The Development of Mathematics in China And Japan

Chinese mathematics was defined by Chinese in ancient times as the "art of calculation" (suan chu). This art was both a practical and spiritual one, and covered a wide range of subjects from religion and astronomy to water control and administration. The oldest existing Chinese texts containing formal mathematical theories were produced during the Han period. The Arithmetic Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular Paths of Heaven (Chou Pei Suan Ching) is dated before the 3rd century B.C and contains various modern mathematical principles such as working with fractions using a common denominator, and proofs of many geometrical theories. The text contains an accurate process of division for finding out the square root of numbers. When Buddhism entered Japan, from China, around the eighth century, historians infer that Chinese texts on arithmetic, algebra and geometry were taken as the basis for the further development of Japanese mathematics. The earliest of these texts is thought to be the Chou-pei Suan-ching, which contains an example and proof of the Pythagorean theorem. Instead of taking root however, this learning was largely ignored in Japan as the country entered a dark age. It is not until the start of the seventeenth century that definite historical records exist of Japanese mathematicians. The first of these is Kambei Mori who was instrumental in developing arithmetical calculations on the soroban (Japanese abacus). However the most influential of all Japanese mathematicians emerged some years later during the genroku period. Kowa Seki (1642 - 1718) was, by popular accounts, Japan's Newton or Leibnitz