Chapter 54 Section 2 The Status and Significance of Ancient Chinese Calculation

The brilliant achievements of ancient Chinese mathematics have been increasingly recognized by Chinese people and people of insight in the world's academic circles.We oppose the chauvinistic practice of arbitrarily elevating the ancients and creating the world's best. Similarly, we also oppose the wrong attitude of disregarding the facts and using Greek mathematics as the only model to belittle Chinese mathematics. The national nihilism that China has handed in a blank paper in the history of mathematics.We believe that the ancient Greeks did make brilliant contributions to mathematics and had a huge impact on the mathematical thought of the world.However, it is also undeniable that around the 2nd century BC, when Greek mathematics declined, Chinese mathematics (and later developed Indian mathematics and Arabic mathematics) occupied the center of gravity of the world mathematics stage.From the writing of "Nine Chapters of Arithmetic" in the first and second centuries BC to the beginning of the 14th century, China has been leading the world in many fields of mathematics for a long time, and its overall level is also in the forefront of the world.This is not only a major shift in the geographical focus of world mathematics research, but also a major turning point in the direction of mathematics research.Since then, the algorithmic research has replaced the geometric research.Chinese algorithmic achievements were introduced to the West through various channels, which had an immeasurable impact on the development of mathematics in the European Renaissance.It was the combination of Chinese algorithms and ancient Greek geometry that led to the emergence of analytic geometry and contributed to the transformation of constant mathematics into variable mathematics.

Chinese ancient mathematics achievements are not only excellent textbooks for patriotic education, but many achievements themselves still have practical significance for current mathematics teaching.In fact, the ancient Chinese methods for solving certain problems are far superior to those in current mathematics textbooks.More importantly, the ideas and methods of ancient Chinese mathematics still have an enlightening effect on current mathematical research.Some mathematicians " regard structural and mechanized mathematics as mathematics that can be directly applied to modern computers", and Chinese mathematics is such a kind of mathematics.Mr. Wu Wenjun absorbed the ideas and methods of ancient Chinese mathematics, and achieved world-renowned achievements in the research of machine proofs of geometric theorems.He predicted: "Continuing to carry forward the mechanization characteristics of ancient Chinese traditional mathematics, to explore ways to realize mechanization in various fields of mathematics, and to establish mechanized mathematics will be something that can be generally perfected in this century and may last throughout the 21st century." ("Preface to New Advances in Modern Mathematics") "The influence of the ideas contained in "Nine Chapters" will become increasingly significant. It is not only impossible, but even a foregone conclusion to surpass the ideological system of "Original" in the next century. "("Nine Chapters of Arithmetic Preface to Hui School")