Journal of Indian Philosophy (2006) 34: 3156 DOI 10.

1007/s10781-005-8168-5 KARINE CHEMLA1

Springer 2006

ARTIFICIAL LANGUAGES IN THE MATHEMATICS OF ANCIENT CHINA

This paper aims at questioning a common assumption regarding the use of articial languages in the course of mathematical activity or writing. Such articial languages are indeed often assumed to be characterized by the introduction of non-discursive elements or specic symbolic systems. In contrast to this widely held belief, I would like to show on the basis of an example selected from the mathematical corpus of ancient China that such is not the case. The example presented suggests how articial languages might result from specic elaborations within, and on the basis of, the usual written or oral language. In fact, one may wonder whether, in this sense, mathematical activity is not always, and has not always been, carried out on the basis of and with the help of articial languages. The piece of evidence chosen to make this point is the opening chapter of the book Sea-mirror of the circle measurements (Ceyuan ),2 completed by Li Ye in 1248. The whole book is haijing, based on a geometrical gure reproduced in Figure 1, and its rst chapter contains a set of roughly 700 formulas about it, which are expressed in a remarkable way. The aim of this paper is, more specically, to analyze the language designed for stating these formulas and highlight how it betrays an evolution with respect to the language attested to in former Chinese mathematical texts, and, even, in texts contemporary with Li Yes. This evolution can be correlated with the
A rst version of this paper was presented at the International Conference organized by Prof. Frits Staal, Asian Contributions to the Formation of Modern Science , thanks to the hospitality of the International Institute for Asian Studies, Leiden, September 2021, 2002. It is my pleasure to thank Phyllis Grano, Frits Staal and Michio Yano for their help in the preparation of the nal version. Since 2002, Jacques Virbel (IRIT, Toulouse) and I have been organizing a seminar to promote a linguistic description of scientic texts. It is clear to me that this joint eort has inspired the way in which I deal with the topic now. 2 My Ph D. thesis was devoted to this book (Chemla, 1982). Chapter 2 dealt with the language used to describe formulas, and chapter 10 tackled the language used for algorithms. (Mei Rongzhao, 1966) and (Kong Guoping, 1988) provide elements of biography for Li Ye and a survey of his mathematical writings.
1

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Figure 1. (a) The fundamental gure of Li Yes Sea-mirror of the circle-measurements 1248. (b) The fundamental gure of Sea-mirror of the circle-measurements with modern notations.

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intention of stating formulas in a non-ambiguous way. I hope such an analysis may inspire new types of research on ancient mathematical documents that could also bring to light similar phenomena, that is: although they appear to be written in ordinary language, further analysis may reveal ways in which, on the basis of ordinary language, a specic sublanguage was designed for the sake of mathematical practice.3
LI YES DRAWING AND THE RIGHT-ANGLED TRIANGLE IN ANCIENT CHINA

Analyzing how Li Ye expresses formulas in his Sea-mirror of the circle measurements requires that we rst examine more closely the drawing on which the entire book relies and with which it opens. At rst sight, the drawing, entitled Map of the circular town, seems to be quite ordinary. A circle is inscribed both in a right-angled triangle and in a square. Other lines, all horizontal and vertical, are added to this conguration and go through either the center of the circle or points at which other lines intersect the hypotenuse. In addition to this, Li Ye gives a name to most of the points that are thus created.4 This last detail calls for two comments. First, in making use of a way of marking gures that seems quite common to us today, in fact, Li Ye breaks with all known earlier practices attested to in Chinese mathematical sources.5 One still needs to account for the fact that instead of marking areas as his predecessors did, he attached names to points. Secondly, these names will be used in the subsection of chapter 1, placed immediately after the drawing, to designate segments and introduce new names for them, which will be used in most of the book. In other words, the characters attached to points on the
In his book on a subsequent Chinese mathematician of the 1314th century, Zhu Shijie (Hoe, 1977), pp. 5759, sensed the possibility of such a development of mathematical expression in Chinese, without being aware that the writings of other Chinese mathematicians such as Li Ye bear witness to it. Future research should analyze in detail similarities and dierences in expression between Li Ye and Zhu Shijie. This work should provide ner tools to situate them with respect to one another in terms of the milieus to which they belonged. This reservation notwithstanding, Hoe, willing to give the reader a sense of the simplicity of the formulation of mathematics with characters as evidenced by Zhu Shijie, developed a semi-symbolic mode of transcription (pp. 3740, 8390). He paved the way to the type of research presented in this paper. 4 On Figure 1, I did not translate the characters associated to the points but attached letters to them. For a rough analysis of these names, see (Chemla, 1982), pp. 2.12.2. 5 For the way in which gures were usually marked in ancient China, see (Chemla, 2001).
3

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drawing are hardly of any use in Sea-mirror of the circle measurements and serve mainly to introduce the terminology employed throughout the book. In this second set of names segments are approached as sides of right-angled triangles. This implies that the rst reading of the drawing in terms of segments is replaced by a second reading that focuses on the right-angled triangles that appear in the largest triangle of them all with my notations: CTQ. On Figure 1(b), I placed a number in the right angle of each such triangle and in what follows I shall use this number to designate the triangle. Thirteen right-angled triangles are thereby distinguished on the drawing, as follows: 1 2 3 4 CQT COF HNT CMB (comprehensive) or da (the greatest) tong bian (lateral) di (bottom, the lowest) (yellow width the diameter of the huang guang inscribed circle as width) (yellow length the diameter of the huang chang inscribed circle as length) gao (height, high) ping6 (base, at) (greatest dierence its height is the greatest dacha dierence 7 of triangle 13) (smallest dierence its base is the smallest xiaocha dierence of 13) (august) ultimate (huang) ji (supreme) void (tai) xu ming (brightness, bright) zhuan the tiniest.

