- CHINA 29
claims the authority to rule Taiwan. The American mathematician Walter Feit
(1930-2004) visited China in May 1976 and reported that there was a heavy em-
phasis on combining mathematical theory with practice to solve social problems
(Feit, 1977). At first zealous in adhering to the Maoist version of Marxism, the
Chinese Communist Party undertook major reforms during the 1990s and has been
moving in the direction of a more market-driven economy since then, although
democracy seems to be slow in arriving. China is now engaged in extensive cul-
tural and commercial exchanges with countries all over the world and hosted the
International Congress of Mathematicians in 2002. Its mathematicians have made
outstanding contributions to the advancement of mathematics, and Chinese stu-
dents are eagerly welcomed at universities in nearly every country.
3.1. Works and authors. Mathematics became a recognized and respected area
of intellectual endeavor in China more than 2000 years ago. That its origins are at
least that old is established by the existence of books on mathematics, at least one
of which was probably written before the order of the Emperor Shih Huang Ti in
213 BCE that all books be burned.^7 A few books survived or were reconstituted
after the brief reign of Shih Huang-Ti, among them the mathematical classic just
alluded to. This work and three later ones now exist in English translation, with
commentaries to provide the proper context for readers who are unfamiliar with the
history and language of China. Under the Tang dynasty a standardized educational
system came into place for the training of civil servants, based on literary and scien-
tific classics, and the works listed below became part of a mathematical curriculum
known as the Suan Jing Shishu (Ten Canonical Mathematical Classics—there are
actually 12 of them). Throughout this long period mathematics was cultivated to-
gether with astronomy both as an art form and for their practical application in the
problem of obtaining an accurate lunisolar calendar. In addition, many problems
of commercial arithmetic appear in the classic works.
The Zhou Bi Suan Jing. The early treatise mentioned above, the Zhou Bi Suan
Jing, has been known in English as the Arithmetic Classic of the Gnomon and the
Circular Paths of Heaven. A recent, very thorough study and English translation
has been carried out by Christopher Cullen of the University of London (1996).
According to Cullen, the title Zhou Bi could be rendered as The Gnomon of the
Zhou. The phrase suan jing occurs in the titles of several early mathematical
works; it means mathematical treatise or mathematical manual. According to a
tradition, the Zhou Bi Suan Jing was written during the Western Zhou dynasty,
which overthrew the earlier Shang dynasty around 1025 BCE and lasted until 771
BCE. Experts now believe, however, that the present text was put together during
the Western Han dynasty, during the first century BCE, and that the commentator
Zhao Shuang, who wrote the version we now have, lived during the third century
CE, after the fall of the Han dynasty. However, the astronomical information in
the book could only have been obtained over many centuries of observation, and
therefore must be much earlier than the writing of the treatise.
As the traditional title shows, the work is concerned with astronomy and sur-
veying. The study of astronomy was probably regarded as socially useful in two
ways: (1) It helped to regulate the calendar, a matter of great importance when
rituals were to be performed; (2) it provided a method of divination (astrology),(^7) The Emperor was not hostile to learning, since he did not forbid the writing of books. Appar-
ently, he just wanted to be remembered as the emperor in whose reign everything began.