Li Shanlan

Li Shanlan

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Li Shanlan

Its original name is Li Xinlan, and its name is Jingfang. It's called qiuzhe, but it's not called Renshu. Born on January 22, 1811 and died on December 9, 1882 in Haining, Zhejiang Province, he is a famous mathematician, astronomer, mechanic and botanist in modern China. He founded the power series expansion of quadratic square root and studied the power series expansion of various trigonometric functions, anti trigonometric functions and logarithmic functions (now known as the "natural number power summation formula"), which is Li Shanlan and also a Chinese scholar in the 19th century The greatest achievement in mathematics.

Life of the characters

Li Shanlan (from January 22, 1811 to December 9, 1882) was born in a scholarly family. His ancestors can be traced back to Li Boyi, a native of Bianliang (now Kaifeng, Henan Province) in the late Southern Song Dynasty. Boyi spent his whole life studying and commenting on Taoism, but he didn't enjoy his official career. At the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, Li Yanju, his son, was virtuous and upright. He helped Korea and asked his doctor, the general manager of Jiaxing Road, to stay with him. His family settled in Xiashi Town, Haining county. Over the past 500 years, the family has been passed on to the 17th grandson, Li zulie, who is called Mr. Xugu, who is a scholar of Confucian classics. Zu Liechu married the granddaughter of Xu Jixi, the magistrate of Wanghai county. Unfortunately, Xu's family died early. After he married his wife and sister to fill the house, he died of illness. Later, the Cui family was the daughter of Cui Jingyuan, a famous Confucian scholar. Cui had three sons: Xinlan (Shanlan), Xinmei, Xinkui, and a daughter. Xinmei is also good at mathematics. In his early years, Li Shanlan married his wife Xu in his hometown and had no children. In his later years, he took concubine MI in Beijing and still had no children. He adopted his nephew Cui Jingchang as his heir. Jingchang word Yin Mei, once served as Jiang customs documents. Li Shanlan studied in a private school since childhood and received good family education. He is gifted with talent, diligent and studious. He can recite the poems and books he has read. When he was 9 years old, Li Shanlan found on his father's bookshelf an ancient Chinese mathematical masterpiece nine chapters of arithmetic, which was very novel and interesting. He was fascinated by mathematics ever since. At the age of 14, Li Shanlan read the first six volumes of Euclid's the original of geometry by self-study, which was a famous ancient Greek mathematical work translated by Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) and M. Ricci (1522-1610) in the late Ming Dynasty. The rigorous logic system and clear mathematical reasoning of Euclidean geometry are quite different from the traditional Chinese mathematical thinking of emphasizing practical solution and calculation skills, which has its own characteristics and advantages. On the basis of "nine chapters of arithmetic", Li Shanlan absorbed the new ideas of "the origin of geometry", which made his mathematical attainments more and more profound. A few years later, as a student of a county, Li Shanlan went to Hangzhou, the provincial capital, to take part in the local examination. As a result, his eight part essay was not well done and failed because he "studied the study of exegesis, but it was not as good as arithmetic, so he had a deep heart in arithmetic" (preface of Li Shanlan's zeguxizhai arithmetic). However, he did not mind. Instead, he took advantage of the opportunity in Hangzhou to search all kinds of mathematics books. He bought back Li Ye's "sea mirror for measuring circle" and Dai Zhen's "story of Pythagorean cutting circle" and studied them carefully, which greatly improved his mathematics level. Wu Zhaoqi, a native of Haiyan, said in his poem "reading the book of Chou Ren shows Uncle Li Ren that" all streams converge in one gully, and Yazhi says arithmetic. There are schools of thought in China and the west, and the round path is poor and dense. "It's hard for the rest to know the three unifications of the Han methods. Yu Fang is eager to learn, but his mind is poor and single-minded." Xu Xiang's Xiachuan poetry continuation notes says: "Qiucheng (Wu Zhaoqi) inherited the family learning of Mr. siting, and was especially good at Xijie and Chongcha. Uncle Li Ren of Tongli was good