5 LJT 6 CAH 7 FZT 8 CKL 9 BGT 10 11 12 13 HWF LUB HSL BEF

It is by referring to a segment as being the side of such a triangle that the new terminology is introduced. For example, CF will be
6 In fact, Li Ye distinguishes two triangles gao: one is the triangle shang gao above, CAH, which is the highest; the other is the triangle xia gao below, HRB, which is the lowest. Symmetrically, he distinguishes two triangles ping: shang ping (above, LVF) and xia ping (below, FZT). Actually, the composition of these names refers to the fact that these pairs are constituted of equal triangles. It is a way of stating this property. As, in what follows, Li Ye mainly refers to triangles gao and ping and distinguishes between the two triangles of each pair in extremely rare occasions, we will not associate a specic number with the triangles HRB and LVF. Below, the reason for restricting ourselves to 13 triangles will be made clear. 7 On the meaning of this expression and the corresponding one in next line, see below.

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designated as hypotenuse of (triangle) lateral, . I shall transcribe this expression for the sake of my analysis as (2) c, where, instead of the name lateral, I use the number associated with the triangle. The transcription has hence a structure strictly parallel to that of the expression in Chinese. On each triangle, in conformity with the earliest Chinese texts dealing with the right-angled triangle, this subsection of Li Yes chapter 1 distinguishes a base (gou ), that is its smallest side; a height (gu ), the other side of the right-angle; and a hypotenuse (xian ). The next subsection, Correct values for the problems to come, can hence rely on these three fundamental entities to introduce, for each triangle, the 13 quantities attached to any rightangled triangle in 13th century China.8 It introduces these entities in order to provide for all of them the numerical values they take within the context of particular dimensions for the drawing. As for the three sides, the expression used to designate the quantity of type Q of the triangle T is formed by conforming to the following pattern: T Q. The formulas gathered by Li Ye in the rst chapter of his Sea-mirror of the circle measurements state equalities between members obtained by combining, by means of elementary operations, the 13 quantities attached to these 13 triangles. To put ourselves in a position where we can analyze the statement of the formulas, we hence need to examine how these 13 quantities are designated. The rst three of them are simply the sides of the triangle: the base, which we shall note a, the height, noted b, and the hypotenuse, noted c, each referred to by a unique character. The ten other remaining quantities are designated either by conventional expressions involving the names of the three sides, or by ordinary formulations formed with them or, lastly, by abridged expressions. In the following list, we shall present these various terms, with a character-by-character transcription in modern symbolism the entries provide the modern notation for the quantity meant:9
8 The coincidence between the number of quantities attached to a given triangle and the number of triangles in Li Yes drawing is not accidental. We cannot develop this point here, but the reader is referred to Chemla (1990) or Chemla (1993). 9 We shall refer to occurrences in Li Yes chapter 1 of the expressions described by means of the following convention: it suces for us to concentrate on the set of roughly 700 formulas gathered in the nal subsection of chapter 1 of Sea-mirror of the circle measurements, entitled Shi bie za ji Distinguishing dierences in confused records; we number the successive paragraphs of this subsection and refer to them in case an expression mentioned can be found there.

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gou gu he [a b+] (par. 4). The character used here to designate the sum, i.e. he, is employed only for cases in which the terms of the sum consist of sides of one and the same triangle. A rst survey seems to indicate that this term was not used in mathematical texts with this meaning before the Song dynasty. Moreover, it does not seem that there existed, before that time, a word specialized to designate the sum in such particular cases. . The term he alone also designates the sum of the he base and the height specically, as in expressions such as ming he sum of the (triangle) brightness (par. 31). [a b +] (par. 17) Even though it occurs gou gu gong more rarely, this formulation refers to the same quantity by means of an usual way of designating the sum of two entities we return below to these expressions. Note, however, that gong alone cannot designate this specic sum.

To make the opposition between these two modes of expressing the sum clear in our transcriptions below, we shall transcribe he as +s, to recall the fact that we deal with the specic summation. Otherwise, we transcribe + all general terms prescribing a sum in a similar way. b)a [a b )] (par. 17), or simply jiao diergou gu jiao ence [)] (par. 14; par. 20). Although this term can enunciate the subtraction in general, in contrast to the situation for the sum described above, the same term used alone can also designate this specic dierence. The syntax will allow us to make clear in each context which sense is to be given to the character. Another character can alone designate the difdierence between the base and the height, i.e. cha ference (par. 5), or, by contrast to expressions introduced below, it can be expanded into zhong cha medium size (par. 15). However, although the expression dierence [a b )c] is common in the Chinese comgou gu cha mentaries from the 3rd century onwards and can be found in mathematical texts until the 7th century, it is not to be found in Li Yes set of formulas. In other words, also in sharp contrast to the situation for the sum described above, there does not seem to be a character specialized to express the dierence when the dimensions are all taken for the same triangle. To oppose both formulations in our transcriptions, we shall transcribe cha as )c and jiao as )j.

