The Suan Shu Shu: A Translation and Study of the Earliest Chinese Mathematical Text

Needham Research Institute Working Papers: 1 2004 A translation of a Chinese mathematical collection of the second century BC, with explanatory commentary, and an edition of the Chinese text The Suan shu shu is an ancient Chinese collection of writings on mathematics approximately seven thousand characters in length, written on 190 bamboo strips. It was discovered together with other writings in 1983 when archaeologists opened a tomb at Zhangjiashan in Hubei province. From documentary evidence this tomb is thought to have been closed in 186 BC, early in the Western Han dynasty. The occupant of the tomb - whose name is unknown to us - appears to have been a minor local government official, who had begun his career in the service of the Qin dynasty, but started work for the Han in 202 BC. The Suan shu shu is anonymous, in the sense that we do not know the name of the person who assembled this material. A few sections of text are however marked with the common surnames Wang and Yang ; whether these persons were merely scribes or were the actual authors of mathematical material is not clear. The Suan shu shu is the earliest known extensive Chinese writing on mathematics. I present here a fully commented translation of the original Chinese text, with an introductory essay. This is followed by a critical edition of the original text prepared from photographs of the bamboo strips themselves.