晚清数学教科书《代数备旨》的底本与编译

The Original Texts and Compilation of the Mathematics Textbook,Daishu Beizhi,in the Late Qing Dynasty

《代数备旨》是美国北长老会传教士狄考文及其合作者编译的一部晚清重要数学教科书。该书由13章本和下卷组成。13章本以美国罗宾逊《新大学代数》和美国罗密士《代数论》修订版为底本,模仿了《代数论》修订版的部分框架结构。《新大学代数》是《代数备旨》13章本习题的主要来源。《代数备旨》下卷以《新大学代数》、傅兰雅和华蘅芳合译《代数术》、英国托德亨特《大学和学校用代数学:配有大量例题》、《代数论》修订版为底本。《代数备旨》下卷逾三分之一的习题编译自《新大学代数》。《代数备旨》仿照底本,用公理化方法建立了逻辑演绎体系。狄考文及其合作者编译该书时注重西方已形成的教科书编写规范,采用了适应和选择编译策略。但他们以汉字表示已知量和未知量时,未将汉字与英文字母建立严格的对应关系,面对中西文明的冲突也持有保守的一面。《代数备旨》13章本出版后广为流传,影响广泛,而该书下卷流传有限。

Daishu beizhi(代数备旨,Complete Meaning of Algebra)is an important mathematics textbook of the late Qing dynasty compiled by the American North Presbyterian missionary Calvin Wilson Mateer and his cooperators.This textbook consists of a copy with 13 chapters and a Volume Two.The copy with 13 chapters is based on New University Algebra:A Theoretical and Practical Treatise,Designed for Use in Colleges and High Schools or New University Algebra:A Theoretical and Practical Treatise,Containing Many New and Original Methods and Applications for Colleges and High Schools by Horatio Nelson Robinson,itself a revised edition of A Treatise on Algebra by Elias Loomis.It imitates some aspects of the framework of the revised edition of A Treatise on Algebra.Horatio Nelson Robinson s textbook is the main source for the exercises in the copy with 13 chapters.The Volume Two is based on the above-mentioned Horatio Nelson Robinson s textbook,as well as Daishu shu(代数术,Algebra),co-translated by John Fryer and Hua Hengfang(华蘅芳),Algebra for the Use of Colleges and Schools:With Numerous Examples by Isaac Todhunter,and the revised edition of A Treatise on Algebra.More than one-third of the exercises in Volume Two are compiled from Horatio Nelson Robinson s textbook.Imitating its original texts,Daishu beizhi established the logical deduction system with axiomatic method.In compiling the textbook,Mateer and his cooperators paid attention to the norms of textbook writing formed in the West,and adopted the strategies of adaptation and selection of translation.However,when they expressed the known quantities and unknowns in Chinese characters,they did not establish a strict corresponding relationship between Chinese characters and English letters,and they also held a conservative attitude with regard to the conflict between Chinese and Western civilizations.The copy with 13 chapters was widely disseminated and had a wide influence,Volume Two less so.