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c+a

gou xian he (par. 7) [a c +s]; gou xian gong (par. 14) [a c +]. Exactly as for the case of [a b +], two expressions can be found: one that makes use of a term indicating that the entities added belong to the same triangle, and one that uses a general term. (par. 12) [a c )j]. Note that the expression gou xian jiao [a c )c], attested to in mathematical texts gou xian cha until the 7th century, is not to be found in Li Yes set of formulas, but is used in problems contained in the second part of the book (problem 9 of chapter 2). This quantity can greatest dierence (par. 2). also be designated as da cha gu xian he 15) [b c +]. (par. 8) [b c +s]; gu xian gong (par.

c)a

c+b

c)b

gu xian jiao (par. 13) [b c )j]. The expression gu xian c [b c ) ], often used in older texts, is found only cha once in Li Yes set of formulas (par. 20, unique occurrence). Another appellation is used for this dierence: xiao cha smallest dierence (par. 2).

c+(a+b) xian he he [c +s +s] is, throughout the text, almost always designated as san shi he sum of the three things (a+b))c or d10 xian he jiao (par. 17) [c +s )j]. When this quantity is designated as the diameter of the inscribed circle, huang fang (par. 17) side of the it can be referred to as huang yellow alone (compare yellow square, or even the sum of the hypotenuse and the diameter the dierence of the (par. 4))11 or else yuan (compare base and the diameter (par. 7))12 c+a)b or c)(b)a) xian jiao jiao (par. 9) [c )j )j].

In fact, a+b)c is the length of the diameter of the inscribed circle, which we shall designate occasionally by d. 11 This term is not attested to in ancient texts. 12 Such a use is not attested to in ancient texts, where yuan can designate the circle or its circumference.

10

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c+b)a or c+(b)a) xian jiao he (par. 8) [c )j +s]; xian jiao gong j (par. 8) [c ) +]. Again, whereas the two terms for sum can be used here, for the previous quantity, only the character jiao can be found to designate the dierence. More on this below. So much for the 13 quantities Li Ye attached to any right-angled triangle. As mentioned above, to designate such a quantity in relation to a given triangle, Li Ye juxtaposes the name of the triangle and the name of the quantity, according to the pattern T Q. However, when introducing a quantity whose designation requires several characters, Li Ye sometimes opts for another mode of articulation of the two elements. Let us mention, for example, two variants on the basis of dacha shang gu xian he, the sum of the examples: (par. 8) tong height and the hypotenuse on (triangle) 5, or (par. 7) xian shang gou gu he the sum of the base and height on the hypotenuse (of triangle) 13. In both cases, the expression underlined species that the quantity described is meant with reference to the triangle mentioned. The latter refers to triangle 13 by means of the mention of its hypotenuse. Other sides can be found instead (par. 9), as well as none, as is the case for the former example. Since these variations are not meaningful for the phenomena we concentrate on in this paper, we shall transcribe below any such link by the mark /. Now that we introduced the triangles that Li Ye distinguished on the drawing as well as the 13 quantities he attached to any rightangled triangle, we can turn to describing how he expressed formulas stating relationships between them.
THE BASIC INGREDIENTS FOR STATING FORMULAS

Expressing equality As mentioned above, formulas state an equality between quantities.13 Several types of formulation are used to express such a relation between these quantities. Some employ characters placed between the expressions referring to the equal quantities, such as the following ones:
13

The fact that Li Ye conceives of formulas as expressing equality between quantities can be seen from paragraph 24, when he states: Those equal to this quantity are the most numerous .

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Wei makes is taken as (par. 5; par. 2) De obtains (par. 6, par. 28) However, this character is also used to refer to multiplication (par. 3). Syntax makes clear which meaning is to be chosen according to the dierent cases. Ji then (par. 4) Ze then (par. 7) Nai is, is no other than (par. 22) The rst four characters can be found in texts from the Han dynasty such as The nine chapters on mathematical procedures, a canon compiled around the beginning of common era and the earliest mathematical book to have been handed down by the written tradition.14 However, in contrast to these earlier texts, there does not seem to be in Li Yes compendium an orientation of the formula, which, in The Nine chapters, the asymmetry in nature between the rst and the second members creates. More precisely, the earlier texts describe operations in procedures aiming at yielding the value of a magnitude sought-for in other terms: they provide algorithms. What comes before such particles is an operation or a list of operations. What is placed after them is a result. Even though it might be a complex magnitude such as a sum or a dierence, it is expressed in a compact way in a sense to be dened later. By contrast, we never nd after such a particle a list of operations comparable to what before the particle is given to yield the result. On the contrary, in the set of formulas provided by Li Ye that we describe, the two members that can be found before and after the particles listed above seem to be interchangeable. In particular, they can be both lists of operations, described in a compact way, and given by the formula to be equivalent. This fact is even clearer if we consider that many of Li Yes formulas consist in fact, not only of an equality, but of a sequence of equalities. Thus, what comes after such a particle becomes at the next step what was before the next particle. In fact, with what Li Ye describes in this chapter 1, we moved one step away from the algorithm and closer to present-day formulas. One of the points at stake in this paper is to devise linguistic means for dening this opposition further.
14

Note that these characters do not seem to be used in The Nine chapters in the same interchangeable fashion, as appears to be the case in this text by Li Ye. See the corresponding entries in my glossary, included in Chemla and Guo (2004).

