HISTORY OF MATHEMATICS

Ancient and Medieval China

Created by :

o Rosmawati Zakia (12313244003)

o Ummu Hajar Dwi Jayanti (12313244013)
o Fattah Aji Prakoso (12313244022)

International Mathematics Education 2012

FAKULTAS MATEMATIKA DAN ILMU PENGETAHUAN ALAM

UNIVERSITAS NEGERI YOGYAKARTA
2015/2016
7.1 INTRODUCTION TO MATHEMATICS IN CHINA

Chinese mathematics started was different when compared with other parts of the world, so it
was quite reasonable when considered as the result of an independent development. Writing
mathematics was considered the oldest of the Chinese is Chou Pei Suan Ching numbered years
between 1200 BC and 100 BC, although the figure 300 BC also quite reasonable.The oldest
well-preserved works on geometry in China come from the canonical rules mohism philosophy
about the year 330 BC, compiled by the disciples of Mozi (470-390 BCE). Mo Jing explained
various aspects related to physics, and also provide a wealth of information a little math. In 212
BC, Emperor Qin Shi Huang (Shi Huang-ti) ordered all the books in the Qin Empire other than
officially acknowledged by the government that should be burned. This decree was ignored in
general, but the result of this command was so little information about ancient Chinese
mathematics that preserved from the era before it. After the burning of the book in the year 212
BC, the Han Dynasty (202 BC-220 AD) produced works of mathematics perhaps as an
extension of the works that was now gone. Most important of all is the Nine Chapters on the
Mathematical Art, the full title of which emerged from the year 179 AD, but form part under a
different title. It consists of 246 questions involving the word agriculture, commerce,
construction geometry that describes the range of heights and comparison dimension for
Chinese pagoda towers, engineering, surveying, and materials right-angled triangles and π. He
also uses the principle of Cavalieri on volume of more than a thousand years before Cavalieri
present it in the West. He created a mathematical proof for the Pythagorean theorem, and the
mathematical formula for Gaussian elimination. Liu Hui commented on this work in the 3rd
century AD.

7.2 CALCULATIONS

From earliest recorded times, the Chinese used a base-10 system of numbers. But the forms
of the numbers and the mode of representation changed over the years.
 To represent numbers greater than 10, the rods were set up in columns with the
rightmost column holding the units, the next the tens, the next the hundreds, and so on. A
blank column in a given arrangement represented a zero. To help one read the numbers easily,
the two arrangements of rods were alternated. The vertical arrangement was used in the units
column, the hundreds column, the ten thousands column, and so on, while the horizontal

arrangement was used in the other columns. Thus, 1156 was represented by and

6083 by

7.2.1 Number Symbols and Fractions

The Chinese of the Shang dynasty used a multiplicative system of writing numbers, based on
powers of 10. That is, they developed symbols for the numbers 1 through 9 as well as for each
of the powers of 10.

Example:

Things become special note of the use of Chinese mathematics is the decimal positional
notation system, also called the "numbers rod" in which different codes are used for
numbers between 1 and 10, and other ciphers as powers of ten. Thus, the number 123 is
written using the symbol for "1", followed by the symbol for "100", then the symbol for
"2" followed by the symbol for "10", followed by the symbol for "3". In this way, the
number of the most advanced systems in the world at that time, may be used several
centuries before the period BC, and certainly before the development of the Indian number
system. Numbers rod allows the presentation of the desired number and allow calculations
performed in the suan pan, or (Chinese abacus).

7.3 GEOMETRY

Chinese geometry was generally practical, but in certain cases Chinese mathematicians
developed important theoretical principles to enable difficult problems to be solved.
7.3.1 Areas and Volumes
The Chinese developed numerous formulas for calculating the areas and volumes of
geometrical figures. Many of them are standard formulas, such as those for the areas of
rectangles and triangles or for the volume of parallelepipeds.
Example :
  There is a round field whose circumference is 181 yards and whose diameter is 60 1/3
yards. What is the area of the field? Answer: 2730 1/12 square yards.
Chinese scribe stated not one but four separate formulas by which the calculation of area could
be made:
1. The rule is: Half of the circumference and half of the diameter are multiplied together
to give the area.
2. Another rule is: The circumference and the diameter are multiplied together, then the
result is divided by 4.
3. Another rule is: The diameter is multiplied by itself. Multiply the result by 3 and then
divide by 4.
4. Another rule is: The circumference is multiplied by itself. Then divide the result by 12.
Of course, given that π is taken to be 3, all of the formulas are equivalent. We also note that it
is the fourth rule that is the same as the usual Babylonian rule. On the other hand, Liu Hui, in
his own commentary, noted that the value “3” for the ratio of circumference to diameter must
be incorrect. He did it in the context of the area situation, where the Chinese formula for the
area of a circle of radius 1 is 3, but where he could easily calculate that the area of a regular
dodecagon inscribed in that circle is also 3. We can describe Lui’s argument by looking at an
inscribed regular n-gon in a circle of radius r.

