“微分”和“积分”二术语的来龙去脉

The origin and development of the two terms Weifen and Jifen

中国古代的传统数学中很早就有了"微分"和"积分"二术语,在中国古代传统数学著作《九章算术注》中就多次出现,其意义是无限分割和无穷叠加。而作为微积分理论中表示无穷小分析的"微分"和"积分"二术语则是在1859年的《代微积拾级》中首次出现。"微分"和"积分"二术语是中国数学家李善兰和西方传教士伟烈亚力合译时共同选用的。通过历史文献的梳理,得出"微分"和"积分"二术语的翻译可以说是李善兰翻译西方数学著作中名词意译的典范。

In ancient Chinese traditional mathematics,there were two terms Weifen and Jifen,which appeared many times in the Chinese traditional mathematics work Jiu Zhang Suan Shu Zhu,which mean infinite division and infinite accumulation.The terms Weifen and Jifen mean infinitesimal analysis in calculus theory appeared in Dai Wei Ji Shi Ji for the first time in 1859,which were jointly translated by Chinese mathematician Li Shanlan and Western missionary Alexander Wylie.Through historical documents review,we can draw a conclusion that the translation of the terms Weifen and Jifen can be said to be a model of LI Shanlan′s translation of nouns in Western Mathematical works.