Astronomy and Calendars – The Other Chinese Mathematics

Astronomy and Calendars – The Other Chinese Mathematics PDF Author: Jean-Claude Martzloff
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3662497182
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 471

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Book Description
Presented from the viewpoint of the history of mathematics, this book explores both epistemological aspects of Chinese traditional mathematical astronomy and lunisolar calendrical calculations. The following issues are addressed: (1) connections with non-Chinese cultural areas; (2) the possibility or impossibility of using mathematics to predict astronomical phenomena, a question that was constantly raised by the Chinese from antiquity through medieval times; (3) the modes of representation of numbers, and in particular the zero, found in the context of Chinese calendrical calculations; and (4) a detailed analysis of lunisolar calendrical calculations. Fully worked-out examples and comparisons between the results of calculations and the content of Chinese historical calendars from various periods are provided. Traditional Chinese calendrical and mathematical astronomy consists of permanently reformed mathematical procedures designed to predict, but not explain, phenomena pertaining to astronomy and related areas. Yet, despite appearances, models of the mathematical techniques hidden behind this voluminous corpus reveal that they depend on a limited number of clear-cut mathematical structures. Although only a small fraction of these techniques have been fully studied, what is known surprisingly broadens our knowledge of the history of Chinese mathematics. Sinologists interested in the history of Chinese science, and anyone interested in the history of Chinese mathematics, the Chinese calendar, and the history of Chinese mathematical astronomy from its origin (104 BC) to its European reform (AD 1644) will find this book very useful. The present English language edition is a fully revised and updated version of the French original. Even though this is a research monograph in sinology, no particular sinological background is required, although a basic understanding of ‘concrete mathematics’ is needed. From the reviews of the French edition: This is a demanding, rigorous book to read ... worth the concentrated study it requires. The rewards are not only in the details but in the general overview that ...[it] provides. Joseph Dauben, EASTM, 2011 ...first Work in a Western language to turn to for anyone interested in the details of Chinese calendrical computations. Benno Van Dalen, ISIS, 2011 Martzloff’s careful scholarship and his overall look at the calendar beyond astronomical calculations, ..., make this book a most valuable contributions to a field of increasing interest. U. D’Ambrosio, Mathematical Reviews, 2013

Astronomy and Calendars – The Other Chinese Mathematics

Astronomy and Calendars – The Other Chinese Mathematics PDF Author: Jean-Claude Martzloff
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3662497182
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 471

Get Book

Book Description
Presented from the viewpoint of the history of mathematics, this book explores both epistemological aspects of Chinese traditional mathematical astronomy and lunisolar calendrical calculations. The following issues are addressed: (1) connections with non-Chinese cultural areas; (2) the possibility or impossibility of using mathematics to predict astronomical phenomena, a question that was constantly raised by the Chinese from antiquity through medieval times; (3) the modes of representation of numbers, and in particular the zero, found in the context of Chinese calendrical calculations; and (4) a detailed analysis of lunisolar calendrical calculations. Fully worked-out examples and comparisons between the results of calculations and the content of Chinese historical calendars from various periods are provided. Traditional Chinese calendrical and mathematical astronomy consists of permanently reformed mathematical procedures designed to predict, but not explain, phenomena pertaining to astronomy and related areas. Yet, despite appearances, models of the mathematical techniques hidden behind this voluminous corpus reveal that they depend on a limited number of clear-cut mathematical structures. Although only a small fraction of these techniques have been fully studied, what is known surprisingly broadens our knowledge of the history of Chinese mathematics. Sinologists interested in the history of Chinese science, and anyone interested in the history of Chinese mathematics, the Chinese calendar, and the history of Chinese mathematical astronomy from its origin (104 BC) to its European reform (AD 1644) will find this book very useful. The present English language edition is a fully revised and updated version of the French original. Even though this is a research monograph in sinology, no particular sinological background is required, although a basic understanding of ‘concrete mathematics’ is needed. From the reviews of the French edition: This is a demanding, rigorous book to read ... worth the concentrated study it requires. The rewards are not only in the details but in the general overview that ...[it] provides. Joseph Dauben, EASTM, 2011 ...first Work in a Western language to turn to for anyone interested in the details of Chinese calendrical computations. Benno Van Dalen, ISIS, 2011 Martzloff’s careful scholarship and his overall look at the calendar beyond astronomical calculations, ..., make this book a most valuable contributions to a field of increasing interest. U. D’Ambrosio, Mathematical Reviews, 2013

Li, Qi and Shu

Li, Qi and Shu PDF Author: Peng Yoke Ho
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 9780486414454
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
Fascinating introduction to traditional Chinese concepts of li, qi, shu, yin, yang, wuxing, and yijing. Other topics covered: Chinese mathematics, astronomy and astrology, alchemy, magic, elixirs, and the search for immortality.

