Chinese mathematicians’ researches on the golden section in the early Qing Dynasty. (Chinese. English summary) Zbl 1199.01002

Dong, Jie; Wang, Weidong

J. Inn. Mong. Norm. Univ., Nat. Sci. 37, No. 4, 573-578 (2008).

Summary: During the late Ming Dynasty, Golden Section, which is named by Xu Guangqi as Lifenzhongmoxian, was introduced into China by Euclid’s Element, and furthermore, Chinese mathematicians in the early Qing Dynasty enriched Golden Section by clarifying its principles according to their understandings. Three Chinese mathematicians, Li Zijin, Mei Wending, and Yang Zuomei, studied Golden Section from different aspects. What underlies their understandings is that they all adopted the same principle, gougu principle, as the basis for explaining Golden Section. At the same time, they illustrated Golden Section by using various clear diagrams. Therefore, although there is different among them in the depth of adopting Golden Section, it is beyond all doubt that the three arithmeticians have brought forth new ideas from the western arithmetic.

MSC:

01A25

History of Chinese mathematics

Keywords:

golden section