九章箅术 "Jiu zhang suan shu" (Nine Chapters on the Art of Mathematics) - An

Appraisal of the Text, its Editions, and Translations

Author(s): Joseph W. Dauben
Source: Sudhoffs Archiv , 2013, Bd. 97, H. 2 (2013), pp. 199-235
Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag

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 Sudhoffs Archiv Band 97 • Heft 2 • 2013
Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftsgeschichte © Franz Steiner Verlag, S

Jiu zhang suan shu

(Nine Chapters on the Art of Mathematics) -
An Appraisal of the Text, its Editions, and Translations1

By Joseph W. Dauben

The key point is to be able to understand the entire

problem and then integrate the parts.
- Liu Hui, commentary on Problem 5.22 of the Nine
Chapters.

As Menso Folkerts celebrates his 70th birthday, when asked to make a contribution to Sud-
hoffs Archiv in his honor, it struck me as appropriate to reflect on a subject that has long
been a focus of his own research - mathematical texts in their historical contexts and the

traditions they have generated. But whereas Menso has devoted much of his career to a
detailed understanding of the complex manuscript traditions of medieval and early mod-
ern mathematics, and of Euclid in particular among others, I shall concentrate here on the
equivalent, in many respects, for the history of Chinese mathematics - the earliest of the
so-called "Ten Classics of Ancient Chinese Mathematics," namely the Nine Chapters on
the Art of Mathematics. This year marks an important anniversary for the Nine Chapters in
that Liu Hui completed his edition and commentary on this work in the year 263 CE, 1750
years ago from 2013, and it is Liu Hui's version of the text that has served as the basis for
all subsequence editions. With this much as a brief preface in mind, I am pleased to wish
Menso Folkerts a very happy 70th birthday !

1. The Nine Chapters and Ancient Chinese Mathematics: Context

The oldest of the so-called "Ten Classics" of ancient Chinese mathematics to be devoted

exclusively to mathematics is the Aí Jiu zhang suan shu (Nine Chapters on the Art of
Mathematics).2 There is also the important commentary on the Nine Chapters by M ® Liu
Hui (ca. 263 CE), as well as the commentary provided by Li Chunfeng and his associates as
the book was being edited as part of the official Tang compendium of the Ten Classics. Th
Nine Chapters may be traced back even earlier to a work by the same name compiled most

1 This paper is a revised version drawn in part from the introduction to an English translation of the Nin
Chapters about to appear in the Library of Chinese Classics published by Liaoning Education Press in
Shenyang, Liaoning Province, China. The translation, by the author and Xu Yibao, is based upon a new
collation of the ancient text and commentaries on the Nine Chapters by Guo Shuchun of the Institute for
History of Natural Science of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing [Dauben, Guo, and Xu 2013].
2 An earlier work, the Zhou bi suan jing , is devoted to astronomy and the mathematics used in
ancient China for determination of calendars. For a translation and study of this work, see [Cullen 1996].
For a discussion of the title of the Nine Chapters and its translation, see below, Section 3.

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200 Joseph W. Dauben

likely early in the Eastern Han dynasty, a

masters, íréíJ Zhang Cang (?- 1 52 BC
and possibly others who reconstructed th
order of the first emperor, Shi Hu
In the past several decades, archaeologi
that give a sense mathe of what Chinese
of the Nine Chapters undertaken by Li
of these from a dated archeological con
and Computations). Even earlier works o
archaeological excavations and material
pre-Qin periods of Chinese history. Th
Nine Chapters , or for the most part re
included in the Nine Chapters.
Other records that also reflect the ex
in the pre-Qin Warring States period
dating to ca. 217 BCE recording the law
ip Guo Yu (Discourses on the States) an
the commentary on the Spring and
5th century BCE). The Zuo Zhuan , in
fac
ancient Chinese mathematics is concern
expected of it:

On the jichou day, Shimimou planne

length, height and thickness of the w
the moats and ditches, inspected the s
of the parts from one another, reckon
workmen, considered the needed mon
of foodstuffs, in order to assign the se
numbers of workmen and quantities of
specifications to the responsible senior
to Liuzi [Zou Dahai 2007a: 645].

This provides a substantial list of activit

Moreover, in his study of pre-Qin rec
details the strong fines that were presc
takes, and the greater the error, the m
Zou concludes, official bureaucrats, who
nates, every reason to have wanted to pe
Judging from the kinds of problems th
exactly the sort that the rebuilding of C
different demands that would have bee

3 Recently, the claim that the Nine Chapters wa

the burning of the books has been challenged b
was primarily against Confucian works, that bo
Nine Chapters already been in existence at the
were destroyed. [Li Di 1982] and [Cullen 200

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 A $ f? Jiu zhang suan shu 20 1

crats, from the taxation of farmland to the proportional distrib

or the rates of exchange between different items of varying deg
By the time the various kingdoms of the Warring States period
brief-lived Qin dynasty, the united country relied increasing
tralized bureaucracy that depended upon mathematics for ever
dynastic calendars and annual almanacs, to keeping accounts
taxes and extensive public works programs. In short, the prac
life throughout the Han dynasty called for a high degree of mat
collectively reflected in the problems and methods of the Nin
But establishing a broader context for the Nine Chapters is
commentator, Liu Hui, we only know his name, and that he was
tury in the Kingdom of Wei. We know scarcely more about wh
Chapters , or how it would have come into their hands. In what
been disseminated? Were copies widely available, or was it kn
who might in itinerant fashion move from place to place, teachin
had become proficient to others who wished to learn? These so
in more detail below, in Section 10 devoted to prosopographic

2. Significance of the Nine Chapters on the Art of Mat

The Nine Chapters consists of the original text redacted from

Western Han dynasty by Zhang Cang and Geng Shouchang, an
Nine Chapters on the Art of Mathematics sometime in the early
bly even during the reign of j£#Wang Mang [Li Di 1982], [C
2007]. In a narrow sense, the Nine Chapters only refers to the
explain in part why the first translations into western languages
Berezkina (3jibBHpa H. Bepe3KWHa) (1931- ) into Russian and
German do not translate the later commentaries but only the f
Chapters. In a larger sense, however, the Nine Chapters should
commentaries by Liu Hui and the received version of the text
his associates in the Tang dynasty. It is the commentaries that gr
content of the work, for it is in the commentaries that the algo
this a truly outstanding mathematical treatise are to be found.
add levels of technical complexity and difficulties for translato
lenging. Nevertheless, it is thanks to the detailed commentary
mathematical rigor of the text comes to life. It is Liu Hui who t
in the narrow sense into the challenging mathematical text in w
and detailed proofs of the results achieved are to be found.
One reason the Nine Chapters in the version that has been pr
that the commentaries, because they include the explanations a
the methods that are applied throughout the book, thereby re
of ancient Chinese mathematicians that are otherwise unaccou
earlier works. Oddly enough, the importance of the comment
by western scholars until only recently. As Alexei Volkov expl

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 202 Joseph W. Dauben

The importance of Liu Hui's comment

to the 1950s in Japan (especially by
China (especially by Li Yan and Qian B
featuring the mathematical methods m
the calculation of the approximate val
of the areas and volumes of certain ge
was paid to the whole of Liu Hui's comm
of mathematical concepts and method
been due to the traditional approach
status of the classics was always highe
point of Wang Ling's unpublished doc
suan shu itself, while Liu Hui's comm
was to reconstruct the oldest layer of
with slight variation from [Volkov 2

This all began to change, Volkov notes, w

naBjiOBHH lOiiiKeBHH) (1906-1993), who
a strong tradition of computational algor
quite distinct from the familiar Greek ax
the Middle Ages [Yushkevich 1961 ; Ger
interested in the origins and arguments g
in Chinese mathematics. "In this contex
no longer considered a secondary text th
old and supposedly more valuable metho
the main target of investigation as the p
[Volkov 2010: 283].
Indeed, the significance of the Nine Ch
Classics devoted specifically to mathema
feng greatly enhance our ability to unde
in the course of the history of Chinese t

3. Translating the Title: Jiu zhang suan shu

The Chinese title of the Nine Chapters has been translated in a wide variety of ways. In 1 852,
Alexander Wylie offered the first summary in English of Chinese mathematics, and referred
to it as Arithmetical Rules of the Nine Sections .4 With only a slight variation, the Japanese

4 Wy lie's survey of Chinese mathematics was translated into German by K.L. Biernatzki (1815-1899) in
1856, and into French by Olry Terquem (1782-1862) in 1862. When Moritz Cantor (1829-1920) came to
write his monumental Vorlesungen über Geschichte der Mathematik, the first volume devoted an entire
chapter (Kapitel 31) to Chinese mathematics [Cantor 1922: 664-690], but of this only two pages were de-
voted to a very brief account of the Nine Chapters , and this followed what Biernatzki had translated from
Wylie, which referred to "die neun arithmetischen Abschnitte" (The Nine Arithmetic Sections). Giovanni
Vacca (1872-1953) appreciated the fact that ancient Chinese mathematics was much more than "a mass of
empirical rules," and in a note "Sulla Matematica degli Antichi Cinesi " (On the Mathematics of the Ancient
Chinese) that appeared in the Bollettino di bibliografia e storia delle scienze matematiche , he argued that it
also included propositions and demonstrations as well [Vacca 1905], [Laufer 1907: 184]. Vacca, however,
based his conclusion on a demonstration of the gou-gu or right-triangle theorem as it was presented in the
Zhou bi suan jing, and not on his analysis of the Nine Chapters.

