1.

0 INTRODUCTION

Chinese civilization is one of an ancient civilization alongside the Babylon and the Egypt. The
first sign of mathematics development in this ancient civilization is proved by the marking of
symbols on the tortoise shells and cattle bones. This materials is known as the oracle bones
that is approximately 1200BC during the Shang dynasty. After that, Chinese do calculation
using bamboo counting rod which is small in size. The use of the rod leads to the rod numeral
that has been used by the Chinese to write the numbers.

Unlike the Babylonian, the Chinese use the decimal system and not the sexagesimal
system. Chinese also use common fraction which is differ from the Egyptian fraction that uses
unit fractions. Evidence by the past research also suggest that the Chinese are comfortable
to use the negative number. Chinese will use the red set of the rod that indicates the positive
number and black set to indicate the negatives number. Similar to the Babylonian and the
Egyptian, the book that has been established during that period is mainly focusing on the
problem solving.
 The earliest book related to maths is believed to be during the Hans dynasty. The
development of maths in ancient Chinese is very difficult trace the exact date because the
books related to maths has been ordered to be burned by the emperor Shih Huang Ti during
the Chin dynasty. Therefore, the following Han dynastys mathematician has been rewriting
all the maths that has been burned from memory or hidden scrolls. The early writing of the
Chinese civilization is Zhou bi Suan Jing (The Arithmetic Classic of the Gnomon and the Circular
Path of Heaven) and the Chiu Chang Suan Shi (The Nine Chapter on the Mathematical Art).
Liu Hui has improvised the Nine Chapter book by adding nine problems to the end of the
books. These book is later published as the Haidao Suanjing (The Sea Island of Mathematical
Manual).

The Zhou bi book has been commented by 3 critical reader or mathematician that is
Zhao Shang (3rd century AD), Zhen Luan (6th century AD) and Li Chunfeng (7th century AD).
The Zhou bi is unique book as the problem solving is presented in the form of dialogue
between masters and students. Meanwhile, the Nine Art book is the most influential of all
Chinese mathematical works in the history of Chinese mathematics. It is the longest surviving
and one of the most important in the ten ancient Chinese mathematical books. The book was
co-compiled by several people and finished in the early

The Nine Chapter on the Mathematical Art consist of 246 questions with solution and
procedure provided after the questions. There are many area of Chinese civilization problems
has been discussed and the summary of the nine chapters is listed below:-

1. Chapter 1, Field measurement(Fang tian): systematic discussion of algorithms using

counting rods for common fractions for GCD, LCM; areas of plane figures, square,
rectangle, triangle, trapezoid, circle, circle segment, sphere segment, annulus. Rules
are given for the addition, subtraction, multiplication and division of fractions, as well
as for their reduction.
2. Chapter 2, Cereals (Sumi): deals with percentages and proportions. It reflects the
management and production of various types of grains in Han China.
3. Chapter 3, Distribution by proportion (Cui fen): discusses partnership problems,
problems in taxation of goods of different qualities, and arithmetical and geometrical
progressions solved by proportion.
4. Chapter 4, what is width? (Shao guang): finds the length of a side when given th
area or volume. Describes usual algorithms for square and cube roots.
5. Chapter 5, Construction consultations (Shang gong): concerns with calculation for
constructions of solid figures such as cube, rectangular parallelepiped, prism frustums,
pyramid, triangular pyramid, tetrahedron, cylinder, cone, prism, pyramid, cone,
frustum of a cone, cylinder, wedge, tetrahedron, and some others. It gives problems
concerning the volumes of city-walls, dykes, canals, etc.
6. Chapter 6, Fair taxes (Jun shu): discusses the problems in connection with the time
required for people to carry their grain contributions from their native towns to the
capital. There are also problems of ratios in connection with the allocation of tax
burdens according to population.
7. Chapter 7, Excess and deficiency (Ying bu zu): uses of method of false position and
double false position to solve difficult problems.
8. Chapter 8, Rectangular arrays (Fang cheng): gives elimination algorithm for solving
systems of three or more simultaneous linear equations. Introduces concept of positive
and negative numbers (red reds for positive numbers, black for negative numbers).
Rules for addition and subtraction of signed numbers.
9. Chapter 9, Right triangles(Gou gu): applications of Pythagorean theorem and similar
triangles, solves quadratic equations with modification of square root algorithm, only
equations of the form x^2 + a x = b, with a and b positive
4.0 CONTRIBUTION OF CHINESE MATHEMATICS

