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iCHSTM 2013 Programme • Version 5.3.6, 27 July 2013 • ONLINE (includes late changes)
Index | Paper sessions timetable | Lunch and evening timetable | Main site |
There are similarities and differences, in both form and content, between the Suanshushu and the Shu, the bamboo texts of Chinese mathematics in Qin-Han period. For one thing they were written or copied by low officials for their own administrative purpose. Moreover, in light of the Jiuzhang suanshu, both texts covered no topic like Fangcheng. And since the texts were written on the bamboo slip they look very similar in terms of the format. On the other hand, the Suanshushu contained no problems like that of the Gou-Gu method, which, on the contrary, were included in the Shu. In addition, while the classificatory terms for algorithms / formulas in the texts are also very similar, their sharing in the content is not of the same proportion. For example, problems devoted to area calculation in both texts are strikingly different. The Suanshushu contained only one problem under the title of Fang-Tian, which was actually a Shao-Guang problem and virtually solved by the Yin-Bu-Zu method. By contrast, the Shu collected as many as ten examples for the Fang-Tian method. Given these features in both the texts, this talk will be devoted to explaining their mathematical practice in the Qin-Han period. And the method of comparative history will be used in order to better understand the contextual meaning of the Qin-Han bamboo texts of mathematics.