathematics to predict astronomical phenomena, a question that was constantly raised by the Chinese from antiquity through medieval times; (3) the modes of representation of numbers, and in particular the zero, found in the context of Chinese calendrical calculations; and (4) a detailed analysis of lunisolar calendrical calculations. Fully worked-out examples and comparisons between the results of calculations and the content of Chinese historical calendars from various periods are provided. Traditional Chinese calendrical and mathematical astronomy consists of permanently reformed mathematical procedures designed to predict, but not explain, phenomena pertaining to astronomy and related areas. Yet, despite appearances, models of the mathematical techniques hidden behind this voluminous corpus reveal that they depend on a limited number of clear-cut mathematical structures. Although only a small fraction of these techniques have been fully studied, what is known surprisingly broadens our knowledge of the history of Chinese mathematics. Sinologists interested in the history of Chinese science, and anyone interested in the history of Chinese mathematics, the Chinese calendar, and the history of Chinese mathematical astronomy from its origin (104 BC) to its European reform (AD 1644) will find this book very useful. The present English language edition is a fully revised and updated version of the French original. Even though this is a research monograph in sinology, no particular sinological background is required, although a basic understanding of ‘concrete mathematics’ is needed. From the reviews of the French edition: This is a demanding, rigorous book to read ... worth the concentrated study it requires. The rewards are not only in the details but in the general overview that ...[it] provides. Joseph Dauben, EASTM, 2011 ...first Work in a Western language to turn to for anyone interested in the details of Chinese calendrical computations. Benno Van Dalen, ISIS, 2011 Martzloff’s careful scholarship and his overall look at the calendar beyond astronomical calculations, ..., make this book a most valuable contributions to a field of increasing interest. U. D’Ambrosio, Mathematical Reviews, 2013

Author : Peng Yoke Ho
Publisher : Courier Corporation
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2000-01-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 0486414450

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Li, Qi and Shu by Peng Yoke Ho Pdf

Fascinating introduction to traditional Chinese concepts of li, qi, shu, yin, yang, wuxing, and yijing. Other topics covered: Chinese mathematics, astronomy and astrology, alchemy, magic, elixirs, and the search for immortality.

Author : Nathan Sivin
Publisher : Springer Science & Business Media
Page : 663 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2008-12-19
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 9780387789569

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Granting the Seasons by Nathan Sivin Pdf

China’s most sophisticated system of computational astronomy was created for a Mongol emperor who could neither read nor write Chinese, to celebrate victory over China after forty years of devastating war. This book explains how and why, and reconstructs the observatory and the science that made it possible. For two thousand years, a fundamental ritual of government was the emperor’s “granting the seasons” to his people at the New Year by issuing an almanac containing an accurate lunisolar calendar. The high point of this tradition was the “Season-granting system” (Shou-shih li, 1280). Its treatise records detailed instructions for computing eclipses of the sun and moon and motions of the planets, based on a rich archive of observations, some ancient and some new. Sivin, the West’s leading scholar of the Chinese sciences, not only recreates the project’s cultural, political, bureaucratic, and personal dimensions, but translates the extensive treatise and explains every procedure in minimally technical language. The book contains many tables, illustrations, and aids to reference. It is clearly written for anyone who wants to understand the fundamental role of science in Chinese history. There is no comparable study of state science in any other early civilization.

Author : Christopher Cullen
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 441 pages
File Size : 40,9 Mb
Release : 2017
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 9780198733119

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Heavenly Numbers by Christopher Cullen Pdf

This book is a history of the development of mathematical astronomy in China, from the late third century BCE, to the early 3rd century CE - a period often referred to as 'early imperial China'. It narrates the changes in ways of understanding the movements of the heavens and the heavenly bodies that took place during those four and a half centuries, and tells the stories of the institutions and individuals involved in those changes. It gives clear explanations of technical practice in observation, instrumentation, and calculation, and the steady accumulation of data over many years - but it centres on the activity of the individual human beings who observed the heavens, recorded what they saw, and made calculations to analyse and eventually make predictions about the motions of the celestial bodies. It is these individuals, their observations, their calculations, and the words they left to us that provide the narrative thread that runs through this work. Throughout the book, the author gives clear translations of original material that allow the reader direct access to what the people in this book said about themselves and what they tried to do.