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When the rst member of the formula refers to a subtraction, the term expressing the equality can be Yu remains (par. 70).15 This character can also be prexed to one of the former characters listed what above. One thus also nds expressions such as yu ji what remains makes (par. remains is then (par. 23), or yu wei what remains is then (par. 60). 24), or else yu ze Li Ye makes use even though more seldomly of a second family of expression for stating the equality between two quantities A and B: A B A yu B tong, which can be translated as A and B are equal (par. 70). Here, too, there does not seem to be an orientation of the formula, whereby members occurring in the position of A or B could be distinguished. After this survey of the means available for stating equalities, we are hence naturally led to turn our attention towards the expressions shaped by Li Ye to designate the two members that constitute formulas. They combine by means of the elementary operations addition, subtraction, and multiplication the 13 quantities attached in 13th century China to a right-angled triangle. Moreover, in Li Yes case, they do so with respect to the 13 triangles. How are these combinations between elementary quantities referred to? We can distinguish two fundamental schemes that are used to formulate the operations. The scheme xy* for expressing elementary operations According to this scheme, the expression referring to the operation is placed after the terms designating the entities on which it operates two or more. We shall call it the inverse Polish notation.16
15 In paragraph 71, Li Rui, who prepared the edition of the text at the end of the 18th century, makes clear that the document he had under his eyes contained this formulation. 16 Interestingly enough, in older texts such as The nine chapters on mathematical procedures, the prescription of operations can be formulated according to a Polish scheme, in which the term for the operation is prexed to the names of the quantities on which it operates. This type of expression, to be found only for addition, still occurs in the second part of Li Yes book, devoted to problems and algorithms solving them (Chemla, 1982, chapter 11, pp. 11.111.2). However, this scheme of description seems to have disappeared from Li Yes chapter 1, which we describe here. In correlation with this, it is interesting to note that we may have, with this chapter 1, the earliest known example of such a type of scientic text as a set of formulas in the mathematical literature in Chinese. A diachronic survey bearing on these various points seems to me to be much needed here, and I shall devote a future paper to this topic.

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It can be used for all three operations mentioned. Let us give here some occurrences for each of them. For each occurrence, we shall adopt the same presentation. After the number of the paragraph in which it can be found, we rst give the Chinese, then the pinyin. Thereafter we provide a general analysis of the structure of the formulation, in which the name of a triangle is replaced by T (or Ti, when several dierent triangles occur) and that of a quantity is replaced by Q or Qi, according to the cases. In the end, a transcription making use of the dierent notations we introduced above is provided. Li Ye uses such a scheme for stating multiplications, as in the following example: (par. 6) gao gu ping gou xiangcheng T1 Q1 T2 Q2 multiplication (1) b (2) a multiplied by each other This expression of the operation, xiangcheng multiplied by each other, is quite classical, in contrast to the next one, which, as far as I am aware, is not to be found in ancient texts: (par. 3) xu gou xu gu xiangde T Q1 T Q2 multiplication (11) a (11) b multiplied by each other The same scheme is also used for subtraction, as in the following examples: (par. 5) gao gu ping gou cha T1 Q1 T2 Q2 )c (1) b (2) a dierence The character cha has been used with this meaning and this syntax from at least the 3rd century CE,17 in contrast to the character jiao, which seems to have been employed with the same meaning and syntax from perhaps only the 11th century onwards. In any case, it is attested to in Li Yes following example:
17

See the entry cha in my glossary, (Chemla and Guo, 2004), pp. 906907.

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gao xian ping xian jiao T1 Q T2 Q )j (1) c (2) c dierence Another expression, xiangjian, is employed to refer to the subtraction according to the same syntax. It is attested to from at least The nine chapters onwards: (par. 27) gao xian ping xian xiangjian T1 Q T2 Q ) (1) c (2) c dierence (subtracted from one another) It should be stressed that all these expressions designate the result of the operation when subtracting the smallest quantity from the greatest one.18 Lastly, the same scheme is also found when referring to an addition. The most common term designating the summation in this case, gong, is not attested to with this meaning in the earliest known mathematical texts.19 In Li Yes set of formulas, it occurs regularly, as the following expression: (par. 8) tong gu ping xian gong T1 Q1 T2 Q2 + (13) b (2) c sum (par. 32) da cha shang da cha xiao cha shang da cha gong20
18 Such an expression as bian gou bian xian cha dierence between the base of triangle (7) and the hypotenuse of triangle (7) (par. 18), or as the standard designation of the dierence between height and hypotenuse in a right-angled triangle, attest to the fact that there are cases when the greatest quantity comes as the second term. 19 A further analysis would be needed to determine when it became part of mathematical terminology with this meaning. 20 Note that here, inserting the mark shang on between the name of the triangle and that of the quantity is essential to disambiguate the expression, since the name of the triangle, greatest dierence, is the same as the name of a quantity.

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T1 / Q T2 / Q + (5) greatest dierence (6) greatest dierence sum A variant of this formulation is regularly used, in which Li Ye inserts the particle yu and, with between the names of the two quantities to be added, as in the following example: (par. 20) da gu yu xiao cha gu gong21 T1 Q and T2 Q + (13) b and (6) b sum Note that, when being placed after the names of the quantities on which the operation is to be applied, gong can also be used to express the summation of three or four terms (par. 38; par. 51). Li Ye makes use of several other characters with the same syntactic pattern to refer (par. 18); to a summation. Among them, let us mention: bing (par. 23).22 Lastly, another mode of expression of the xiangbing sum can be considered as attached to this family of expression: the mere juxtaposition of the quantities added (par. 7).23 The analysis of the larger set of inverse Polish expressions for quantities clearly also accounts for the specic terminology adopted for designating the 13 quantities of a right-angled triangle. Would it be necessary to establish the relevance of this smaller set to the wider one, it would suce to recall that to designate the sum of two sides, Li Ye can indierently make use of either the specic term of he +s, which refers to the sum of sides belonging to the same triangle, or the general term for inverse Polish expressions, gong +, both with the same syntax. To complete our survey, it must be mentioned that in addition to multiplication, subtraction and addition, other operations make use
Here, as above, the use of the particle yu is essential to disambiguate the expression, since the name of the triangle following it, smallest dierence, could also be interpreted as the name of a quantity. In fact, the same particle can also be used between the terms of a multiplication (par. 6). 22 The last two terms are found in The nine chapters on mathematical procedures, see the corresponding entry in my glossary, included in Chemla and Guo (2004), pp. 903904. 23 This point is supported by the fact that such expressions for summations can be used to describe the terms of higher level operations. On how this comes in support of the statement, see the following section of this paper From algorithms to formulas.
21