Granting the Seasons

Granting the Seasons PDF Author: Nathan Sivin
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 0387789561
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 663

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Book Description
China’s most sophisticated system of computational astronomy was created for a Mongol emperor who could neither read nor write Chinese, to celebrate victory over China after forty years of devastating war. This book explains how and why, and reconstructs the observatory and the science that made it possible. For two thousand years, a fundamental ritual of government was the emperor’s “granting the seasons” to his people at the New Year by issuing an almanac containing an accurate lunisolar calendar. The high point of this tradition was the “Season-granting system” (Shou-shih li, 1280). Its treatise records detailed instructions for computing eclipses of the sun and moon and motions of the planets, based on a rich archive of observations, some ancient and some new. Sivin, the West’s leading scholar of the Chinese sciences, not only recreates the project’s cultural, political, bureaucratic, and personal dimensions, but translates the extensive treatise and explains every procedure in minimally technical language. The book contains many tables, illustrations, and aids to reference. It is clearly written for anyone who wants to understand the fundamental role of science in Chinese history. There is no comparable study of state science in any other early civilization.

Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China

Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China PDF Author: Christopher Cullen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521035378
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This is a study and translation of the Zhou bi suan jing, a Chinese work on astronomy and mathematics that reached its final form around the first century AD. The author provides the first easily accessible introduction to the developing mathematical and observational practices of ancient Chinese astronomers and shows how the generation and validation of knowledge about the heavens in Han dynasty China related closely to developments in statecraft and politics. This book will be fascinating reading for scholars in the history of science, Chinese history, and astronomy.

Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China

Astronomy and Mathematics in Ancient China PDF Author: Christopher Cullen
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521550890
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
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Heavenly Numbers

Heavenly Numbers PDF Author: Christopher Cullen
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198733119
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 441

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Book Description
This book is a history of the development of mathematical astronomy in China, from the late third century BCE, to the early 3rd century CE - a period often referred to as 'early imperial China'. It narrates the changes in ways of understanding the movements of the heavens and the heavenly bodies that took place during those four and a half centuries, and tells the stories of the institutions and individuals involved in those changes. It gives clear explanations of technical practice in observation, instrumentation, and calculation, and the steady accumulation of data over many years - but it centres on the activity of the individual human beings who observed the heavens, recorded what they saw, and made calculations to analyse and eventually make predictions about the motions of the celestial bodies. It is these individuals, their observations, their calculations, and the words they left to us that provide the narrative thread that runs through this work. Throughout the book, the author gives clear translations of original material that allow the reader direct access to what the people in this book said about themselves and what they tried to do.

A History of Chinese Mathematics

A History of Chinese Mathematics PDF Author: Jean-Claude Martzloff
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3540337830
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 491

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Book Description
This book is made up of two parts, the first devoted to general, historical and cultural background, and the second to the development of each subdiscipline that together comprise Chinese mathematics. The book is uniquely accessible, both as a topical reference work, and also as an overview that can be read and reread at many levels of sophistication by both sinologists and mathematicians alike.

Science and Civilisation in China: Mathematics and the sciences of the heavens and the earth

Science and Civilisation in China: Mathematics and the sciences of the heavens and the earth PDF Author: Joseph Needham
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : China
Languages : en
Pages : 1030

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Book Description


Handbook of the History and Philosophy of Mathematical Practice

Handbook of the History and Philosophy of Mathematical Practice PDF Author: Bharath Sriraman
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3031408462
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 3221

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Book Description


Chinese Mathematical Astrology

Chinese Mathematical Astrology PDF Author: Ho Peng Yoke
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 113443068X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Though there are a number of well-written works on Chinese divination, there are none that deal with the three sophisticated devices that were employed by the Chinese Astronomical Bureau in the eleventh century and for hundreds of years thereafter. Chinese experts applied the methods associated with these devices to both weather forecasting and to the interpretation of human affairs. Hidden by a veil of secrecy, these methods have always been relatively little known other than by their names. The first work in any language to explore these three methods, known as sanshi (three cosmic boards), this book sheds light on a topic which has been shrouded in mystery for centuries, having been kept secret for many years by the Chinese Astronomical Bureau.