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 ti $ % yfc Jiu zhang suan shu 203

historian of mathematics Mikami Yoshio ( 1 875-1950) shortened the titl

Sections. David Eugene Smith, in his History of Mathematics [Smith
Mikami, with whom he had collaborated in writing A History of Japan
and Mikami 1914]. In all, Smith devoted less than two pages to the N
summarized its main contents briefly, chapter by chapter, and conclud
known of ancient Chinese mathematics sufficed to show "a degree of
high as that found in the other ancient countries, and they prove that
pioneers in the establishing of the early science of mathematics" [S
Several years later, George Sarton in the first volume of his Introduc
Science admitted that "Though I may claim to have given in my book
complete account of Chinese science, I have no illusions with regard t
count. Most of it is but a catalogue of names" [Sarton 1927: 36]. Of Li
on the Arithmetic in Nine Sections is noted, along with the Sea Islan
only substantive reference to his mathematics is Sarton 's note that re
rods" were used for positive and negative numbers [Sarton 1927: 331
In 1959 Joseph Needham and Wang Ling translated the Chiù Chan
Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Subsequently, Lam Lay-Yong used
overview of the Nine Chapters [Lam 1994], as did John N. Crossley
Lun in their translation of Li Yan and Du Shiran's Chinese Mathema
[Li and Du 1987]. Crossley and Lun did so again when they collabor
Kangshen to translate his modern Chinese version of the Nine Chapt
Crossley, and Lun 1999].
Christopher Cullen, however, in an article written for the Inter
Mathematicians in Beijing in 2002, "Learning from Liu Hui? A Diffe
ematics," points out that a better translation of/lļif?^ Jiu zhang su
to the meaning of the ancient Chinese, would be Mathematical Me
Categorisation [Cullen 2002: 784]. Alexei Volkov also resists tra
as Nine Chapters , and prefers to translate the title as Computation
categories. He explains this by noting that īļi zhang in particular sh
as "chapter" [see Volkov 1986] and suggests "that the term jiuzhang
categories") was related to a universal classification scheme (and, in t
to a classification of mathematical methods.)" [Volkov 2007: 426]. 5
The word jĶ zhang actually has several different meanings. It may
paragraph of a poem or song, to one or several paragraphs of an article
treatise. Since A jiu is the largest single digit number, it is often used
a grand scale, a supreme authority, or to any large multiplicity of thin
Xia dynasty (ca. 2070-ca. 1600 BCE), the territory of China was divi
(nine states); and jiu ding represents the supreme power. Likewise,
meanings for the word yfc shu , which may refer to an art or high-lev
even to a general method. For narrower or more specific methods an
íi fa is usually used. Thus the title Jiu zhang suan shu may be
a very broad sense, a grand book for mathematics [Xu 201 1].

5 When Jean-Claude Martzloff's Histoire des mathématiques chinoises [Martzloff

English by Stephen S. Wilson, the title was rendered as Computational Prescr
[Martzloff 2006: 124].

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204 Joseph W. Dauben

Mindful of the subtle connotations th

a reasonable variation on the translation
be Nine Categories of Mathematical M
translation is that there are many mor
Shuchun counts more than 80; Guo in
was an honored number in Chinese num
tradition of the Alfe jiu shu, the nine [c
?L Zhou li (Rites of Zhou), Zheng X
who explains that the nine categorie
fen , 'J>r shao guang, fêjÍÍJ shang
and¡ífi? pang y ao [Guo Shuchun 2009:
Chapters on which Liu Hui commented
meaning of which is uncertain since th
Kangshen surmises that in fact pang yao
been the same as what is the Gou gu o
and Lun 1999: 56]. But according to Zhe
listed: "Now there are also MU chon
[Zheng Xuan 1998: 90a]. It would seem o
of problems, there was also the gou-gu t
On the other hand, Liu Hui realized th
applicable in land surveying when direc
important category of techniques that th
<£& 3¥ Žx Hai dao suan jing (Sea Island M
sorts to the Nine Chapters. By Zhen Zo
or different types of methods, making c
meant to be taken literally, a nod to num
nines, the nine [categories of] numbers
Ultimately, however, there is a sound b
work as the Nine Chapters on the Art o
Chinese transliteration schemes may alr
chang-swan-shuh, Needham and Wang
shu are all, in fact, referring to the sam
way considerably at variance from wha
only invite confusion. Readers might w
of Mathematical Methods must be a di

6 Also, in defense of translating M zhang as "

meaning by Liu Hui. For example, in Chapter
^ (All of the methods in this chapter also us
added) [Dauben, Guo, and Xu 2013: 515]. The
(This chapter includes the qian du andrang m
cases would it make sense to translate zhang
7 However, according to M ^ Jia Xian of the N
or a square inscribed in a gou-gu figure, and o
chun 1992] and [Guo Shuchun 1995].

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 ti $ H yfc Jiu zhang suan shu 205

makes the case for adopting an English version of the title that is
on the one that has become standard since Needham and Wang trans
Chapters on the Mathematical Art*

4. Dating the Original Composition of the Nine Chapters

Christopher Cullen has provided a detailed analysis of the contents, com

ies, and textual history of the Nine Chapters , along with a survey of
as of 1993, and offers the following observation relevant to the orig

The Chiù chang suan shu is consistent and orderly enough to mak
written, or perhaps edited, by a single author. It has never been do
work, but much of the mathematical knowledge that it contains m
as far as the Warring States. Quite apart from the improbability of
theory developing suddenly, even the smallest of the pre-Ch'in stat
its affairs without the services of reckoning clerks able to solve m
of gauging and the allocation of finance and manpower that are d
chang suan shu [Cullen 1993: 17-18].

However, the Nine Chapters is not mentioned in early bibliographies.

by the second century, if not earlier. The Eastern Han Confucian sc
M S Zheng Xuan ( 1 27-200 CE) was said to have been proficient in th
Chapters , as were the Han shu editors, Xu (fl. 141) and his
(79-166). But the early history of the work is complicated by differen
advanced concerning its compilation and the various early commenta
have been made, even if many have been lost and are no longer exta
About the early compilations and dating of the Nine Chapters , schola
have held very different views, and these remain avidly contested i

8 One last comment related to the title needs to be made. Given that Shen Kan
Anthony Lun published their English translation of the Nine Chapters on the
why should we have undertaken yet another translation of this classic work? The
we were invited to contribute a new translation to the Library of Chinese Cla
dual language format. Thus [Dauben, Guo, and Xu 2013], as the preface to the e
to provide "an introduction to the corpus of traditional Chinese culture in a com
translation." Moreover, we have directly translated the ancient Chinese text and
and Li Chunfeng and his associates from a new collation of the text by Guo S
worked from a modern Chinese translation produced by Shen Kangshen, and in t
lation twice removed from the original [Shen, Crossley, and Lun 1999: 560]. Also,
both the Chinese and English texts, we provide the original ancient text in Gu
with his translation into modern Chinese, with our translation of the ancient tex
difference between [Shen, Crossley, and Lun 1999] and our collation/translation o
cerns the format. As Alexei Volkov has observed: "[Shen, Crossley, and Lun] used
translation of the text, the commentary, and the notes; however this solution oft
of the different parts a difficult if not an impossible mission. ... No particular e
difficult passages in Liu Hui's commentary that required detailed discussion"
final difference worth noting between [Dauben, Guo, and Xu 2013] and [Shen
is that the latter volume includes a translation of Liu Hui's Sea Island Mathematical Manual. We did not
do so because it was not originally included as part of the Nine Chapters, and had we chosen to include it,
we would then have felt it necessary to entitle our translation the Tm Chapters on the Art of Mathematics.

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 206 Joseph W. Dauben

of Chinese mathematics today. In gener

as follows:

i. Zhang Cang, Geng Shouchang, and others compiled the Nine Chapters based on texts
surviving from Pre-Qin times. In support of this view is what Liu Hui says in his preface to
his commentary on the Nine Chapters :

According to the Duke of Zhou /51 [when he] created the system of rites, this led to
dissemination of the tl$$L jiu shu , the nine [categories of] numbers, and then the Nine
Chapters came into being.
In the past the brutal Qin dynasty burned the books, and the classic texts as well as the
[Nine Chapters on the] Art [of Mathematics ] were destroyed or damaged. From that
time on, the [Western] Han Dynasty Marquis of Beiping (JbŤÍH) Zhang Cang
and Deputy Grand Minister of Agriculture H Geng Shouchang both
are renowned [among those] of their generation for having excelled at computations.
Cang and others, based upon what survived of the old damaged works, evaluated each
[of the texts], deleting [parts] and repairing [others]. Therefore, upon comparing their
contents [ @ mu] these [reconstructed works] and the old [texts] may differ. Furthermore,
most of the words and terms [in the reconstructed works of Zhang and Geng] belong
to times closer to ours [Dauben, Guo, and Xu 2013: 7-11].