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of the same type of syntax. This is the case of the operation of mi24 postxed after the name of a squaring: the character quantity Q produces an expression that refers to the square of Q. This is the case in the following example: (par. 6) jing mi Q2 diameter squared A side remark on these expressions will prove useful below. Such a formulation of the operation of squaring may create problems when the quantity prexed to mi is itself a multiple of the type n Q. The question may then arise to determine whether the multiplication by n comes after or before the squaring. In other terms, in case we have the sequence n Q square, should we interpret it as (nQ)2 or as n. Q2? In these circumstances modern mathematical language makes use of symbols like parenthesis to distinguish between the two cases. Interestingly enough, for such cases, Li Ye puts into play potentialities oered by the common language to disambiguate the expressions. In general he makes use of the character duan as a classier for names of areas. He does not seem to be using it in a systematic way when there is no ambiguity possible. However, precisely when problems such as the one just mentioned arise, he employs this classier in a systematic way to oppose the two cases. This is how one may account for the fact that he distinguishes quite clearly between two expressions as follows: (par. 6) ban jing mi (half Q)2 half-diameter squared and (par. 6) ban duan jing mi
24 On the use of the character mi in mathematical texts from the Han dynasty onwards, mainly in the commentaries on The nine chapters on mathematical procedures composed from the 3rd century onwards, see the corresponding entry in my glossary, included in Chemla and Guo (2004), pp. 959961.

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half classier Q2 half the squared diameter Li Ye thus brought into play the classier duan in such a way that it can play a part devoted to parentheses in another more modern mathematical language. Doing so, he leaves no room for doubt as to which interpretation should be chosen.25 In contrast to the family of expressions for elementary operations just examined, another set of expressions is used by Li Ye to formulate quantities forming members of formulas. This other set is characterized by an alternative common scheme, which can be represented by the formula: x*y. In other terms, for these expressions the name of the operation is placed between the terms referring to the quantities to which the operation is applied. Let us now describe them with more detail so as to be later on in a position where we can bring to light the articial dimension of the language used by Li Ye. The scheme x*y for expressing elementary operations All the elementary operations examined above can also be prescribed by means of such inx expressions. This is the case for the multiplication, with the character cheng multiply: (par. 6) xu gou cheng da gu T1 Q1 times T2 Q2 (11) a multiplied by (13) b This is also the case for addition. However, for the latter operation in such inx expressions, Li Ye makes use of several dierent terms. In the following example, the expression shang jia To. . .one adds is attested to: (par. 29) huangji gou shang jia ming xian T1 Q1 plus T2 Q2 To (12) a, one adds (9) c
In contrast to this, the commentaries on The nine chapters, mentioned above, use mi in comparable expressions that are ambiguous, see the entry referred to above. More on this below.
25

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Other terms can be found, such as : jia . . .added to. . ., one adds jia yu . . .is added to. . . (par. 31); de obtains to (par. 30); nei jia in . . . is added . . . (par. 31); jia ru . . ., (par. 30); being added, enters. . . (par. 31); ji with (par. 12, even though rarely). If the former three expressions are attested to in The nine chapters and their commentaries, the latter three ones seem to constitute later developments of mathematical language in China.26 A similar variety of terms is to be found for expressing subtraction according to an inx scheme. However, in this case the expressions used by Li Ye can be sorted out into two distinct sets, according to whether the rst term of the operation is to be subtracted from the second, or conversely. To the rst type, belong such expressions as nei jian from within . . . (rst term), one subtracts . . .(second term). It is illustrated by the following example: (par. 28) gao xian nei jian ming gu T1 Q1 minus T2 Q2 From within (1) c, one subtracts (9) b Other expressions, specic of Song-Yuan texts in this respect, can be used in the same way and with the same meaning, among which: on . . ., one subtracts, nei shao in . . ., one shang jian from within. . ., one eliminates. . ., bu ji lacks. . ., nei qu . . .do not reach. . . by. In contrast, the second type of expression prescribes that the rst term be subtracted from the second. This is the case with the following example, where the subtraction is referred to by the jian yu is subtracted from: expression (par. 27) gao xian jian yu tong gu T1 Q1 subtracted from T2 Q2 (1) c is subtracted from (1) b Interestingly enough, in the earliest mathematical texts handed down by the written tradition, The nine chapters and the commentaries composed on it, even though elements of the two sets of
26 See the corresponding entries in my glossary, (Chemla and Guo, 2004), p. 915 for de and p. 936 for jia.

