The Influence Of Confucianism On Chinese Traditional Mathematics

According to the viewpoint of Marxism, the development of science is determined by social need. Meanwhile, science is influenced by philosophy. Mathematics as a branch of science, is no exception. The common character which Chinese traditional mathematics and foreign traditional mathematics share is that they both originated from and grew with the social need of production and living in ancient times. Mathematics is also developed by mathematicians. So it is bound to be influenced by philosophical thinking of various eras or various countries. It is true of both Chinese calculation-oriented traditional mathematics and the ancient Greek deduction-centered mathematics.So what is the relation between Confucianism which has long dominated Chinese thought and the characters of Chinese traditional mathematics? This is an important issue which has not been studied systematically up till now. This thesis will discuss this theme.China enjoys such a long history and ample mathematical classics that it is impossible to study the relation between Confucianism and Chinese traditional mathematics thoroughly in one paper. So this thesis will focus on the influence of Confucianism upon Chinese traditional mathematics by studying Jiuzhangsuanshu ,one example of Chinese traditional mathematical books. Additionally, the comparison between the characters of Jiuzhangsuanshu and Euclidian principles is made.The themes discussed are as follows:- ideological roots of the characters of Chinese traditional mathematics;- the reason that deduction system was not developed in Chinese traditional mathematics;- criticism of various wrong views about Chinese traditional mathematics; -hints of the interchange of mathematics and philosophy between China andJapan;-methodological imports of algorithm and aesthetics in Chinese traditional mathematics on modern mathematics.The specific themes are :Chapter One Comparison between Chinese traditional mathematics and ancient Greek mathematicsBy comparing Jiuzhangsuanshu with Euclidian principles in the content, structure and thinking method, it is concluded that the remarkable features of Chinese traditional mathematics are its practicality and calculation-orientedness.Chapter Two Influence of Confucianism upon Chinese traditional mathematicsThe influence of Confucianism upon Chinese traditional mathematics is studied in detail by revealing the thinking features of Confucianism, i.e. wholeness, canon and practical reason and their effect on Chinese traditional mathematics.Chapter Three Confucianism's obstacle to logical thinkingIn China's history the school of Mo-tse developed logical thought, applied it to mathematical research and laid a foundation for traditional mathematics to come to rational logic from sensual intuition. Liu Hui was influenced by Mo-tse's logical thought and tried to continued to follow this path. But since he was bounded by Confucianism, Liu Hui did not go beyond the frame of Jiuzhangsuanshu and he limited his efforts tothe technique and annotation .Especially he did not expand the reasoning of annotation to the reasoning of deduction .The practicality of Chinese traditional mathematics prevented it from put forward irrational numbers ,whereas the conceptualization of irrational numbers was the vital chance by which arithmetic turned to geometry and sensual intuition turned to rational deduction in ancient Greek mathematics. All these facts reflected Confucianism's obstacle to the development of logical thinking in Chinese traditional mathematics.Chapter Four Influence of Chinese mathematics upon Japanese mathematicsThe history of Japanese mathematics before the Meiji Era is divided into two phases: mathematics before Japanese arithmetic and Japanese arithmetic. During the former phase Japan imitated China 's mathematical education system in the Dynasty of Sui-Tang and used Jiuzhangsuanshu as an elementary textbook. So Japanese mathematics during this period is a simple copy of Chinese traditional mathematics. Bu...