According to Liu Hui, the jiu shu or "nine categories of numbers" was the origin of the
Nine Chapters , which was created from the jiu shu before the Qin dynasty. When the Qin
government ordered the burning of books, the text of the Nine Chapters was destroyed or
damaged. During the Western Han, Zhang Cang, Geng Shouchang, and others collected what
they could find, repaired as best they could what was lost or incomplete, added some new
material to the work, and were thus responsible for creating the Nine Chapters more or less
as it has been passed down through the ages ever since. Among the documents currently at
our disposal, Liu Hui's is the earliest account about the compilation of the Nine Chapters.
ii. The Nine Chapters was a work of the Duke of Zhou of the Western Zhou (1046-771
BCE). 3E#iS Wang Xiaotong (580-640) of the early Tang dynasty, in his
Shang jigu suanshu biao (Presenting Continuation of Ancient Mathematics to the Emperor)
says that: "In the past the Duke of Zhou created the system of rites, and hence the jiu shu
came into being. I humbly believe that the jiu shu is the Nine Chapters " [Guo Shuchun 2009:
8]. ffi^¿Bao Huanzhi of the Southern Song and iS m ÄQu Zengfa of the more recent
Qing dynasty adopted Wang's view. It is clear that this view is based upon a modification of
Liu Hui's words, strengthening what he says from "[following] dissemination of the
jiu shu , the nine [categories of] numbers, and then the Nine Chapters came into being," to
asserting that the jiu shu or "nine categories of numbers" is the Nine Chapters.
iii. The Nine Chapters was compiled by the Yellow Emperor and his legendary official
3ŘH* Li Shou. This view is based upon one of the ancient Ten Classics of ancient Chinese
mathematics, the ^ÎÎXiahou Yang suanjing (Xiahou Yang's Mathematical Classic),
which maintains that "the Yellow Emperor determined three kinds of numbers in ten
levels, and thus Li Shou accordingly made the Nine Chapters ." It was Jia Xian
of the Northern Song who put the "Yellow Emperor" into the title of his book, Jf'Sf Ají
Huangdi jiuzhang suanjing xicao (Detailed Solutions of the Yellow Emperor's
Nine Chapters Mathematical Classic), no doubt also believing that the Nine Chapters was
the work either of the Yellow Emperor or Li Shou. Rong Qi of the Southern Song and
ļlif Mo Ruo of the Yuan dynasty all shared this view.

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 ti $ % Jiu zhang suan shu 207

iv. The Nine Chapters was compiled after the middle of th

based upon the opinion of the Qing dynasty mathematicia
who argued as follows: "Now examining the book, one can s
$ Changan and _h# Shanglin. The Shanglinyuan (Sha
created during the reign of Emperor Wu Âïîf (141-87 BCE),
early Han, so how could he be able to record something whi
[From this, we] know that the author of the book must have li
Western Han" [Guo 2009: 8-9].
Discovering that the Shanglin yuan already existed during
Emperor Gaozu ŽX.BÍ& (202-195 BCE), the contemporary h
1% Qian Baocong (1872-1974) did not repudiate the view of
disregard either Chang' an or the Shanlin yuan as having an
Nine Chapters , and pushed the dating of its composition even
first century [Qian Baocong 1981: 32-33].
v. The Nine Chapters could not have been written in the Wes
likely a product of the Xin dynasty during the time of Wa
idea was first put forward by Li Di (1927-2006), and is
that there is no mention of the Nine Chapters in any of the
especially not in Chapter 30 of the Han shu (6 BCE) where ther
most important mathematical works of that time. If the Nin
that time, so goes the argument, surely it would have been
Li Di also argues that Liu Hui is wrong about the Nine Chap
with all the other books in 213 BCE - because the book burn
cian campaign against works deemed to be philosophically s
on medicine and agriculture, as well as works on prognostica
Li Di also suggests, given the fact that Wang Mang was a s
of statecraft promulgated in the Zhou li , it would have been
of the ancient Jiu shu , or the text put together by Zhang
even goes so far as to suggest it was actually the poly
CE) during the Xin dynasty (9-23 CE) who finally complet
Chapters [Li Di 1997: 103-106]. His final argument is that th
which figures prominently among problems in the Nine Cha
reign of Wang Mang, and therefore this was at the earliest a w
Christopher Cullen makes this same point, and adds that ac
Michael Loewe of Han government accounting records fro
"the term hu [as a unit of capacity] was introduced officially
[Loewe 1961: 73]; see also [Chemia and Guo 2004: 202] and [Cullen 2007: 37].
Cullen also argues that there are good reasons to suppose that Wang Mang would have
encouraged a project like that of the compilation of the Nine Chapters. He begins with the
fact that the explanation of the Jiu shu , the nine [categories of] numbers as they appear in the
Zhou li , occurs with the earliest mention of the Nine Chapters in the commentary by Zheng
Xuan. It was Wang Mang, Cullen says, who "raised the Zhouli from being an obscure text
to a revered guide to government," and in fact saw himself as an emperor (reigned 9-23 CE)
fashioned in the image of the Duke of Zhou. Cullen continues as follows:

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208 Joseph W. Dauben

It is well known that Wang Mang wa

in the numerical disciplines, ranging
kinds. We know that in A.D. 5, when h
ering of those interested in such top
21 A, 955], which was attended by se
[Cullen 2007: 37].

This argument continues with evidence

ofthe Zhou bi , in which the number n

The patterns for these numbers come

from the square, the square comes fro
[the fact that] nine nines are eighty-

The number 9 in fact, turns up again: "

porters is divided into 9x9 = 81 section
Ř I (53 B.C.-A.D. 18). [Loewe 1993: 4
examples of works in which nines figure
Wang Mang. With all of these nines, the
To all this we can add more. It turns o
which figures with some controversy at
the hu as the largest of its measures.9 T
= 10 ^ ge = 10 yue. There is an inscript
precise numbers for each of these meas
secret in the numbers: "The standard m
concept in Han cosmology, which is hid
The smallest of the volumetric measure
advisor, Liu Xin, this was equal to the
or "yellow bell." The huang zhong was
from which it was believed "all musical
Watt explains further: "Thus the standa
of the huang-chung [huang zhong] pipe
ence to the volume of the pipe, and th
the weight of millet grains that filled
1992 and 1993]. Throughout all this, the
Mang 's theorist in charge of carrying ou
measure, the length of the huang zhong
or 810 cubic fen.
Wang Mang was emulating the first emp
tion of new standard measures for the em
Xin standard bronze measure emulates a
of the Qin than to what was usual in Ha
Thus the idea that a refashioning of th
have been compatible with the reigning i
even if we cannot be sure who the auth

9 The problem of Liu Hui's reference to the Wan

by [Wagner 1978b], [Lam and Ang 1986: 333

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 Jiu zhang suan shu 209

the Nine Chapters on the Art of Mathematics in

century until Liu Hui could add his penetrating c
ards that ancient mathematics could muster.

To summarize briefly the various opinions that have been voiced about the dating of the
Nine Chapters , the views laid out above in ii) and iii) cannot be taken seriously. The pre-
ponderance of evidence favors either i) and Liu Hui 's explanation or v), that the Nine Chap-
ters was a product of the early Eastern Han dynasty, and possibly even of the Xin dynasty.
On the other hand, there is considerable evidence in support of Liu Hui's account. Given
that Liu Hui's commentary and the details he provides concerning compilation of the Nine
Chapters are the closest in time to when the Nine Chapters was actually written, whereas
the opinions of Dai Zhen and later commentators are some 1 200 or more years later, more
weight should be given to the views expressed in i) rather than iv). Liu Hui doubtless drew
on the most reliable accounts of the compilation of the Nine Chapters available to him from
those who lived before, and he also had more documents at his disposal than have either
later or modern scholars.

What, then, of the different views expressed in positions i) and v)? To help resolve the many
questions surrounding the dating of the Nine Chapters , one approach has been to examine
the prices of commodities that appear in various problems to see what they reveal about the
possible time at which it was written. Several decades ago the Japanese scholar tSIS Hori
Tsuyoshi published a study of prices in the Qin and Han dynasties [Hori Tsuyoshi 1988]. His
results support what Liu Hui has said about the compilation of the Nine Chapters having at
least in part its origins in the pre-Qin period. Hori has compared the prices of millet, wheat,
husked millet, unhusked millet, horses, oxen, sheep, dogs, pigs, cloth, raw silk, fine silk,
white and yellow gold, lacquer, and rice wine, as well as recorded annual incomes, pay for
hired hands, and land prices as they appear in several Han sources, including the Western
Han Yantie lun (Discussions of Salt and Iron) and jfeiSSTi/ ji {Historical Records ,
i. e. Records of the Grand Historian 5/ì£ Sima Qian (ca. 145-87 BCE)), and the Eastern
Han ŽX.1Í Han shu (History of the Western Han Dynasty). Hori also includes the SJärÄ
ÎhJ Juyan hanjian (Ju Yan Bamboo Slips), constituting a collection of bamboo and wooden
documents, more than 32,000 in all. The Ju Yan excavations thus far include some 160 sites
along the Gansu-Inner Mongolia defense lines and date from 128 BCE to 32 CE. Among
representative Han documents recovered are laws, regulations, fines, and expense records
[Wilkinson 2000: 798-799].
Based on his careful examination of these sources, Hori concludes that the prices of
commodities recorded in the Nine Chapters , overall, do not always correlate well with
prices reported from Han dynasty sources and often exhibit considerable differences. He
then compares the prices of commodities from Qin dynasty and Warring States records with
their counterparts in the Nine Chapters , and concludes that "The Nine Chapters basically
reflects the prices of commodities in the Warring States and Qin dynasty" [Hori 1988]. Above
all, very similar pay rates in the pre-Qin documents correlate well with those that figure in
problems in the Nine Chapters.
However, the matter is not as straightforward as it may seem from the above analysis.
There are 20 problems in the Nine Chapters involving prices or measures with meaningful
differences from those current in the Han dynasty but close to those of the Warring States
and Qin dynasty. These are to be found in Chapter 2 Su mi (Grains)), problems 34,

