Suàn shù shū
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The Suàn shù shū (算數書) or writings on reckoning is the earliest known Chinese mathematical text, which dates from around 186 BC.
The text was found in tomb 247 of the burial grounds near Zhangjiashan in Hubei provience which was excavated in 1983. This tomb belonged to an anonymous civil servant. In the tomb were 1200 bamboo strips written in ink. Originally the strips were bound together with string, but the string had rotten away and it took Chinese scholars 17 years to piece together the strips. As well as the mathematical work the strips covered government statutes, law reports and therapeutic gymnastics.
The Suàn shù shū consists of 190 strips of bamboo written in ink. They consist of 69 mathematical problems from a variety of sources, two of the authors were Mr Wáng and Mr Yáng. Each problem has a question, answer and a method. The problems cover elementary arithmetic; fractions; geometric progressions, in particular interest rate calculations and handelling of errors; conversion between different units; the false position method for finding roots and the extraction of approximate square roots; calculation of the volume of various 3-dimensional shapes; relative dimensions of a square and its inscribed circle; Calculation of unknown side of rectangle, given area and one side. All the calculations involving circles are approximate, equivalent to taking π = 3.
Prior to discovery the oldest Chinese mathematical text was the The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art which dates from around 100 CE. Many topics are covered in both texts, however, error correction problems only appear in the Suàn shù shū, and the last two chapter of the nine chapters have no corresponding material in the Suàn shù shū.
The text has been translated to English by Christopher Cullen director of the Needham Research Institute.
[edit] References
- Christopher Cullen, The Suàn shù shū Image, “Writings on reckoning”: Rewriting the history of early Chinese mathematics in the light of an excavated manuscript, Historia Mathematica, in Press (2006).[1]
- Stephanie Pain, Histories: China's oldest mathematical puzzles, New Scientist, 30 July 2006. [2]
- Péng Hào, Zhāngjiāshān Hànjiǎn "Suàn shù shū" zhùshì (The Hàn dynasty book on wooden strips "Suàn shù shū" found at Zhāngjiāshān with a commentary and explanation) Beijing, Science Press, (2001).