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expressions are to be found, the character jian subtract is more often used alone and no means appear to have been developed yet to oppose the two types of prescription. As a result, as was the case for the inverse Polish notation examined above, only the context can tell which term is to be subtracted from which one.27 This betrays that an evolution must have taken place that resulted in formulating operations in ways that could be interpreted with less reliance on the context. We shall come back below to this point. What we developed in this section places us in a position from which to draw a conclusion that will prove important for our topic. After having examined how Li Ye referred to the elementary operations, according to whether he makes use of an inverse Polish formulation or an inx one, we can conclude that the terms used for the operations in these two cases form two distinct sets. In other terms, there is no word or expression that can be used for designating an operation according to both an inx and an inverse Polish formulation. This property, which does not hold for earlier texts such as The nine chapters or their commentaries,28 will prove to have extremely important consequences for Li Yes set of formulas, as we shall now show.
FROM ALGORITHMS TOWARDS FORMULAS: EMBEDDING EXPRESSIONS WITHIN EXPRESSIONS

One key dierence opposes Li Yes formulas to algorithms as found in most of the ancient Chinese mathematical texts from The nine chapters onwards. In contrast to algorithms that tend to describe (piece-wise) linear lists of operations, the terms of which are either data or quantities that were computed previously in the ow of operations, Li Yes formulas tend to provide for each member a tree-like description of the operations involved. In other words, each member of a formula consists of either an elementary quantity or the statement of an operation, the terms of which can be either elementary quantities or themselves the statement of an operation, and so on. What, in an algorithm, can take the form of the succession of various lists, becomes, in a formula, articulated within one and the same expression, where several levels are superposed on each other. Such an opposition would require further elaboration. However, we
27 28

See the entry for jian in my glossary, (Chemla and Guo, 2004), pp. 937938. The entries for jia add or bing sum up, in the glossary, show this point.

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shall limit ourselves here to observing how, in Li Yes formulas, such an articulation is expressed in members where terms of operations consist of quantities that are not elementary. Several levels within an Inverse Polish expression As we have seen above, all the elementary operations can be expressed according to an inverse Polish scheme. We nd among Li Yes formulas for each of these operations cases for which the operation bears on terms that are themselves the statement of operations. This holds true for multiplication in the following example: (par. 6) ming xian ming gu bing yu zhuan xian zhuan gou bing xiang cheng T1Q1 T1 Q2 + and T2 Q1 T2 Q3 + multiplication (9) c (9) b sum and (10) c (10) a sum multiplied by each other As we can see here the terms of the upper-level multiplication are sums that are themselves expressed according to an inverse Polish scheme. In fact this feature is shared by all such expressions. The following example, where the upper-level operation is a subtraction, also manifests this feature: (par. 7) gou yuan cha gu yuan cha jiao Q1 Q2 )c Q3 Q2 )c )j a d dierence b d dierence dierence The same holds true when the upper-level operation is a sum, as is exemplied by the next example: (par. 9) tong gou shang xian jiao jiao yu gao gu gong T1 /Q1 Q2 )j and T2 Q3 + (13) c )j )j and (1) b sum Several levels within an inx expression In case the upper-level operation is expressed according an inx scheme, the key point is that in fact the same rule holds: the

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lower-level operations that are yielding the terms of the overarching operation are always invariably formulated according to an inverse Polish expression. In other words, the only level for which a choice exists in the formulation is the upper one, the lower levels being always expressed in an inverse Polish way. Let us illustrate this rule with some examples selected so as to show this point for the various operations. Here is a case when, from a quantity, a sum is being subtracted: (par. 57) da cha xian nei jian ming he yu gao gu gong T1 Q1 minus T2Q2 and/with T3 Q3 + From within (5) c, one subtracts (9) +s and (1) b sum Note that, in this case, the rule ensures that the interpretation is unambiguous. If, indeed, the rule did not hold, the same expression could be read as the subtraction of T2Q2 from T1Q1, to the result of which the quantity T3Q3 would be added. This would be reading it as a linear list of operations, carried out in succession, rather than as a formula with a tree-like structure. The opposition between algorithm and formula manifests itself quite clearly here and its relation to the expressions of quantities we are discussing is patent. The following example shows another illustration of the rule, in a case when a sum is subtracted from a sum: (par. 10) tong gou tong gu nei shao ge29 xiao cha shang gou gu he T1 Q1 T1 Q2 + minus T2 /Q1 Q2 +s In (1) a (1) b sum, one lacks ((6)/a b sum) We also nd cases when, from within a quantity, a dierence is subtracted: (par. 59) da xian nei shao ge di gu da gou cha T1 Q1 minus T2 Q2 T1 Q3 )c In (13) c, one lacks ((8) b (13) a dierence)
29 A classier for lines is added after the expression of the dierence, which we mark by brackets in the transcription.

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As above, the expression of the upper-level subtraction is followed by a classier for lines. This is not always the case, and we mark this feature in the transcription, as above, by making use of parenthesis. Let us at last mention a case when a dierence is added: (par. 12) yi jing ji gao gou gao gu cha Once Q with T1 Q1 T1 Q2)c once d added to (1) a (1) b dierence An unambiguous language At this point, we can recapitulate some of the main features manifested by the language with which Li Ye states formulas. It makes use of two main modes for expressing operations on quantities: an inverse Polish scheme and an inx scheme. This opposition is already present in the way in which algorithms are described in The nine chapters. However, in Li Yes case, the expression of the formulas respects strict and specic rules regarding these two modes of expression. On the one hand, with respect to how to articulate these two modes, it is only at the upper level, in the description of the structured set of operations, that a choice is possible for the scheme according to which to formulate the operation. At lower levels the description must follow an inverse Polish formulation. We explained above how this feature could be correlated with the intention that the formulas be given in an unambiguous way. In any case it is this property of the formulation that provides it with its compacity and its tree-like structure: it betrays an evolution that is linked with the shift from algorithm to formula. Future research should attempt to grasp further the way in which this transformation took place. A rst step in this direction would be to describe more accurately, from this perspective, the formulation of algorithms in the earliest texts known as well as in the texts that are contemporary to Li Yes.30 On the other hand, the terms used for expressing an operation are strictly dierent, according to whether Li Ye opts for an inverse Polish or for an inx formulation. As we stressed above, this
30 In fact, the dierence between formula and algorithm can be grasped within Li Yes text, since in the second part of Sea-mirror of the circle measurements, one can nd mainly two types of algorithms (those for describing the method and those for describing the detail of the method).

