毕瓯与中国数学史

Biot and the History of Chinese Mathematics

法国汉学家毕瓯是最早接触《周髀》以外中国数学著作并作研究的西方学者之一。他研究并向西方介绍了中国明代算书《算法统宗》的主要内容 ,中国人的位值制算筹记数法 ,全文翻译了《周髀算经》。但限于汉语水平 ,他未能读懂元代算书《益古演段》 ,因而与宋元数学失之交臂 ;他对《周髀算经》也颇多误解。

The French Sinologist é. Biot was one of the first western scholars who studied the Chinese mathematics works other than Zhou Bi Suanjing. He studied and made known to the west Chen Dawei's Suan Fa Tong zong,Chinese positional value notation and translated the whole Zhou Bi. Due to his limited Chinese knowledge, he couldn't properly understand Li Ye's Yigu Yanduan, and consequently knew nothing about mathematics of the Song and Yuan Dynasties. He misunderstood the original text of the Zhou Bi Suanjing and therefore failed to introduce the true Zhou Bi Suanjing into the west. Therefore, é. Biot didn't act as the forerunner in the field of the history of ancient Chinese mathematics.