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Wu Jing (mathematician)

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Wu Jing
吳敬
Born
NationalityMing
Occupation(s)Accountant, mathematician, writer
Notable workJiuzhang Suanfa Bilei Daquan (1450)

Wu Jing (Chinese: 吳敬; pinyin: Wú Jìng; Wade–Giles: Wu Ching, fl. 15th century), courtesy name Xinmin (信民), art name Zhu Yi Weng (主一翁), was a Chinese accountant, mathematician, and writer of the Ming dynasty who in 1450 published the arithmetic treatise Jiuzhang Suanfa Bilei Daquan (九章算法比類大全, "Complete Description of the Nine Chapters on Arithmetical Techniques").[1]

Life

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According to the 1488 foreword to Wu Jing's book written by Xiang Qi (項麒), a Ministry of Justice administrator who also hailed from Renhe (仁和, modern Hangzhou), Wu apparently worked as an accountant for several local officials and had a hand on the census, land surveys, and taxations of Zhejiang province.[2]

Work

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Jiuzhang Suanfa Bilei Daquan originally contained nine chapters excluding the "table of contents" chapter. After a fire destroyed many printing woodblocks, Wu Jing's grandson Wu Ne (吳訥) added some materials as he prepared the manuscript for re-printing. Currently, there are at least four extant copies from the Ming dynasty, housed separately in four libraries in Beijing and Shanghai.[3]

Every chapter begins with a topic from an "ancient" mathematical book, followed by Wu Jing's explanation of how real-life problems are solved with arithmetics.[4] For example, in the first chapter, "Land" (方田), Wu described how to approximate land areas of different shapes and included 214 problems.[5]

Reception

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Because he was concerned with real-life problems, Wu Jing often preferred approximations over exact solutions.[6] The Ming-period mathematician Cheng Dawei criticized Wu's work as "disorganized and containing numerous mistakes" in his Suanfa tongzong (1592). The Qing-period scholar Mei Wending, however, considered Wu's work superior to Suanfa tongzong.[7]

Wu did not come up with new ways of solving older problems; he did, however, invent new methods of using the abacus.[8] He also proposed using colors and visualization to solve math (especially geometric) problems, which may have influenced Chinese cartography.[9]

The modern mathematician Qian Baocong noticed several identical arithmetic methods in Wu's work and the slightly later Treviso Arithmetic (1478).[10]

References

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  1. ^ O'Connor, J J; Robertson, E F (December 2003). "Overview of Chinese mathematics". MacTutor History of Mathematics archive. Retrieved 19 March 2021.
  2. ^ Lao 1999, p. 330.
  3. ^ Lao 1999, p. 331–332.
  4. ^ Lao 1999, p. 332.
  5. ^ Lao 1999, p. 335.
  6. ^ Lao 1999, p. 335.
  7. ^ Lao 1999, p. 337.
  8. ^ Lao 1999, p. 337–344.
  9. ^ Lao 1999, p. 336–337.
  10. ^ Lao 1999, p. 344–345.
  • Lao Hansheng (劳汉生) (1999). "吴敬《九章算法比类大全》" [Wu Jing's Jiuzhang Suanfa Bilei Daquan]. In Li Di (李迪) (ed.). 中国数学史大系,第六卷:西夏金元明 [Compendium of the History of Chinese Mathematics, Volume Six: Western Xia, Jin, Yuan, and Ming] (in Chinese). Beijing Normal University Press. pp. 330–345. ISBN 7-303-04927-4.