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210 Joseph W. Dauben

37, 39, and 40-44; Chapter 3 Cuifen

19; Chapter 6 Junshu (Equitable D
/È Ying bu
zu (Excess and Deficiency
(Rectangular arrays)), problems 7, 8, 1
Nevertheless, there are 1 1 problems
of the Han dynasty, and show meaning
Qin dynasty. These are to be found in
10, 11, 12, 14, and 15; Chapter 6, prob
Hori's research tends to support what
The fact that much of the material in t
material, which in some cases was late
recent research than Hori Tsuyoshi's
the problem of dating the Nine Chapter
case, rather than examine Han docum
examines pre-Qin documents, in parti
Shuihudi. Zou argues that there wa
records that would have required high
what is found in the Nine Chapters. A
ments for mistakes in accounting, and o
subordinates. Zou examines in part
verifying), which prescribe serious pen
officials, and these in turn, Zou conclu
grasp management abilities, including
calculating" [Zou Dahai 2007b: 133].
Zou points out that in Chapter 2, the N
for the exchange of grains of different l
compared with similar conversion rates
(statutes on granaries) from Shuihudi, a
from Zhangjiashan. Based upon compar
that "we can infer that the mathematic
have emerged in pre-Qin period and its
time" [Zou Dahai 2007b: 134]. Using sim
the problems in the Nine Chapters fou
relied upon methods that "emerged in
From all of the pre-Qin evidence he
the methods in Jiuzhang suanshu were
latest the Qin Dynasty, but not the Ha
mostly took place in the pre-Qin Period
former scholars assumed" [Zou Dahai 2
Zou also points out that in the pre-Q
the storage of grain, where shortages
surpluses which would result in excesse
the meanings of the negative number
Jiiyan hanjian (bamboo strips of the H
and Dong Zhongshu's Kaogongming c

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 A M i? ^ Jiu zhang suan shu 211

Furthermore, in the Suan shu shu , there is not only the appearanc
the multiplication and division of positive and negative number
concerning the examination of doctors' curative effects" [Zou
Additional factors concerning the dating of the Nine Chapters
On the evidence of terminology, certain words that appear also d
example, in the Book of Music and the Calendar in the History of t
tion to the lengths that appear in the Nine Chapters , zhang , chi an
to 1 yin = 10 zhang , and 1 fen =1/10 cun , but neither of these me
in the text of the Nine Chapters. This suggests that the basic tex
written before the Western Han dynasty and after the Warring St
and Lun 1999: 6-7]. In fact, with the standardization of weights
Shi Huang Di at the beginning of the Qin dynasty, the standard
the zhang , chi and cun that appear throughout the text of the N
standard units of capacity were the hu, dou , and sheng. To thes
refinements of the ge and yue , which are included in the Wang M
to which Liu Hui refers in his commentary in Chapter 5, Problem 2
dou and sheng appear in the original text of the Nine Chapters le
having been complied before the Eastern Han, in all likelihood in
Han dynasty. Other refinements in the system of weights and mea
visions of the chi into //, hao, miao and hu , were made during th
but these only occur in the commentary by Liu Hui.
To recap what all of the above, sometimes contradictory eviden
that much of the content of the Nine Chapters , some of it quite simi
as well as many of the problems and methods used in their solution
and Qin times. By the early Western Han, collections of texts lik
had appeared, but as yet nothing as distinctive or comprehensive as
is no reason to doubt Liu Hui 's report that it was first compiled
some of the language, brought a systematic format to each of the
minology, and created the basic work that would eventually be k
on the Art of Mathematics, even if it had not been given that exac
the several hundred years between Zhang Cang, Geng Shouchang
have made further editorial corrections or additions, and by som
Han, the Nine Chapters was well-enough established to at last m
histories and had even received its first commentaries, if unfort
the Nine Chapters seems to have been an on-going project of Ha
of whom helped to refine and enlarge what had clearly already
problems and solution methods as early as the Warring States pe
for what was to happen to the work in the hands of the great mas
remarkable commentary: Liu Hui.

5. The Text and Commentaries: Chinese Editions of the Ni

The history of the many editions and commentaries on the Ni

complex one beginning with the contributions made by Zhang Ca
development of Chinese mathematics, and to our understanding o

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 212 Joseph W. Dauben

fore the Qin dynasty (221-207 BCE). I

in the version upon which Liu Hui wro
Cang and Geng Shouchang, as noted ab
No doubt the Nine Chapters was first
like the Shu and Suan shu shu. In fact
those identifying individual problems
tian (Rectangular Fields), Chapter 2
(Small Widths). Moreover, among the
for the methods of proportional distr
chapter titles in the Nine Chapters
and Chapter 7: Ying bu zu (Excess
methods are also named as such in the
Shao guang , and Ying bu zu [Xiao Can 2010: 63-80 ( Cui fen), 81-84 {Shao
guang), 100-105 {Ying bu zu); Tongxun 2012: 18-23, 23-25, 29-30].
The same holds for problems dealing with handling fractions, computing areas and vol-
umes, and determining grain conversions that are similar to problems and methods in both
the Suan shu shu and the Nine Chapters. However, unlike the Suan shu shu , the Shu has one
problem that involves a solution that is based upon the right triangle properties in Chapter
9 of the Nine Chapters , Gou gu, although the Shu does not include the gou-gu terminology
[Xiao Can 2010: 106; Tongxun 2012: 31-31]. The Shu is unique, however, in containing
one problem related to managing military affairs in terms of the stationing of troops along a
perimeter, the point of which is to determine, from a given number of troops and their spac-
ing, how long the line along which they are stationed will be [Xiao Can 2010: 47^8, section
3.2, f Siílj ying jun zhi shu (method of stationing an army): 47-48; Tongxun 2012: 11].
Given the close parallels between problems and methods that appear in both the Shu
and the Suan shu shu with those of the Nine Chapters , it seems clear that Zhang and Geng
organized the various problems current in the various compendia of bamboo strips at their
disposal, and under nine general headings did their best to put similar or related problems
solved by the same general methods together under each of the nine headings that now
comprise the Nine Chapters. New to this collection from what was available to pre-Qin and
Qin mathematicians may have been the problems in Chapter 8, Fang Cheng , Rectangular
Arrays, as were apparently such methods as the algorithms for determining square and cube
roots, given that the former were worked out in the Suan shu shu not with an algorithm but
by applying the ying bu zu method of excess and deficiency [Dauben 2013].
The earliest commentary on the Nine Chapters known only from literary references was
written by the astronomer and mathematician t^-ĚXu Yue (ca. 185-227 CE). Another lost
commentary was written by the mathematician, astronomer and Buddhist master ĪS® Zhen
Luan (535-566). The first surviving commentary on the Nine Chapters was written by Liu
Hui, who according to the Sui shu was a subject of the Kingdom of Wei 263 CE. Aside from
the fact that he was a scholar from Wei, virtually nothing else is known about Liu Hui.10
The entire work was subject to a substantial editorial revision by its Tang Dynasty editors
under the leadership of the astronomer-mathematician Li Chunfeng, who was charged with

10 Liu Hui's commentary is undated, but according to the H Jin shu (History of the Jin dynasty (265^420))
the commentary was written in the 4th year of the Jing yuan era of Wei, i.e. 263 CE. This is also
mentioned in the Sui shu (History of the Sui dynasty). See [Chemia and Guo 2004: 57, note 2].

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 ti ji % ^ Jiu zhang suan shu 213

preparing an official edition of the Ten Classics for use at the go

Guozi jian (National Academy) where mathematics was officiall
subject for the empire's future administrators. These texts were
basics necessary for administering the capital and provinces of
they were presumably the foundation for the curriculum at
(Academy of Mathematics) established by Emperor Gao Z
Sui dynasty, in fact, a school of mathematics was already a pa
which was taken over by its successor, the Tang dynasty in 6
and Du Shiran 1987: 104-106], and [Bréard 1999: 2].
As Donald Wagner has observed: "Liu Hui was a very impor
mathematician (in my opinion the most interesting premodern fi
matics in China), while Li Chunfeng was a mediocre mathematici
Liu Hui" [Wagner 2006: 32]. In their very first note to Liu Hu
Chapters , Li Chunfeng and his associates took exception to Liu
text. In particular, they criticized several points Liu Hui mak
areas, objecting to Liu Hui's terminology, which they say fails
between an area (^ mi) and a product (ÍR ji). Li Chunfeng: "Exa
Hui's] commentary, [one may conclude that]y7 and mi have th
this logically, certainly this cannot be the case... Although one
they were the same, I fear this cannot be done." The Tang comm
the further disturbing remark:

This commentary first said "this product (ji) is called the a

fine, but then referred to it again as "an area," which is unne
commentary [Li Chunfeng's] retains what is reasonable and
ble, and simplifies [the other commentaries] to some extent
is] for the benefit of future students [Dauben, Guo, and X

This in turn raises the difficult question of what material Li

chosen to discard, or what portions of the received text they
either because the text was thought to be wrong, unintelligible, o
reader. This also leaves open the extent to which they may hav
text or its various commentaries. As Wagner puts it: "any 'co
Li Chunfeng of Liu Hui's text could only damage it, and wou
scholarly norms which were already current in Li Chunfeng's
The Tang editors of the Nine Chapters , preparing the text for t
simplify whenever they felt the text was too difficult to follow
actly where they decided it was necessary to do so. This leaves
whenever the text seems confused, as to whether or not this ma
and his editorial group's tampering with the original text of L
On the other hand, Li Chunfeng and his associates did mak
and important contributions to the Nine Chapters in the cours
major addition was their account of what í&BfiŽ. Zu Gengzhi
correct formula for the volume of a sphere, which is given in th
for finding the diameter of a sphere given its volume followin
of Chapter 4 devoted to finding cube roots. There are also th
theory in Problem 6.8, and an improved value of pi, using 22

