Mei Juecheng

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Mei Juecheng (born May 19, 1681 in Xuanzhou (then Xuangcheng), † November 20, 1763 ) was a Chinese mathematician. He edited the works of his grandfather Mei Wending .

Mei Juecheng was taught mathematics by his grandfather in Baoding, near Beijing. At that time, mathematical knowledge at the imperial court was promoted directly by the emperor Kangxi and the sons of the imperial minister Li Guangdi also took lessons with Mei Juecheng at Mei Wending. The latter took his grandson Mei Juecheng to an imperial audience in 1703, and Mei Juecheng was then engaged in compiling mathematical and astronomical works at court. In particular, a compilation of Chinese and European mathematical texts, mainly mediated by the Jesuits, should be made in an encyclopedia. It was led by Li Guangdi (who was himself a mathematician) and the son of Emperor Yunzhi.

In order not to let the Chinese knowledge appear below value in this comparison, Mei Juecheng wrote in 1710 that many of the methods of algebra were already known in ancient China, but had been forgotten. In 1712 he became a court mathematician and in 1713 a member of the newly founded mathematical academy (Mengyangzhai), which compiled the collection of treasures of mathematics (Yuzhi shuli jingyun), which appeared in 1723. Only Chinese were involved in the work and not Jesuits as in earlier mathematical compilations. Mei Juecheng was the editor-in-chief with Chen Houyao (1648-1722). Mei Wending was also involved in the beginning, as well as He Guozong and Ming Antu. Many older mathematical works from China were re-examined and Mei Juecheng succeeded in deciphering and reconstructing the old methods of medieval texts from the Song and Yuan dynasties. He saw that his theory of the Chinese origin of many mathematical knowledge that had been ascribed to Europeans in the works of the Jesuits was confirmed. This sparked new interest in traditional Chinese mathematics in China.

There were around a hundred scholars at the academy who studied astronomy and music in addition to mathematics. There were also instrument makers and computers. The treasure trove of mathematics also covered logarithms and tables of trigonometric functions. Astronomy was included in a more comprehensive overarching project (Lüli Yuanyuan, Sources of Musical Harmony and Mathematical Astronomy ) and Mei Juecheng played a leading role in this. He used the writings of his grandfather Mei Wending and was able to achieve improvements in predicting lunar eclipses.

He also worked on the astronomical part of the work in the 1730s and 1740s, and was also concerned with a history of the calendar in the Ming Dynasty.

In 1759 he published pearls extracted from the Red River (Chishui Yizhen) as an appendix to the works of his grandfather Mei Wending, which he edited. There you can find the first infinite series development in Chinese works (for the sine). Mei Juecheng was referring to the French Jesuit Pierre Jartoux (1669-1720), known in China as Du Demei, who was in China from 1701.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Martzloff, History of chinese mathematics, Springer 1997, p. 353
personal data
SURNAME Mei, Juecheng
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Chinese mathematician
DATE OF BIRTH May 19, 1681
PLACE OF BIRTH Xuanzhou
DATE OF DEATH November 20, 1763