Author : Bharath Sriraman
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 3221 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2024-05-20
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 9783031408465

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Handbook of the History and Philosophy of Mathematical Practice by Bharath Sriraman Pdf

Author : Christopher Cullen
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 259 pages
File Size : 52,9 Mb
Release : 1996-04-18
Category : History
ISBN : 9780521550895

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Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China by Christopher Cullen Pdf

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Author : Luís Campos Ribeiro
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 704 pages
File Size : 45,9 Mb
Release : 2023-06-12
Category : History
ISBN : 9789004548978

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Jesuit Astrology by Luís Campos Ribeiro Pdf

Connections between the Society of Jesus and astrology used to appear as unexpected at best. Astrology was never viewed favourably by the Church, especially in early modern times, and since Jesuits were strong defenders of Catholic orthodoxy, most historians assumed that their religious fervour would be matched by an equally strong rejection of astrology. This groundbreaking and compelling study brings to light new Jesuit scientific texts revealing a much more positive, practical, and nuanced attitude. What emerges forcefully is a totally new perspective into early modern Jesuit culture, science, and education, highlighting the element that has been long overlooked: astrology.

Author : Joseph Needham
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 1146 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 1959
Category : History
ISBN : 0521058015

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Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 3, Mathematics and the Sciences of the Heavens and the Earth by Joseph Needham Pdf

After two volumes mainly introductory, Dr Needham now embarks upon his systematic study of the development of the natural sciences in China. The Sciences of the Earth follow: geography and cartography, geology, seismology and mineralogy. Dr Needham distinguishes parallel traditions of scientific cartography and religious cosmography in East and West, discussing orbocentric wheel-maps, the origins of the rectangular grid system, sailing charts and relief maps, Chinese survey methods, and the impact of Renaissance cartography on the East. Finally-and here Dr Needham's work has no Western predecessors-there are full accounts of the Chinese contribution to geology and mineralogy.

Author : Satish C. Bhatnagar
Publisher : Balboa Press
Page : 317 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2023-02-16
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 9798765236307

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Darts on History of Mathematics Volume Ii by Satish C. Bhatnagar Pdf

What is new in the book? Apart from its format, in brief, it has thought-provoking angles of observation and deductive conclusions on many topics, which may look ordinary or rare. Who will benefit from the book? Any lay person with an historical bent of mind on mathematical topics stands to gain from it. Both undergraduate and graduate students in history of mathematics courses would enjoy it. All reflections are independent—they are excellent bedtime reading too.

Author : Andrea Bréard
Publisher : Springer
Page : 281 pages
File Size : 47,6 Mb
Release : 2019-06-25
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 9783319936956

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Nine Chapters on Mathematical Modernity by Andrea Bréard Pdf

The book addresses for the first time the dynamics associated with the modernization of mathematics in China from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century from a transcultural global historical perspective. Rather than depict the transformations of mathematical knowledge in terms of a process of westernization, the book analyzes the complex interactions between different scientific communities and the ways in which the past, modernity, language, and mathematics were negotiated in a global context. In each chapter, Andrea Bréard provides vivid portraits of a series of go-betweens (such as translators, educators, or state statisticians) based on a vast array of translated primary sources hitherto unavailable to a non-Chinese readership. They not only illustrate how Chinese scholars mediated between new mathematical objects and discursive modes, but also how they instrumentalized their autochthonous scientific roots in specific political and intellectual contexts. While sometimes technical in style, the book addresses all readers who are interested in the global and cultural history of science and the complexities involved in the making of universal mathematics. “While the pursuit of modernity is in the title, entanglement is of as much interest. Using the famous ‘Nine Chapters’ as a framework, Bréard considers a wide range of that entanglement from divination to data management. Bréard’s analysis and thought-provoking insights show once again how much we can learn when two cultures intersect. A fascinating read!” (John Day, Boston University).