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214 Joseph W. Dauben

than the one Liu Hui had used. Li Chu

of Three in Liu Hui's comment at the
been due to Liu Hui but to a corruptio
have misunderstood the Rule of Three
passage to which Li calls attention and
Following Li Chunfeng and his assoc
and understanding of the text, notably
CE), who wrote a separate commentar
Jiu zhang suan shu yin yi (Pronunciat
Mathematics) [Chemia and Guo 2004:
The Nine Chapters was first printed in
that included both the commentaries
Huanzhi printed a new edition of the T
based on the Northern Song edition. B
already partially lost. Of the Nine Cha
the original preserved in the Shangha
published by Wen Wu Press in 1981. 11
Prior to the first printed Northern S
been several different versions. One of
and another was probably the one us
tiMPřžityň^-Huangdi jiuzhang suan
Emperor's Nine Chapters on the Art
Rong Qi in 1148 with an abbreviate
the version of 1 148 that WM Yang H
Xiangjie jiuzhang suanfa (Detailed Exp
ematics, 1261). Since Jia's book and it
Hui'swork is all the more valuable as
The ft Yongle dadian (Great Comp
pedic work created
of th at the behest
This was wide ranging in scope, cove
of unusual natural phenomena. Launc
search throughout the country for old
tually unknown, as was the case for th
of scholars collaborated to produce thi
fifteenth century. It was finally compl
rial Academy) in 1408, and consisted
volumes said to have taken up roughly
characters. Intended to cover all of th
entire works from the full spectrum of
from the Han dynasty down to the ea
Yang Hui's Xiangjie jiuzhang suanfa ,
according to different categories und
voted to mathematics, running from p

1 1 For more detailed descriptions of the printi

many of which are no longer extant, see [C

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 fi $ % yfc Jiu zhang suan shu 215

Yongle dadian was nearly consumed by a fire in the palace quarters

SiifJiajing ordered that a copy be made, again by hand. By 1619, cer
Yongle dadian had already disappeared. Fortunately, the mathematical
when He® Dai Zhen (1724-1777) was compiling mathematical books
encyclopedic work, the quanshu (Four Warehouses of All Books). From the
Yongle dadian , he was able to extract the Nine Chapters along with other mathematical
texts. In 1900, the Yongle dadian suffered its final fate when the eight allied foreign forces
invaded Beijing and the encyclopedia was among the victims, looted and destroyed. Today
only 800 plus volumes of the Yongle dadian survive, less than 4 percent of the original, and
now scattered throughout the world. Among these, two volumes currently preserved in the
Cambridge University Library are on mathematics, parts 16,343 and 16,344. The former is
the [Š] Yicheng tongchu , originally from the # ^M^ÜXiangming suanfa ; the latter is
devoted to Shao guang (Chapter 4) from the Nine Chapters. For a brief history of the
Yongle dadian, see [Wilkinson 2000: 604-605].
Because the Yongle dadian was only available in handwritten copies in the imperial library,
it remained virtually unknown. This changed when the Qing dynasty emperor Qianlong
(171 1-1799) undertook yet another grand encyclopedic work, the Siku quanshu (Four Ware-
houses of All Books). This, as its name implies, was another extraordinary undertaking, one
intended by the Qianlong emperor to surpass the Yongle dadian in a comprehensive survey
of all works ever produced in Chinese on virtually any subject that had found its way into
writing or print. At the time it was easily the world's most ambitious encyclopedic project,
with an editorial board of more than 350 scholars who completed their task in less than ten
years, in 1782, having searched the country for texts including imperial collections, provin-
cial libraries, and private collections throughout the empire. The scholar in charge of the
mathematical sections of the Siku quanshu was Dai Zhen.
According to Liu Dun: "The Nine Chapters and Liu Hui's annotations were little known
during the Ming dynasty. It was not widely publicized until after 1774 when the mathemati-
cian ÉScÜDai Zhen (1724-1777) abstracted it from the Great Encyclopaedia of the Yong Le
Reign (Yong Le Da Dian) of the Ming dynasty" [Liu Dun 1996: 280]. In all, seven copies
of the Siku quanshu encyclopedia were made by hand and deposited in buildings designed
to house the imperial libraries in Beijing (in the Forbidden City and Summer Palace), She-
nyang, Chengde, and three repositories for public use in Hangzhou, Zhenjiang, and Yang-
zhou. Of these, two were destroyed during the Taiping Rebellion, and much of the copy in
the Summer Palace was burned in 1 860 by Anglo-French forces during the Second Opium
War. Of the other four copies, what remains is preserved at the National Library of China
in Beijing, the National Palace Museum in Taipei, the Gansu Library in Lanzhou, and the
Zhejiang Library in Hangzhou.
Fortunately, Dai Zhen undertook to print the mathematical works for which he had been
responsible. The first of these appeared in 1774, but this was before Dai Zhen had been able
to obtain a copy of the Southern Song version of the Nine Chapters with the commentaries
by Liu Hui and Li Chunfeng. A much improved version appeared in 1776, published by
Qu Zengfa, but like its predecessor, it was flawed by various editorial problems and omis-
sions. Finally, an edition published by Kong Jihan in 1777, known as the
Weiboxie (Ripple Pavilion) edition, became the best known and most widely distributed

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216 Joseph W. Dauben

during the Qing dynasty, and has serve

the Nine Chapters.
Modern editions of the Nine Chapters
Qian Baocong (1892-1974) [Qian Baoc
1990], Guo Shuchun [Guo Shuchun 1990 and 2009], Li Jimin [Li Jimin 1993 and
1998], Shen Kangshen [1997], and Guo Shuchun and Liu Dun [Guo and Liu 1998].
For details about each of these, see the commentary by [Chemia and Guo 2004: 79-80].

6. Editions in Japanese and Korean

Japanese scholars have also devoted considerable attention to the Nine Chapters. The earli-
est translation was undertaken by Oya Shinichi, KyUshõ sanjutsu (The
Jiuzhang suanshu translated into Japanese), and was part of a larger work,
Chügoku no kagaku (Chinese Science) edited by Wt ň Íít Yabuuchi Kiyoshi and published
in 1975 [Oya Shinichi 1975]. Another translation, by íi|7jCÍÉÂ Shimizu Tatsuo appeared
in parts in the journalÜ&^"£ ^ i Sügaku semina (Mathematics Seminars) beginning
in February of 1975 [Shimizu Tatsuo 1975], but like the translation by Oya, Shimizu only
translated the primary text and omitted the commentaries. In 1980 J 1 1 JÜÍ Kawahara Hideki
published a Japanese translation that included the text along with Liu Hui's commentary (but
no others) in another compendium [Kawahara Hideki 1980b]. However, when the comments
of Li Chunfeng and his associates seemed important enough to warrant mention (they often
merely repeat what Liu Hui has already said), Kawahara would elaborate in a footnote. Also
in 1980, he published a detailed analysis of the Nine Chapters , If ífjÂ¥IÊ Kyüshö
Sanjutsu kaisetsu (Explanation and commentary on the Jiuzhang suanshu ), in
Chūgoku tenmongaku-sūgaku shū (A collection of mathematical and astronomical
Chinese works), edited by Yabuuchi Kiyoshi [Kawahara Hideki 1980a].
More recent is the on-going translation by a group of scholars at Osaka Sangyo University
headed by Ohkawa Toshitaka, beginning in 2008. Published in installments in
the university's journal, À3t (Journal of Osaka Sangyo
University, Social Sciences and Humanities Series), each installment bears the gene
ing f Jíílj J IRS:!! Kyüshö sanjutsu (The Nine Chapters on the Art of Math
Draft Translation and Commentary) [Toshitaka 2008- ].
Recently, two different translations of the Nine Chapters into Korean have appear
first by Kim Hyegyöng and Yun Chuyöng: (§?í Ž|ZL£| ^^[A-ļ)
^ thÍS ( Tongyang ch'oego üi suhakso) Kujang sansul / Yu Hwi (The Best Works
in Asian Mathematics): Jiu zhang suan shu [Kim and Yun 1998]. This was followed only
two years later by yet another translation, this one by x|-§51 Ch'a Chongch'on:
m / [ff f| >±]; If. JÍM / [S4ř >±]; M Kujang sansul / [ Yu Hwi];
Ch'a Chongch'on. Chubi sankyõng / [Zhao Shuang], Ch'a Chongch'on {Jiu zhang suan
shu / [Liu Hui, ed.]; Ch'a Chongch'on, trans. Zhou bi suan jing / [Zhao Shuang, ed.]; Ch'a
Chongch'on, trans.) [Ch'a 2000]. The latter is a translation of both the Nine Chapters and
the JrII? ÍÍÉx Zhou bi suan jing (Mathematical Classic of the Zhou Gnomon), and includes
an appendix with three essays by the translator, an interpretative/explanatory essay for each
of the two translated texts, and another one entitled "A Study of the Reception of Chinese
Mathematics in the Choson Dynasty." Curiously, in the introduction, there is no mention of

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 fi ]§£ Jiu zhang suan shu 217

the earlier Korean translation [Kim and Yun 1998], nor is this
bibliography. Ch'a expresses his thanks to the Needham Inst
(then of London University), as the catalyst for his decision
his own translations of these two classic texts into Korean i

7. Early Accounts of the Nine Chapters in English and La

The earliest attempt to convey the importance and general

in a western language was given by the Protestant mission
(1815-1887), who worked in Shanghai on behalf of the Lon
conjunction with the Chinese mathematician Li Shanla
translate the last seven books of Euclid's Elements of Geome
also made the first serious study of the content and nature o
ics, hoping to correct the prevailing impression that before t
serious mathematics practiced by the Chinese [Martzloff 2
Although Wylie did not provide a translation of the Nine Ch
account of the work in his "Jottings on the Science of th
appeared in the Shanghai newspaper North China Herald a
beginning in August of 1 852. Following Wylie's death in 1 8
Thomas gathered some of Wylie's articles into a more widely
Researches [Wylie 1897].
Wylie begins his discussion of the Jiu zhang suan shu (wh
chang-swan-shuh, and translates as "Arithmetical Rules of
164]), by noting that it was extremely rare, and that the g
Jesuits of Chinese mathematics was due to the fact that in "t
nasty arithmetical science seems to have been at a very low
the Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century, their rece
advantage of comparison with the native science at one of t
its history" [Wylie 1897: 168].
Wylie also understood that it was not easy to appreciate th
mathematicians had accomplished:
It is by no means an easy task to arrive at the exact meani
mentioned, for little assistance towards their interpretatio
dinary run of teachers; few general principles are given, b
from a variety of examples, and these for the chief part a
ing brevity, besides being burdened with a number of o
allusions; a separate rule is generally given for every pr
of the various examples will enable the student to gain in
illustrate [Wylie 1897: 168].

