Western Learning And The Early Qing Dynasty Mathematics

This dissertation analyses and discusses the controversial impacts of the dissemination of western astronomical and mathematical knowledge on China, especially among Chinese astronomers and mathematicians, and the complex social background causing such phenomenon.The paper is composed of four parts. Chapter one outlines the transmission of western astronomical and mathematical knowledge to China during the period of the "Western Culture Influencing the East", and makes a preliminary study into Sino-Western mathematical interactions. Following a general review of the relevant study results, the author comes to a conclusion that much attention should be paid to the conflicts between and conglomeration of the western influences and the Chinese traditions, which constitutes the main point of the thesis.Chapter two elaborates the transmission of western astronomical and mathematical knowledge into China in early Qing dynasty, giving emphases on the successes and setbacks of such transmission during Kangxi Reign (1662-1723).Chapter three addresses to the interactions between Chinese and Western mathematics in early Qing dynasty, discussing especially over the complicated impacts of the "Kangxi Litigation on Calenders" and the way of Chinese methematicians' acceptance of western astronomical and mathematical knowledge.Chapter four discusses over the development of mathematical study during Qianlong and Jiaqing Reigns (1736-1819), and points out that, under the atmosphere of "Back to the Ancients" at that time, the exchange and integration of Chinese and Western mathematics fell into predicament.At the end of the thesis, the author concludes that it should be significant to analyze the interactions of Chinese and Western mathematical systems through the differences between their deep-rooted traditions.