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ZHU Shijie

Life

Very little is known of Zhu Shijie's life. The main primary sources are the prefaces to his two extant works; and the supplement to the Chouren zhuan: Biographies of mathematicians and astronomers, compiled by Ruan Yuan in the 18th century.

Sources in English include articles by Ho Peng Yoke, E.M. Konantz and Lam Lay Yong

We do not even know when he was born or died. We know only that his two extant works were published in 1299 and 1303, in the first years of the Yuan dynasty. According to the prefaces, he was a teacher who travelled about the region of Yanjing, and to whom students flocked in large numbers.

Works

Only two works by Zhu Shijie are extant:

Suanxue qimeng Ëã ѧ Æô ÃÉ Introduction to computation (1299)
Siyuan yujian ËÄ Ôª Óñ ¼ø The jade mirror of the four unknowns (1303)

 


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This page last revised: 18th December, 2000

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