Wylie offers a chapter-by-chapter description of the contents

that in all, the entire work consists of 246 problems. He the
the Chinese title and its translation (i.e. I. Fang-tien ,
provides a fairly detailed account of the contents of each of
following translations: II. Shuh-poo , Proportions; III. Skwae-fun , Fellowship;
IV. 'JïfM. Shaou-kwang, Evolution; V. Shang-kung , Solid Mensuration; VI.

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218 Joseph W. Dauben

Kiun-shoo : Alligation; VII. ]Ě.MYin-nu

Equations; IX: Kiu-koo, Trigonomet
To the last chapter title, Wylie adds a
translation of chapter titles:
It is not pretended that the names here
they have been adopted from an analys
exactly correspond with the rules of th
generally a near approximation it has
to transfer the sounds of the character
these would read: 1. Squaring fields.
Paucity and breadth, &c. [Wylie 1897
Having devoted ten pages to the first det
language, Wylie then summarizes as fo

Such is a very superficial outline of th

characteristic deserving of notice is t
mences with a stanza of rhyme, embo
meaning is not always apparent on th
is calculated to fix them on the memor
they contain in a concise form the le
very accurately expressed [Wylie 189

Wy lie's title for Chapter II, Su bu ,

mi , since su bu indicates more accurate
ter, namely not just grains but grains an
Chapter II: "This section is chiefly occu
ative value of grain of divers kinds and
regulated by the Hwang-tsung, one of t
length, one division forming a firn (line),
Hwang-tsung contains 1,200 grains of r
ho are equal to a shing (pint), &c. The 1
in weight to 12 choo (penny-weights),
make a kin (pound), &c." [Wylie 1897:
Wy lie's articles were not easily availa
China Herald , but they were soon tra
[Terquem 1862a and 1862b], [Bertrand
always accurate, was divided between wha
ending with Wylie 's survey of the Nine
but then continued to the end of Wylie's
Annales de Mathématiques. Perhaps it w
two different journals,
sh as well as the
flawed version by Biernatzki, that Bert
several years later in the Journal des Sav
and August volumes for 1869. Bertrand
the German original meant to say on th
[Bertrand 1869: 473].

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 ti $ % 7^: Jiu zhang suan shu 219

Although these translations of Wylie's "Jottings" did serve to m

accomplishments of Chinese mathematicians more widely known in
was not entirely positive:

[T]hese translations had a great influence on the historians of t

the beginning of the 20th centuries, Hankel, Zeuthen, Vacca and C
contained errors, and since the latter did not have access to the
grave distortions arose: these inconsistencies were systematic
Chinese authors rather than to the translators! [Martzloff 2006]

Many of the misunderstandings generated by Biernatzki's translat

were soon remedied by the first work by an Asian author to appe
included detailed coverage of the Nine Chapters , namely the acc
Yoshio (1875-1950) in his book, The Development of Mathema
(1913). Slightly less than a half-century later, interest in Chinese
an invigorating jolt by the appearance of volume three of Joseph
and Civilisation in China . With the help of Wang Ling, this was
covering both mathematics and astronomy, and it set the stage for
the Nine Chapters into western languages that soon began to follow
The first was a translation from the Chinese into Russian by the Ru
and sinologist, È.I. Berezkina, whose translation of the Nine Chapt
years before Needham and Wang's volume in the Russian journal, Is
issledovaniya [Berezkina 1957]. Unfortunately, Berezkina did not tr
into Russian, only the original text of the book. When the German
ics Kurt Vogel published his translation of the Nine Chapters into
Chiù chang suan shu: Neun Bücher arithmetischer Techniky Ein c
für den praktischen Gebrauch aus der frühen Hanzeit {Jiu zhang
on Arithmetic Techniques, a Chinese reckoning book for practical
Period), he used Berezkina's translation as a guide to understandin
gel 1968: 5-6]. He also adopted her numbering of the problems. T
translation of the commentaries by Liu Hui and Li Chunfeng and h
translation and consequently Vogel's were both based on the versi
in the Shanghai edition of The Ten Mathematical Classics of 1930,
of the edition made by Dai Zhen printed by Kong Jihan in the We
The next two translations of the Nine Chapters were into English
Yong, Professor of Mathematics at the National University of Si
examination but not a complete translation of the book: "Jiu Zhan
ters on the Mathematical Art): An Overview," in the Archive for H
[Lam 1994]. This consists of a sketch of the contents of each chapt
of representative problems, but as in the case of her predecessors
commentaries were not translated.

The first to remedy this was Shen Kangshen, of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, who with
the collaboration of John C. Crossley and Anthony W.-C. Lun, both of Monash University,

1 2 It should be noted that Wang Ling, Needham's research assistant and co-author of ten of the on-going series
of volumes of Science and Civilisation in China, received his doctorate from Trinity College, Cambridge
University, in 1956. His thesis was devoted to a study and translation of the Nine Chapters , but again, one
that did not focus on the commentaries; unfortunately, it has never been published [Wang Ling 1956].

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 220 Joseph W. Dauben

Australia, translated the entirety of the

taries. They also included Liu Hui's Hai dao suan jing (Sea Island Mathematical
Manual), Liu Hui's presentation of problems using the double-distance surveying method that
he believed was necessary to provide a comprehensive introduction to the art of mathematics,
together making ten chapters on the art of mathematics. We have not included this in our
edition because it was not, however, a part of the Nine Chapters on the Art of Mathematics,
nor was it considered to be when Li Chunfeng and his associates created their collection
of ten mathematical classics, of which both the Nine Chapters and the Hai dao suan jing
were each a part. It should also be noted that the translation of the Nine Chapters by Shen,
Crossley, and Lun is based upon Shen's translation of Qian Baocong's 1964 edition of the
ancient text into modern Chinese [Shen, Crossley, and Lun 1999: 49 and 560]. Shen also
benefited from the commentaries and collations of the text that were also available, notably
[Bai Shangshu 1983], [Guo Shuchun 1990], and [Li Jimin 1993].
In 2004, a French translation, Les Neuf Chapitres. Le Classique mathématique de la Chine
ancienne et ses commentaries ( The Nine Chapters. The mathematical classic of ancient China
and its commentaries) was published by Guo Shuchun and Karinę Chemia. This massive un-
dertaking was a collaborative effort over two decades, the result of meticulous scholarship into
every detail of the philological and technical intricacies of the ancient text and in particular,
Liu Hui's commentary. It includes a carefully collated version of the original text by Guo,
the French translation by Chemia, and a detailed glossary of ancient Chinese mathematical
terms, also by Chemia, that is an unparalleled guide for anyone interested in the subtleties
of ancient technical terminology. Published in nearly quarto-sized pages (190x260 mm), the
book includes four introductions. The first (Chapter A) by Chemia gives a general overview
of the Nine Chapters and its commentaries. The second and third (Chapters B and C) by Guo
appear in French rendered by Chemia and cover the history of the Nine Chapters and the
various critical editions and major studies that have been made of the Nine Chapters. At the
end of the third introduction (Chapter C), Guo explains the choices that resulted in the text
upon which the Chemla-Guo translation is based, their own reconstruction using three basic
editions: the earliest printed in the Southern Song (1213), that of the Grande encyclopédie
( Yongle dadian) (1408), and the Xiangjie Jiuzhang suanfa (Detailed explanation of the com-
putational methods in the Nine Chapters) [Yang Hui 1261]. Where these sources disagree,
they opt for what they describe as "la meilleure leçon, et ce dans l'espoir qu'elle puisse être
la plus proche des editions glosées par Li Chunfeng et son équippe (the best reading, and
this in the hope that it will be the closest to the edition annotated by Li Chunfeng and his
group) [Chemia and Guo 2004: 97].
The final and most critical of the four introductions (Chapter D) is by Chemia, and is
devoted to "La langue mathématique de Neuf chapitres et les problems de sa traduction"
(The mathematical language of the Nine Chapters and the problems of its translation).
Chemia sub-titles this introduction: "Oscillations entre l'étrange et l'infidèle" (Oscillations
between the strange and the unfaithful) [Chemia and Guo 2004: 99], and anyone who has
ever confronted the challenging, often thorny issues of Chinese translation will appreciate
her directness here. Chemia explains how the translator is faced with two concerns: first the
analysis of the language and forms of technical texts meant to serve the purposes of ancient
Chinese mathematics, and then the problem of rendering everything into French. Beginning
with technical terms and expressions, she covers mathematical objects, algorithms, presents

