明代数学及其社会背景

THE MATHEMATICS OF THE MING DYNASTY AND ITS SOCIAL BACKGROUND

明代数学,按年代先后为序,大致上可分为三个阶段,每一阶段大约一百年。本文论述了各阶段数学发展的特点及其社会背景,兼而论及东西数学的对比。

The mathematics of the Ming dynasty may be divided into three parts in chronological order. (1) The first hundred years(from 1368 to the mid-15th century). The tremendous developments of the Song and Yuan dynasties were not continued and many important achievements rapidly declined even in danger of being lost. (2) The second hundred years(from the mid-15th century to the mid-16th century). During the more than 150 years from the beginning of the Ming dynasty, the economy of the society was generally upward. The development in commerce and trade required mathematicians to carry out a new form of calculating with the abacus. (3) The last hundred years(from the mid-16th century to 1644). In this period a number of books appeared which mentioned the abacus calculations. Another important event in this period was that the sciences from the West(including mathematics) gradually passed into China through the activities of the missionaries. This paper focuses on these three periods and their social backgrounds.