Mathematics and Astronomy in the Ancient World: An East-Asian Perspective

by Daniel Patrick Morgan (Editor), Tang Quan (Editor)

Overview

This book contains an edited selection of the papers presented at the Second International Conference on the History of Ancient Mathematics and Astronomy (ICHAMA), organized by Tang Quan and Qu Anjing and held in Xi’an, 2–8 December 2018, commemorating the foundation. This collection, consisting of papers that have been refined and edited into scientific articles, provides an overview of how the history of science can be international, stepping beyond area studies, without being Euro-centric. Containing chapters written by East Asia scholars who do not publish widely in English, the volume opens an important window into their projects and the state of scholarship in their respective countries in relation to the history of mathematics and astronomy. As the contributions span a spectrum of senior and junior scholars, they are of great interest to an academic audience of researchers and post-graduate students in the history of science and the history of mathematics and astronomy in particular.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783031938085
Publisher:	Springer Nature Switzerland
Publication date:	09/11/2025
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Daniel Patrick MORGAN is a historian of astronomy in ancient China. Graduated from the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations of the University of Chicago in 2013, he is currently a researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique based at the Centre de recherche sur les civilisations de l’Asie oriental in Paris. Daniel is an associate editor at the journal East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine, and an English-language editor for Études chinoises. His recent works include Astral Sciences in Early Imperial China: Observation, Sagehood and the Individual (Cambridge UP, 2017) and Monographs in Tang official historiography perspectives from the technical treatises of the History of Sui (Sui shu), edited with Damien Chaussende (Cham: Springer, 2019).

TANG Quan is also a history of astronomy in China. Graduated from the Mathematics Department of Northwest Normal University in 1996, he is a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in History of Science at Northwest University, Xi’an” to “TANG Quan is also a historian of astronomy in ancient China. Graduated from the Mathematics Department of Northwest University in 2006, he is a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in History of Sciences at Northwest University, Xi’an.

Table of Contents

Part 1: China.- Chapter 1. Modeling Heaven and Earth”: Application of the Constellation Yi and the Nine Palaces in the Planning of the Western Zhou Capital at Luoyi.- Chapter 2. A Statistical Approach to Numerical Sequences on Ancient Chinese Artifacts.- Chapter 3. On the Variety of Language in Formulating the same Procedure in “Litian” 里田 Land Measurement Problems in Excavated Qin-Han Mathematical Manuscripts.- Chapter 4. A Radical Proposition on the Origins of the Received Mathematical Classic the Gnomon of Zhou (Zhoubi 周髀).- Chapter 5. What is “the Science of Du and Shu” 度數之學 in the Chongzhen lishu 崇禎曆書?.- Part 2: Korea.- Chapter 6. Binomial Expansions in Joseon Mathematics.- Chapter 7. The Mathematics of a Prime Minister of Joseon, Choi Seog-jeong.- Chapter 8. Solar Activities and Climate Change during the Last Millennium as Evidenced in Korean Chronicles.- Part 3: Japan.- Chapter 9. Japanese Mathematics from the Seventh to Sixteenth Century.- Part 4: West and East From Asia.- Chapter 10. Sunrise and Sunset Times of the Chinese Chóngxiū-Dàmíng Calendar 重修大明曆.- Chapter 11. Three Texts Concerning Planetary Periods from Babylon.- Chapter 12. The research about the Antikythera Mechanism: old and new questions.- Chapter 13. Thābit ibn Qurra’s Handling of Indian Trigonometry.- Chapter 14. Estimating the Gregorian Arrival Date of the Māori to Aotearoa-New Zealand.