𝑐 2 𝑐 2
𝑎𝑛 = √𝑟 2 − ( 2𝑛 ) and 𝑐2𝑛 = √( 2𝑛) + (𝑟 − 𝑎𝑛 )2
Then

1 𝑐𝑛 1
𝑠2𝑛 = 2𝑛 𝑟 = 𝑛𝑟𝑐𝑛
22 2
Liu calculated S2n for n = 96 in the case of r = 10 to be 314 64/625 , equivalent to a value for
π of 3.141024, and then noted that it is “convenient” to take 3.14 as an approximation to π and
neglect the fractional part.
7.3.2 The Pythagorean Theorem and Surveying
The Nine Chapters and other ancient Chinese documents assume known the Pythagorean
Theorem.
Zhao Shuang’s argument is as follows:
The base and altitude are each multiplied by themselves. Add to make the hypotenuse area.
Take the square root, and this is the hypotenuse. In accordance with the hypotenuse
diagram, you may further multiply the base and altitude together to make two of the red
areas. Double this to make four of the red areas. Multiply the difference of the base and the
altitude by itself to make the central yellow area. If one [such] difference area is added [to
the four red areas], the hypotenuse area is completed.
In essence, Zhao seems to be arguing that

𝑐 2 = 𝑎2 + 𝑏2 = (𝑎 − 𝑏)2 + 2𝑎𝑏.

7.4 SOLVING EQUATIONS

The Chinese used two basic algorithms to solve systems of linear equations. For equations of
higher degree, they developed various procedures for solving them numerically.
7.4.1 Systems of Linear Equations
The first method, used chiefly for solving problems we would translate into systems of two
equations in two unknowns, is called the method of surplus and deficiency. The methodology,
today called the method of “double false position,” begins with the “guessing” of possible
solutions and concludes by adjusting the guess to get the correct solution. Its use showed that
the Chinese understood the concept of a linear relationship.
Example:
 The price of 1 acre of good land is 300 pieces of gold; the price of 7 acres of bad land
is 500. One has purchased altogether 100 acres; the price was 10,000. How much good
land was bought and how much bad? A modern translation of this problem would be as
a system of two equations in two unknowns:
𝑥 + 𝑦 = 100
500
300𝑥 + 𝑥 = 10.000
7
 The Chinese rule for the solution states: “Suppose there are 20 acres of good land and
2
80 of bad. Then the surplus is 1714 7. If there are 10 acres of good land and 90 of bad,
3
the deficiency is 571 7.” The solution procedure, as explained by the Chinese author, is
3 2
then to multiply 20 by 571 7, 10 by 1714 7, add the products, and finally divide this
2 3 1
sum by the sum of 1714 7 and 571 7. The result, 12 2 acres, is the amount of good land.
1
The amount of bad land, 87 acres, is then easily found.
2

The author did not explain howhe arrived at his algorithm, an algorithm thatwas to turn up in
the Islamic world and then in western Europe over a thousand years later. We can express the
algorithm by the formula
𝑏1 𝑥2 + 𝑏2 𝑥1
𝑥=
𝑏1 + 𝑏2
where b1 is the surplus determined by the guess x1 and b2 is the deficiency determined by the
guess x2. One conjecture as to how this algorithm was found begins by noting that the change
from the correct but unknown x to the guessed value 20 involves a change in the value of the
2
“function” 300x + (500/7)y of 1714 7 , while a change from 10 to x involves a change in the
3
function value of 571 7. Since linearity implies that the ratios of each pair of changes are