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feature also marks an evolution with respect to the times when the earliest known texts were composed. In fact, it may also be related to the intention of stating formulas without ambiguity. Let us develop this suggestion on the basis of the example stated by Li Ye as follows: (par. 33) da cha xian shang jia yi jing T1Q1 plus once Q2 To (5) c, one adds once d In fact, if the term expressing the addition in an inx formulation was replaced by a term possibly used for the inverse Polish scheme, we would have * *da cha xian gong yi jing which could alternatively be interpreted as *Q1Q2 plus once Q2 (sum)31 or greatest dierence c sum once d (sum) It is hence clear that the two features of Li Yes language just highlighted contribute to the fact that the formulas stated can be interpreted without hesitation. Interestingly enough, we were led to the same conclusion when we analyzed the way in which Li Ye puts into play the classier for areas in order to combine squaring and the multiplication by a factor. In that case, another resource borrowed from the usual language was brought into play for discarding ambiguity: a specic use of the classier duan allowed distinguishing between two possible readings of the succession of a multiplication and a squaring. The key fact that we shall now bring to light is that the last two features are in fact articial. Two articial dimensions of Li Yes language The clearcut distinction between the sets of terms used for either an inverse Polish or an inx expression, on the one hand, and the specic use of the classier duan in the formulations just mentioned, on the other hand, can be shown to be both articial features specic to Li Yes description of formulas. They were established in
31

The juxtaposition could then be interpreted as an expression of the sum.

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opposition to the syntax of the written Chinese language of the time.32 Moreover, these features appear to have been elaborated in a given social group or tradition of mathematicians, as opposed to what other practitioners or social groups were doing. Both conclusions seem to be what should be deduced from the fact that none of these features holds true for the language used by another practitioner of mathematics who wrote in Southern China more or less at . the same time as Li Ye: Yang Hui Let us rst concentrate on the opposition between two sets of terms specialized for either one of the two ways of expressing operations. In his Detailed explanations of The nine chapters on mathe) composed matical methods (Xiangjie jiuzhang suanfa in 1261, Yang Hui presents a set of formulas concerning the rightangled triangle, in the shape of a table (p. 45a). To do so in the rst line of the table he lists the technical terminology he uses for stating the 13 quantities attached to a right-angled triangle. The terminology presented conforms to what we described above, except that he provides the expressions built with he sum and jiao dierence, according to an inverse Polish formulation, with no other variant. In particular, he does not mention any of the special terms used by Li Ye. What is of the utmost interest for us is the second line in which he provides explanations for these terms. It is within this context that to , literally base height explain expressions such as gou gu he , that is literally (specic) sum, Yang Hui writes gou gong gu base together with/sum height. This shows clearly that the particle gong in which we are interested could be used by a 13th century mathematician according to an inx formulation, within the context of a treatment of the right-angled triangle.33 As a consequence, by contrast it appears that the fact that Li Ye refrains from using gong in formulations conforming to such syntactical patterns most probably resulted from a decision linked to the shaping of a language appropriate for the statement of formulas. This development of the mathematical language may be attributed either to Li Ye or to practitionners of mathematics belonging to the same
I realized the rst point in 1987, when working with Alain Peyraube on the language used by Li Ye. Alain Peyraube showed to me that the use of gong sum only in inverse Polish expressions came from a restriction with respect to the possibilities of Chinese written language of the time. In fact, in his Zhu zi yulei , Zhu Xi employs also gong in expressions with an inx syntax. Our paper on this point is still in preparation. 33 Let us stress that, in the same text, Yang Hui makes use of both inx and inverse Polish formulations.
32

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group or the same tradition as he did. Maybe more evidence will allow us to decide over this issue in the future. For the time being let us stress that the articial feature of the language comes here from the fact that the possibilities oered by the usual language, i.e. the various possibilities for using gong, were narrowed down in relation to the shaping of a technical language. If we now turn to the second feature, that is the management of the description of a combination of multiplication by a factor and squaring, we come to the same conclusion. Within two neighboring columns (p. 54b), Yang Hui uses expressions like er gou mi twice base square and gou mi er duan base square two pieces. The former expression can be compared to the one without classier that in Li Yes text would be interpreted as the square of twice the base. By contrast the latter expression involves a classier. Even though in opposition to Li Yes expression, the number and classier are not placed before but after the quantity enumerated, i.e., the square of the base, the interpretation is the same in both texts: the expression refers to twice the square of the base. However, there is a key dierence between Yang Huis and Li Yes texts. Although the two expressions are attested in both texts, which means that they belong to the language of both authors, Yang Hui and Li Ye make two completely dierent uses of them. For Yang Hui both expressions refer to the same quantity: twice the square of the base, and he seems to use one or the other indierently. This may just be a matter of style. Moreover, nothing makes clear in the rst expression whether the squaring should be applied to twice the base or to the base alone. One needs to rely on the context to determine which interpretation is the right one. On the contrary, Li Ye apparently takes advantage of the existence of the two expressions to specify in an articial way for the sake of a technical use the reference to be attached to each: expressions of the type of the former will refer only to the square of the multiple of the base, whereas those of the same structure as the latter are used only to designate the multiple of the square of the base. In this case this is the point in which the articial character of the language lies. In other terms here again Yang Huis use of mathematical language reveals the elaboration of Li Yes way of describing formulas. It proves that the two types of expressions that Li Ye distinguishes existed and could be interpreted in the same way even in mathematical texts. Once more it is most probably a specic attention paid to the language with which to formulate formulas in an unambiguous

