伟烈亚力所介绍的外国数学史知识

First Introduction of the History of Foreign Mathematics in China

伟烈亚力在他与李善兰合译的《几何原本》、《代数学》和《代微积拾级》的序言里对几何学、代数学和微积分学的历史分别作了简介，它们是国外数学史知识在中国的最早介绍。文章参照今天的西方数学史有关著述，对其作了解释，并探讨其西方学术背景以及在晚清的传播。

The historical knowledge of foreign mathematics was laid open to the Chinese for the first time after Alexander Wylie(1815 - 1887) introduced the brief history of Algebra and of Calculus in his prefaces to the Chinese editions of De Morgan's Elements of Algebra and Loomis's Elements of the Analytical Geometry and of the Differential and integral Calculus, which he translated in cooperation with the famous Chinese mathematician Li Shanlan (1815 - 1882). This paper makes a study of their contents in the light of modern Western historical works, and discusses their Western sources to which Wylie had recourse and their spread in late Qing Dynasty.