equal, we derive the proportion

20 − 𝑥 𝑥 − 10
=
2 3
1714 7 571 7

or in general case,
 𝑥1 − 𝑥 𝑥 − 𝑥2
=
𝑏1 𝑏2
A second method of solving systems of linear equations, again by presenting various examples
with slightly different twists. In this case, however, the modern methods are no simpler. In fact,
the Chinese solution procedure is virtually identical to the method of Gaussian elimination and
is presented in matrix form on a counting board.
Example :
 “There are three classes of grain, of which three bundles of the first class, two of the
second, and one of the third make 39 measures. Two of the first, three of the second,
and one of the third make 34 measures. And one of the first, two of the second, and
three of the third make 26 measures. How many measures of grain are contained in one
bundle of each class?” The problem can be translated into modern terms as the system
3x + 2y + z = 39
2x + 3y + z = 34
x + 2y + 3z = 26.
The algorithm for the solution is then stated: “Arrange the 3, 2, and 1 bundles of the three
classes and the 39 measures of their grains at the right. Arrange other conditions at the middle
and at the left.” This arrangement is presented in the diagram below:
1 2 3
2 3 2
3 1 1
26 34 39
The text continues: “With the first class on the right column multiply currently the middle
column and directly leave out.” This means to multiply the middle column by 3 (the first class
on the right) and then subtract off a multiple (in this case, 2) of the right-hand column so that
the first number in the middle column becomes 0. The same operation is then performed with
respect to the left column. The results are presented as follows:
1 0 3 0 0 3
2 5 2 4 5 2
3 1 1 8 1 1
26 24 39 39 24 39
“Then with what remains of the second class in the middle column, directly leave out.” That
is, perform the same operations using the middle column and the left column. The result is
given below:
 0 0 3
0 5 2
36 1 1
99 24 39
Because this diagram is equivalent to the triangular system
3x + 2y + z = 39
5y + z = 24
36z = 99,
the author explained how to solve that system by what is today called “back substitution,”
3
beginning with z = 99/36 = 2 4.

7.4.2 Qin Jiushao and Polynomial Equations

It was in the mid-eleventh century that Jia Xian in a work now lost, both generalized the square
and cube root procedures of the Nine Chapters to higher roots by using the array of numbers
known today as the Pascal triangle and extended and improved the method into one usable for
solving polynomial equations of any degree. Jia Xian’s methods are discussed in a work of
Yang Hui written about 1261.

7. 5 INDETERMINATE ANALYSIS
Calendrical problems apparently led the Chinese mathematicians to the question of solving
systems of indeterminate linear equations. For example, the Chinese assumed that at a certain
point in time, the Shang yuan, there occurred simultaneously the beginning of the 60-day cycle
used in Chinese dating, the winter solstice, and the new moon. If in a certain other year, the
winter solstice occurred r days into a 60-day cycle and s days after the new moon, then that
year was N years after Shang yuan, where N satisfied the simultaneous congruences
aN ≡ r (mod 60) and aN ≡ s (mod b),
where a is the number of days in the year and b is the number of days from new moon to new
moon. In the extant records of ancient calendars, however, there is no indication as to how the
Chinese astronomers solved such problems.

7.6 TRANSMISSION TO AND FROM CHINA

Not much is known about the possible transmission of mathematical ideas between China and
other cultures before the sixteenth century. All that is known is that there are certain similarities
in techniques in the mathematics of China, India, Europe, and the Islamic world.
For example, the Chinese essentially used a decimal place value system on their counting board
and even represented an empty place by a dot by the seventh century. But whether the Chinese
system influenced the Indian development of our modern decimal place value system is not
known. Similarly, Indian mathematicians used a technique involving the Euclidean algorithm
to solve simultaneous congruences, while Islamic mathematicians used a technique related to
Horner’s method to solve polynomial equations numerically. Similarly, Europeans eventually
discovered a method of solving the Chinese remainder problem fully equivalent to Qin’s
method, although it took many years to prove that this method worked in the case where the
moduli are not relatively prime in pairs. However, in all these cases, there are sufficient
differences in detail to rule out direct copying from one civilization to the other. Whether the
ideas traveled, however, is much more difficult to answer.
At the end of the sixteenth century, the Jesuit priest Mateo Ricci (1552–1610) came to China
(Fig. 7.20). Ricci and one of his Chinese students, Xu Guangqi (1562–1633), translated the
first six books of Euclid’s Elements into Chinese in 1607. And although it took many years for
the Chinese to understand that the form and content of Euclidean geometry were inseparable
(toWestern minds, at least), nevertheless from this time period forward,Western mathematics
began to enter China and the indigenous mathematics began to disappear.