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way that led to designing the articial feature examined, whether this evolution is to be credited to Li Ye or, more generally took place in the social group or the tradition to which he belonged. To sum up, the syntax according to which in Sea-mirror of the circle-measurements Li Ye expresses formulas proves to be articial in at least two respects. First, Li Ye imposes restrictions on the use of certain terms, admitting only some of their possible grammatical constructions. These restrictions, which have mathematical consequences in that they prevent ambiguities from arising, seem to be specic to this context. Secondly, Li Ye makes use of a dierence in formulation in a way seemingly uncommon at his time, by assigning to each formulation a specic reference that it would not necessarily have for other contemporary mathematicians. In conclusion, apparently for the sake of mathematical practice, an articial language, or a sublanguage, was designed within the usual written language. However, its articial features are not signaled by the use of special symbols. They appear only if we observe the syntax of the expressions thus formed and specically the restrictions they disclose in contrast to other comparable writings. In our case, the comparison with Yang Huis book was essential to bring to light these articial features. Although this conclusion was reached on the basis of a particular example that of a book written in 13th century China the phenomenon brought to light seems to me to have a much greater validity: mathematics is always, and has always been, carried out with articial languages especially designed for carrying out mathematical activitiy. All these languages must be studied if we are to understand the full implication of such phenomena. In addition to synchronic comparison, however, this paper also outlined elements of a long-term diachronic analysis by focusing on the evolution of the description of such expressions. This topic certainly calls for further development. As was stressed above, if we compare Li Yes description of formulas to the formulation of algorithms as attested in The nine chapters and the commentaries on it, several facts bear witness to an evolution that seems to be linked to the necessities and the mutations of mathematical practice. On the one hand, some transformations can be interpreted as aiming to reduce ambiguity in the interpretation of lists of operations. This is the case of the changes analyzed with respect to the statement of subtractions. On the other hand, other mutations may be correlated to the emergence of such statements as formulas, as opposed to

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algorithms. Beyond the fact that the terminology for operations for both inx and Polish formulations changed, it appears that the opposition between the two modes of expression became sharper in some 13th century mathematical writings. Direct Polish formulations seem to have disappeared within the context of the statement of formulas, whereas they are still to be found in 13th century texts for the description of algorithms. These changes could hence have occurred in correlation with the shaping of such a text as a formula. How did the process of transition that led in China from algorithm to formula develop? How did the statement of formulas inherit from, and distance itself from, the description of an algorithm? The development of a long-term diachronic analysis promises to be quite fruitful in the further investigations of these questions.
REFERENCES

Primary Sources Li Ye , Ceyuan haijing , edition of the zhibuzu zhai congshu , prepared by Li Rui in 1798. Yang Hui , Detailed explanations of The nine chapters on mathematical methods (Xiangjie jiuzhang suanfa ), 1261. Edition Yijia tang congshu , prepared by Song Jingchang , 1842. Secondary Sources Chemla, K. (1982). Etude du livre Reets des mesures du cercle sur la mer de Li Ye, Ph. D. thesis in mathematics, University Paris XIII, 12-10-1982. Chemla, K. (1990). Du parallelisme entre enonces mathematiques; analyse dun formulaire redige en ` Chine au 13 siecle. Revue dhistoire des sciences, XLIII(1), 5780. Chemla, K. (1993). Li Ye Ce Yuan Hai Jing de jiegou ji qi dui shuxue zhishi de biaoshi , (The structures of Sea-mirror of circle-measurements by Li Ye and his expression of mathematical knowledge). Shuxueshi wenji (Collection of papers on the history of mathematics). 5, 123142 (in Chinese). Chemla, K. (2001). Variete des modes dutilisation des tu dans les textes mathematiques des Song et des Yuan. Preprint, Conference From Image to Action: The Function of Tu-Representations in East Asian Intellectual Culture, Paris, September 35, 2001. The preprint is published at the address http://halshs.ccsd.cnrs.fr/ halshs-00000103. A revised version is in preparation. Chemla, K. & Guo, Shuchun (2004). Les Neuf chapitres. Le Classique mathematique de la Chine ancienne et ses commentaires. Paris: Dunod. Hoe, J. (1977). Les syste`mes dequations polynomes dans le Siyuan Yujian (1303), Memoires de lInstitut des Hautes Etudes Chinoises, no. VI, 346 pp. Kong Guoping (1988). Li Ye zhuan (Li Yes biography), Hebei jiaoyu chubanshe.

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Mei Rongzhao (1966). Li Ye ji qi shuxue zhuzuo (Li Ye and his mathematical writings). Qian Baocong et al. (eds.), Song Yuan Shuxueshi In [ Lunwenji (Collected papers on the history of mathematics during the Song-Yuan dynasties), Beijing: Kexue chubanshe, (pp. 10448).

REHSEIS, CNRS-University Paris 7, 3 square Bolivar 75019 Paris France E-mail: chemla@paris7.jussieu.fr