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 fi $ žfc Jiu zhang suan shu 22 1

her own theory of texts and translations, includes an important

of classical Chinese, and explains the problem of punctuating th
no punctuation, nor did the language distinguish between singula
only some of the challenges ancient Chinese presents the translator
margins are left for interpretation). As is often said of the Chi
intent are everything, but often these must be understood by im
the words on a page may suggest, given the inherent ambiguity of
usually bear multiple and often diverse meanings.
After more than one-hundred pages, Chemia and Guo turn to t
this book: a dual-language presentation of the ancient text and Fr
pages, left and right, respectively. Every chapter opens with an intr
orient the reader to the contents of the chapter under study (the in
5, 7, and 8 were written by Guo; Chapters 2, 3, 4, 6, and 9 by Ch
tions, text and translation amount to 745 pages, with nearly anot
notes on all that has gone before (all by Chemia and running to
every facet of the translation, from grammatical and philological
mathematical passages or the working of problems).
The book ends with a final Part Three, the Glossary and Bibliog
to Chemia, and here her erudition and understanding of ancient
with hand brush-written characters for every term in the glossary
by Toshiko Yasumoto, a Japanese calligrapher living in Paris. T
primarily of non-translated terms rendered here and throughou
technical terms like lÊM bie nao (a geometric solid figure in th
see Chapter 5), or words that have multiple meanings depending
chu (divide or subtract), or words sufficiently complex in their i
require more detailed explanation (like $ lii (rate), jin you
(dividend)). Bibliographies in Chinese and Japanese, as well as wo
run to slightly less than 50 pages, with another 27 pages for the
the study of the Nine Chapters , [Chemia and Guo 2004] is the M
historians of Chinese mathematics, and it has been a constant so
creation of this English-Chinese dual edition of the Nine Chapter
The most recent translation of the Nine Chapters into a wester
by Jiří Hudeček in 2008 (a part of which constituted his thesis for
the Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, which he re
translation is based upon the collation of Qian Baocong, and is
those discussed here to make use of colored diagrams. Thus he re
text, wherein Liu Hui makes reference to diagrams in his discussi
areas and volumes in particular, for which colors designated tho
particular interest. Unlike the Greeks, who used letters of their alp
of a diagram to which a proof might refer, in Liu Hui's proofs,
role, and Hudeček uses this same device to follow directly the ins
Likewise, the forthcoming [Dauben, Guo, and Xu 2013], like [
colored diagrams to follow Liu Hui's commentary as closely as p
Xu 2013] differs in particular from [Shen, Crossley, and Lun 1999
directly upon the ancient text and the commentaries of Liu Hui

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 222 Joseph W. Dauben

his associates, rather than working fr

and commentaries.

8. Mathematical Legacy of the Nine Chapters

The historic importance of the Nine Chapters throughout the history of Chinese mathematics
is confirmed again and again, despite the fact that for long periods it was virtually unknown,
only to be rescued again by mathematicians with a desire to know what their earliest fore-
fathers had actually accomplished. But there remain many unanswered questions about the
Nine Chapters that may never be answered. In the course of time, archaeological research
may well help to add to the record of lost texts from which more may come to be known
about the Nine Chapters. This has certainly been the result of the recent discoveries of the
Shu and Suan shu shu , and the new light they have shed on the early development of ancient
Chinese mathematics has already made itself felt [Cullen 2007], [Dauben 2013].
Among questions that remain unanswered is the exact time at which the Nine Chapters
was actually compiled. Who in fact was Liu Hui, was he responsible for anything other than
the commentary on the Nine Chapters , and was he really the author of all the comments
attributed to him? We have already indicated the problematic reference to the Wang Mang
standard measure in the Jin dynasty (265-316) Arsenal, which contradicts the presumed
date of Liu Hui 's composition of the Nine Chapters in 263 CE. Either the attribution of
the date in the Jin and later Sui dynastic histories is wrong, which is certainly conceivable,
or Liu Hui revised the manuscript after it had been finished, or someone else, possibly Zu
Chongzhi or his son Zu Gengzhi may have added the reference to the Jin Arsenal standard
measure without identifying himself as another commentator on the text [Wagner 1978a]
and [Wagner 1978b].
For the history of Chinese mathematics, the Nine Chapters set a standard for mathematical
explanation and analysis that was not to be matched for nearly a thousand years, until the
Song dynasty when there was a renaissance of mathematical activity and a sudden burst of
interest in original research and new ideas. Until then, there were only a very few mathema-
ticians of whom we know anything, and who were inspired either by Liu Hui's commentary
or their own reasons for improving on the results of the Nine Chapters , as for example the
desire we have already mentioned for better values of pi , or efforts to obtain a final solution
establishing the correct formula for the volume of a sphere.

9. Hermeneutic Issues

Interpreting any text is a challenge, whether approached on its own terms apart from questions
of authorship or with all due respect to contexts of time and place. The editions that survive
from antiquity of the Nine Chapters are already several steps removed from either the original
text or the prototypes on which the first versions of the Nine Chapters may have been based.
The earliest version that survives is relatively late, just following the end of the Eastern Han
dynasty, and comes with the commentary of Liu Hui, but not with those of previous compilers
and editors who presumably were responsible for the basic structure if not the entire ordering
of the problems as they appear, chapter by chapter, in Liu Hui's version of the text.

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 ti $ i? 7ft Jiu zhang suan shu 223

In addition to interpreting the basic meaning of the Nine Chapters , a

the later additions of its commentators, there are also non-verbal elem
various diagrams and counting-board procedures and layouts that are
of interpreting what ancient Chinese mathematicians did, both phy
conceptualizing the problems for which they sought solutions and th
of producing answers that take a variety of forms in the Nine Chapte
given in terms of algorithms, but also in terms of formulas that ar
substitution of given variables to determine areas or volumes of pla
The most challenging hermeneutic questions that arise with respec
are those concerning the basic assumptions and suppositions ancient
made in approaching the problems and solutions that the Nine Chap
are of special interest because often the underlying assumptions of
are quite different from those assumed in western mathematics, abo
in the tradition exemplified by ancient Greek mathematics in parti
was prized for its generality and arithmetic was taken to be especi
the lack of any concept of incommensurable magnitude or irrationa
a problem for Chinese mathematicians, who understood that some
given approximately, and simultaneously realized that these approx
as precise as one wished, and that was enough. In the case of pi, wh
a practical first approximation, Liu Hui offered his own improveme
diameter and circumference of the circle, as did Li Chunfeng and ot
better rates in order to approximate the value for pl. For them, the m
the ancient text was compromised by applying so obviously wrong a
sented by the 3:1 rates.
To give but one example of the thorny hermeneutic issues that ari
meaning of important concepts in the Nine Chapters , consider the sig
ffi mian (side) in the extraction of square roots ( mian is the side of t
the number conceived as an area whose root, or side, is to be determ
a straightforward algorithm whereby the root may be determined, bu
algorithm does not terminate (or at least the mathematician has rea
of accuracy or has lost interest and does not wish to continue with
the only exact solution is to let the side of the square stand for the sq
dang y i mian ming zhi (the side should be used to represent the root)
This sounds almost like a tautology: of course the side will be the squ
ber representing the area whose root is to be found. But some have tak
that in fact, Liu Hui has hit upon the fact that the square root in such
that the mian stands for an irrational number. But this seems to attribute too much to what

Liu Hui says. His comment acknowledges the fact that not all numbers or areas have an
exact square root. The first to suggest that mian should be read as "irrational number" was
KlLi Jimin in a chapter he contributed to the^3 Zhongguo shuxue jianshi
(A Concise History of Chinese Mathematics) [Li Jimin 1986: 153; see also Li Jimin 1989,
Li Jimin 1990, Chemia 1992, and Chemia and Keller 2002].
But there is in fact no statement in what Liu Hui says that would suggest there is a
distinction to be drawn between numbers that can be expressed evenly as the rates of two
numbers and those that cannot. The fact that the mathematician chooses to abandon the al-

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 224 Joseph W. Dauben

gorithm before it stops does not mean,

in fact be irrational. This has yet to b
not terminate, but this is nevertheless
ment by anthyphairesis (embodying t
divisor, and one possible means by wh
of incommensurable magnitudes) to a
without terminating. (For the concept
1975, Dauben 1984, and Fowler 1999]).
Liu Hui actually applies an anthyphaire
in Problem makes a fam 5.15, where he
between the volumes of the bie nao an
often one may divide them to whatev
such anthyphairetic type of argument
surable magnitudes or irrational numb
number whose square was very nearly t
to have been a satisfactory approxima
for the circumference and diameter o
process could continue with better and
particular purpose. Had Liu Hui discov
no equivalent rational expression, sure
conclusion. The ancient Greeks, who
in the case of the diagonal and side of
of arithmetic, chose to emphasize geo
opposed to arithmetic, but these distinc
For further discussion of these points
One final hermeneutic issue should a
edition and French translation of the
raised an interesting problem that all tr
that "one still can wonder whether the
render Chinese mathematical texts su
seems to have been left intentionally
Making the original ambiguity of the
this case, paradoxically, amount to its
added]. Volkov himself has taken the a
seem to have possible variant meanings,
tesimal methods in his calculation of th

10. Prosopographical Consid

Who were the mathematicians of ancient China? What were the various relations that linked

them to students and patrons, to the bureaucracy that depended upon mathematics in a host
of applications, from the construction of calendars to the massive public works projects un-
dertaken by the empire, and on lesser scales in provinces, cities, and by families living in the
rural countryside? Is it possible to identify any common characteristics of mathematicians in
ancient China given that their individual biographies are largely untraceable? While this is

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 fi ļi H ^ Jiu zhang suan shu 225

not the place to offer any extensive, collective analysis of wha

some basic patterns of relationships and activities of those wh
the Nine Chapters is useful in elucidating the nature and purpo
What were the relations and connections among those who co
maticians among the ancient Chinese? Is it possible to say anyt
likes of Liu Hui, about whom virtually nothing is known apart
subject of the Kingdom of Wei in the mid-third century CE? One
of determining who the mathematicians of ancient China were
within traditional Chinese society. As Le Xiucheng has observ
The Chinese traditionally regarded calculation as a skill and
ematicians and mathematical research had no place in Chine
cases, a mathematician's social status and conditions for con
search depended on his work on the astronomical calendar.
which emphasized practicality, was unfavorable to the adva
theory, to the effective accumulation of mathematical achiev
development because as the degree of mathematical abstrac
the practicality of some theoretical achievements in mathema
to evaluate [Le Xiucheng 1996: 259].

