Chu shih chieh biography sample

(fl. China, 1280–1303),

mathematics.

Chu Shih-chieh (literary name, Han-ch’ing; appellation, Sung-t’ing) lived in Yen-shan (near modern Peking).

George Sarton describes him, along with Ch’in Chiu-shao, as “one of the greatest mathematicians of his race, of his time, and indeed of all times.” However, except for the preface of his mathematical work, the Ssu-yüan yü-chien (“Precious Mirror of the Four Elements”), there is no record of his personal life.

The preface says that for over twenty years he traveled extensively in China as a renowned mathematician; thereafter he also visited Kuang-ling, where pupils flocked to study under him. We can deduce from this that Chu Shih-chieh flourished as a mathematician and teacher of mathematics during the last two decades of the thirteenth century, a situation possible only after the reunification of China through the Mongol conquest of the Sung dynasty in 1279.

Chu Shih-chieh wrote the Suan-hsüeh ch’i-meng (“Introdu