Chinese mathematics has developed greatly since at least 100 BC. Although the Chinese refer
back to their ancient texts, many of which were written on strips of bamboo, they are
constantly coming up with ways of working out problems. One of the earliest Chinese
mathematicians was a man named Luoxia Hong (130BC 30BC). He designed a new calendar
for the Emperor, which featured 12 months, based on a cycle of 12 years. This inspired many
people to design calendars and the one we have today.

The Chinese civilization also the first to develop the negative number systems. The
usage of Red rod for the positive number and the black rod as the negative indicates that the
ancient Chinese has already possessed the knowledge on the negative numbers. Furthermore,
there is an argument of the first civilization that developed the zero. Chinese scholar believes
that the concept of zero has been utilized by the civilization way before the Hindus
demonstrate the concept. The Chinese symbol for zero is a circle that denote the empty space
between the numbers.

The Chinese also aware of the concept of similar triangles. In Zhou bi, the example
of gnomon and its shadow has been used in order to illustrate the Pythagorean theorem. The
gnomon and the shadow example explains that the triangle ABC in the figure below and the
triangle ADE are similar triangle. Furthermore, the line AC refers to the shadow (base) and
meanwhile the straight line BC refers to the attitude of gnomon can be used in order to find
the height of sun and other heavenly body. Triangle ADE can be describe by DE refers to the
height of the sun and AE is the shadow distance from the shadow point to the no shadow
point. The ancient Chinese believe that the can identify the distance of the sun using gnomon
as the no shadow area is where the sun is perpendicular to the Earth which is believed to be
flat surfaced.
 From the above example in the Zhou bi, it is believed that the ancient Chinese has the
knowledge of Pythagorean Theorem. Further evident that suggest the Chinese civilization
uses the Pythagorean Theorem is the problem involve finding the unknown side of the right
angled triangles. The problem asked to find the half chord of a circle, given the radius and
the distance from the centre to the chord. Unfortunately, this question does not have any
solution to it. Last prove that the ancient Chinese uses the Pythagorean Theorem is the Gougu
rules which is the Chinese version of Pythagorean Theorem that is denoted in the Zhou bi.

The original text in Zhou bi regarding the solution is not very clear and hard to understand.
It was the commentator Zhao Shang that write a short essay and diagram to explain it more
clearly. The green triangles and the red triangles in the picture above is a right angled
triangles. The outer side of the rectangle has a length of 7. The Chinese scholar that depict
this problem by taking the total area of the square minus with four green triangles, it will give
an answer to the tilted square (yellow and red). The working for the solution is shown below:-

Area of titled square = area of total square green triangles

= 49 4 (6)

= 25

From the above, equation the area of the tilted square obtained is 25, since the square has a
property of equal side thus the longest side or the hypotenuse is 5. This has proved that
ancient Chinese not only understand the Pythagoras Theorem but also the Pythagorean
triples. Other than the Pythagoras Theorem, Liu Hui (220AD 280AD) also tried to find pi to
the nearest number. He eventually got to 3.14159, which in those days was thought to be
an incredible achievement

Other contribution by the Chinese civilization is the systematic treatment of arithmetic

operation with fractions, deals with various solution of proportions, devises the methods for
extracting square roots and cubic roots, develops problems solutions for linear equations, and
establish the theories to calculate the areas and the volumes of different shapes and figures.