Ho Peng Yoke points out that the dynastic histories of this p

number of individuals whom he identifies as "mathematician
encountered before such as Zhang Cang, Geng Shouchang, Xu
Wang Fan, and Liu Hui [Ho Peng Yoke 1985: 63]. Christopher C
graphical study of the mathematicians of the Han dynasty, ha
Chou ren zhuan (first published in 1799), a biographical co
figures of Chinese astronomy and natural sciences, and has co
individuals who were in one way or another identified with ü¡[ s
suan (computations), persons well-versed in mathematics in any of
take in ancient China [Cullen 2009: 614-616; note that from
does not include Liu Xin, Wang Fan, or Liu Hui, the latter falli
the table which is concerned only with the Qin and Han dynas
Cullen 's study takes an approach inspired by Ludwig Witt
vestigations (1958), whereby he seeks to identify the activities
nowadays be called 'mathematics'" [Cullen 2009: 593]. Cullen a
general with the practice of suan , and notes that this encom
computations, the creation of calendars, and harmonics. Loo
books in the imperial library undertaken by Liu Xin (ca. 50 B
fo) Liu Xiang (77-6 BCE) as reported in Chapter 30 of the Ha
to shu shu (numerical methods) includes works on astrolo
divinatory cosmology, and divination, which greatly widens th
or computational skills were regarded as essential.
By the Eastern Han dynasty, Cullen notes that the first examp
relation, where suan is specifically mentioned, and this actual
Dowager Empress Deng Sui and 8EB3 Ban Zhao, sister of B
most responsible for producing the Han shu [Cullen 2009: 605
Outside the palace there are also signs that suan was begin
of serious interest amongst the male master-pupil scholarl

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 226 Joseph W. Dauben

classical studies. . . It is in this milieu that we first hear of a named book on suan that is
still extant today. This is the Jiu zhang suan shu JÍÍÍJ [Cullen 2009: 606].

Towards the end of his prosopographical study, Cullen devotes several pages to Liu Hui,
whose concern for mathematics seems quite different from those of his pre-Qin and Han
predecessors. Cullen quotes Liu Hui 's Preface to the Nine Chapters , and then comments as
follows:

The words used here by Liu Hui are significant. In his youth, he approached the 'Nine
chapters' through xi which describes a process of learning how to do something
(such as reciting a text) through repetition and practice. In his maturity, he attained a
different level of insight, described here as wu IH, a word used in Buddhist discourse
for the sudden break-through to enlightenment. What he aims to do in his book is to
help other mature minds to make the same leap [Cullen 2009: 611].

This in fact is a reminder of how different the times were in which Liu Hui lived. The unity
of the long reign of the Han dynasty was a thing of the past, and in its place were again
warring states at odds with each other. The sure foundation of Confucianism upon which the
Han dynasty had mostly relied was replaced by the rising influence of Buddhism and interest
in diverse philosophies of the past, from Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi to even Mohist and Daoist
ideas, including a renewed interest in some of the logical works of the Mohist canon. This
may all help to explain why Liu Hui's thinking is so strikingly different from the known
works either about or involving mathematics that preceded him [Horng Wann-Sheng 1982;
Liu Dun 1993: 71-75; and Cullen 2009: 611].
As for the mathematics and the mathematicians of the Han dynasty, the period in which the
Nine Chapters was crafted and came to serve as the major synthetic work of the mathematics
that had been growing as a body of knowledge from the Warring States and earlier times,
the aims were fundamentally practical, and those who put the knowledge of mathematics
into practice were those who wielded their counting rods to manage the state bureaucracy,
oversee public works, set its calendars, and prognosticate its fate, as had been the roles of
those adept at suan all along.

Conclusion

During the Warring States period, China experienced significant social and political changes
leading up to the unification of the country achieved by Shi Huang Di with the establishment
of the Qin dynasty. In the pre-Qin period, bureaucratic institutions as well as agriculture,
craft industries, and trading in a variety of commodities were all considerably developed.
Accompanying these changes were transformations of ideas, education, and culture generally.
Scholars with expertise in computing abilities for the purposes of administration, as well as
their applications in astronomy and calendar making, harmonics, and prognostication were
wide-spread, and private schools began to emerge. By the Warring States, the so-called "hun-
dred schools of thought" had appeared. Debates among scholars and critiques of different
philosophies and theories of statecraft further stimulated academic development, and this in
turn encouraged the development of mathematics. Thefl$$Ljiu shu from the beginning of the
Western Zhou to the Spring and Autumn periods also underwent an evolution in terms of its
contents and methods, and became the jiu zhang "nine categories" as described by Zheng

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 fi $ H Jiu zhang suan shu 227

Xuan and Zheng Zong. The methods of the "nine categories"

level of abstraction, but the results in practice could be very
As Liu Dun has observed:

[T]he research methods handed down from Confucius to the Han masters of the Con-
fucian classics were still very influential. Scholars urged "describe past achievements,
but don't create new," and "use language which is subtle yet profound in meaning." A
school of thought would often promulgate its own ideas by annotating the classics of
previous dynasties [Liu Dun 1996: 280].

Not only were Chinese mathematicians expected to solve practical problems, the rod numeral
system and the way algorithms used to solve problems were carried out on the counting board
furthered the development of arithmetic and algebra, no doubt at the expense of geometry.
Ancient Chinese philosophy developed methods of induction, analogy and experience, all
of which gave scientific theories both empirical and speculative characteristics. And as Liu
Dun explains: "Liu Hui's technique of cutting circles fully demonstrates the dialectic of the
straight and the curved. The concept of limits is just a natural product of this speculative
philosophy. His geometric means consisted primarily of the right-triangle theorem and demon-
strated perfect mastery of arithmetic. He created the 'method of little nameless numbers' of
a decimal fraction system, and skillfully carried out multidecimal calculations (to as many
as 12 decimal places) by means of computing rods. His annotations on the Nine Chapters
can be seen as an expression of traditional academic standards" [Liu Dun 1996: 286].
It is appropriate, in fact, to conclude by returning to the words of Liu Hui at the very
beginning of the Nine Chapters , in his prefatory remarks:

If one can measure the shape of the circular dome [of heaven] just like the Sun, then
so too the height of Mount Tai and even the width of rivers and seas! [Liu] Hui using
current [surviving] historical records and examples of things in the heavens and on
earth, examining the discussion [in the records] of their [use of] mathematics, as well
as their goals, in order to express the beauty of their noble methods, then wrote the
double-difference [chapter], added as a commentary, having studied the ideas of ancient
authors, and written to come after the gou-gu [chapter]. To measure heights requires
two gnomons, to sound the depths requires set-squares one above the other, [to find the
distances of] isolated and distant [objects] requires three observations, and [to find the
distances of] distant [objects] oblique to [i. e. not aligned with] the observer requires
four observations. By investigating analogies it is possible to increase knowledge, thus
even though something is remote, distant, or slyly concealed, there is nothing that does
not fit [the chong cha (double difference) method, i. e. there is nothing that cannot be
measured]. Erudite men of noble birth, please read this carefully [Dauben, Guo, and
Xu 2013: 19-21].

Mathematics, for Liu Hui, was of particular value but cosmic significance. It could measure
the immediate, but it could also be used to deduce the height of the Sun, measure the paths
of heaven, determine the seasons, compute the distances between far away places, but satisfy
the immediate needs of commerce, construction, and even serve as means of prognostication
and predicting future events. But at its most sublime, it was also for the mathematician, for
whom even the realm of the infinitely large and infinitesimally small lay open to investi-
gation. There were few who reached these more rarefied levels of investigation, but among
them was a mathematician named Liu Hui.

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228 Joseph W. Dauben

Zusammenfassung

Dieser Beitrag gilt dem antiken chinesi

Kunst der Mathematik" und der langen
ersten Kommentar von Liu Hui im Jah
Bedeutung der „Neun Kapitel" aufgezeig
die eine Übersetzung schon des Titels di
ursprünglichen Texts bereiten. Der Beit
wie solche in koreanischer und japanisch
zuden „Neun Kapiteln" vor, einschließl
Der Beitrag schließt mit einer Einschätz
und der Erörterung verschiedener herm

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Anschrift des Verfassers

Joseph W. Dauben
Department of History
Herbert H. Lehman College
The City University of New York
and

Ph.D. Program in History

The Graduate Center, CUNY

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