Chinese Mathematics - Later Developments

Later Developments

However after the overthrow of the Yuan Dynasty China became suspicious of knowledge it used. The Ming Dynasty turned away from math and physics in favor of botany and pharmacology.

At this period, the abacus which first appeared in Song dynasty now overtook the counting rods and became the preferred computing device. Zhu Zaiyu, Prince of Zheng who invented the equal temperament used 81 position abacus to calculate the square root and cubic root of 2 to 25 figure accuracy.

Although this switch from counting rods to the abacus allowed for reduced computation times, it may have also led to the stagnation and decline of Chinese mathematics. The pattern rich layout of counting rod numerals on counting boards inspired many Chinese inventions in mathematics, such as the cross multiplication principle of fractions and methods for solving linear equations. Similarly, Japanese mathematicians were influenced by the counting rod numeral layout in their definition of the concept of a matrix. However, during the Ming dynasty, mathematicians were fascinated with perfecting algorithms for the abacus. As such, many works devoted to abacus mathematics appeared in this period; at the expense of new idea creation.

Despite the achievements of Shen and Guo's work in trigonometry, another substantial work in Chinese trigonometry would not be published again until 1607, with the dual publication of Euclid's Elements by Chinese official and astronomer Xu Guangqi (1562–1633) and the Italian Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552–1610).

A revival of mathematics in China began in the late nineteenth century, when Joseph Edkins, Alexander Wylie and Li Shanlan translated works on astronomy, algebra and differential-integral calculus into Chinese, published by London Missionary Press in Shanghai.