Author : Ho Peng Yoke
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 261 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2004-03-01
Category : History
ISBN : 9781134430673

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Chinese Mathematical Astrology by Ho Peng Yoke Pdf

Though there are a number of well-written works on Chinese divination, there are none that deal with the three sophisticated devices that were employed by the Chinese Astronomical Bureau in the eleventh century and for hundreds of years thereafter. Chinese experts applied the methods associated with these devices to both weather forecasting and to the interpretation of human affairs. Hidden by a veil of secrecy, these methods have always been relatively little known other than by their names. The first work in any language to explore these three methods, known as sanshi (three cosmic boards), this book sheds light on a topic which has been shrouded in mystery for centuries, having been kept secret for many years by the Chinese Astronomical Bureau.

Author : Yan Li,Shiran Du
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 312 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 1987
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : UOM:39015017285712

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Chinese Mathematics by Yan Li,Shiran Du Pdf

This volume presents a record of mathematical developments in China over a period of more than 2000 years. It goes into greater detail than ever previously available in English. Because the emphasis in Chinese mathematics is on algorithms rather than proofs, readers will find results such as Bezout's theorem and Horner's method appearing in a very different context from the familiar tradition of Euclidean deductive geometry. The Chinese always preferred algebraic methods, and by the 13th century A.D. they were the best algebraists in the world. The original Chinese point of view is retained by the translators. They have supplemented the text with short explanatory comments and references to all relevant reference sources available in the West. An extensive bibliography is included, creating a work which will appeal to general readers interested in Chinese history as well as historians of mathematics.

Author : Endymion Porter Wilkinson
Publisher : Harvard Univ Asia Center
Page : 1220 pages
File Size : 53,7 Mb
Release : 2000
Category : History
ISBN : 0674002490

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Chinese History by Endymion Porter Wilkinson Pdf

Endymion Wilkinson's bestselling manual of Chinese history has long been an indispensable guide to all those interested in the civilization and history of China. In this latest edition, now in a bigger format, its scope has been dramatically enlarged by the addition of one million words of new text. Twelve years in the making, the new manual introduces students to different types of transmitted, excavated, and artifactual sources from prehistory to the twentieth century. It also examines the context in which the sources were produced, preserved, and received, the problems of research and interpretation associated with them, and the best, most up-to-date secondary works. Because the writing of history has always played a central role in Chinese politics and culture, special attention is devoted to the strengths and weaknesses of Chinese historiography.

Author : Karine Chemla,José Ferreirós,Lizhen Ji,Erhard Scholz,Chang Wang
Publisher : Springer Nature
Page : 702 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2023-11-27
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 9783031408557

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The Richness of the History of Mathematics by Karine Chemla,José Ferreirós,Lizhen Ji,Erhard Scholz,Chang Wang Pdf

This book, a tribute to historian of mathematics Jeremy Gray, offers an overview of the history of mathematics and its inseparable connection to philosophy and other disciplines. Many different approaches to the study of the history of mathematics have been developed. Understanding this diversity is central to learning about these fields, but very few books deal with their richness and concrete suggestions for the “what, why and how” of these domains of inquiry. The editors and authors approach the basic question of what the history of mathematics is by means of concrete examples. For the “how” question, basic methodological issues are addressed, from the different perspectives of mathematicians and historians. Containing essays by leading scholars, this book provides a multitude of perspectives on mathematics, its role in culture and development, and connections with other sciences, making it an important resource for students and academics in the history and philosophy of mathematics.

Author : Yvonne Dold-Samplonius
Publisher : Franz Steiner Verlag
Page : 486 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2002
Category : Mathematics
ISBN : 3515082239

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From China to Paris by Yvonne Dold-Samplonius Pdf

The reports of a conference of 11 scholars who began the task of examing together primary sources that might shed som elight on exactly how and in what fomrs mathematical problems, concepts, and techniques may have been transmitted between various civilizations, from antiquity down to the European Renaissance following more or less the legendary silk routes between China and Western Europe.