at the work of master LAN." It seems that Li Shanlan once worshipped Wu Zhaoqi as a teacher and studied mathematics. in his hometown, Li Shanlan organized "Yuanhu singing club" with Jiang renrong, Cui Dehua and other relatives and friends. He often visited "Dongshan villa" and sang in rhyme. At that time, he used the principle of proportionality of similar Pythagorean forms to corresponding sides to calculate the height of Dongshan. Chen Huan, his teacher of Confucian classics, said in the book of the origin of teachers and friends that "Whoever learns the art of nine numbers, often sets up a line, and uses long and short forms to measure the sun according to the time, then he is easy to check.". In Bai Yue Shi Hua, Yu Yu said that he "tasted dew at night, sat on the top of the mountain, and measured the latitude of the image.". Up to now, Li Shanlan's hometown still has the story of looking out of the attic window to observe the stars on his wedding night. In 1840, the Opium War broke out and imperialist powers invaded China, which inspired Li Shanlan's thought of saving the country scientifically. He said, "Hoo Hoo! Today, the countries of Europa are becoming stronger and stronger, which is a threat to China's borders. It's the essence of making utensils, and it's the essence of making utensils. " "In another day (China), everyone learned to calculate, and made tools more and more skillfully. In Weihai and other countries, he ordered people to take pictures and pay tribute to them." (preface to Zhongxue by Li Shanlan) from then on, he worked hard in mathematics research in his hometown. Around 1845, Li Shanlan set up a school in lufeijia, Jiaxing, and became acquainted with scholars (mainly mathematicians) in Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas, such as Gu sightseeing (1799-1862), Zhang Wenhu (1808-1885) and Wang Yuezhen (1813-1881). They often discussed mathematical problems together. During this period, Li Shanlan's works on "Acupotomy" were published, such as "Fangyuan elucidation", "Sagittarius revelation", "logarithm exploration". Later, he wrote four yuan explanation and Lin De Shu explanation. In 1851, Li Shanlan met Dai Xu (1805-1860), a famous mathematician. In 1852, Dai Xu said: "I was handed over to Li Jun, uncle Ren of Haichang last year The reason is that he asked for correction of the incomplete manuscript, but Uncle Ren appreciated the skill of mutual seeking between the two lines of arc and cutting. After four times of promotion, he sent a letter to inquire about it again this year, so he refused to copy it. Reading the month is the end of the story! How little is the help of friends? " (preface to Dai Xu's Wai Che Mi Lu) Li Shanlan and his friends learned from each other academically. He and mathematicians Luo Shilin (1774-1853) and Xu Youren (1800-1860) also "asked questions by post, often in the morning and then in the evening" (Cui Jingchang's biography of Uncle Li Renjun). In the summer of 1852, Li Shanlan went to Mohai Library in Shanghai to show his mathematical works to foreign missionaries in China. He was praised by A. Wylie (1815-1887) and others. From then on, he began his career of translating western scientific works with foreigners. the first book translated by Li Shanlan and Valerie is the last nine volumes of Euclid's the original of geometry. While translating the original of geometry, he and J. Edkins (1823-1905) Co translated 20 volumes of re learning. After that, he translated 18 volumes of Tan Tian, 13 volumes of algebra, 18 volumes of Dai Wei Ji Shi Ji and 8 volumes of botany with A. Williamson (1829-1890). These books were published by Shanghai mohai library from 1857 to 1859. In addition, he also translated netherworld Mathematics (i.e. Newton's mathematical principles of natural philosophy) together with J. fryer and Valerie. Unfortunately, he did not finish the translation and failed to publish it. In 1860, Li Shanlan served as an aide under Xu Youren, governor of Jiangsu Province. After the Taiping army occupied Suzhou, his luggage, including all kinds of manuscripts, was lost. From then on, he "lost his mind on current affairs", avoided chaos in Shanghai, devoted himself to mathematical research, and wrote books again. During this period, he had academic contacts with mathematicians Wu Jiashan and Liu Yicheng. In the autumn of 1861, Zeng Guofan (1811-1872), the leader of the Westernization Movement and governor of Liangjiang, prepared to build anqing Nei ordnance Institute in Anhui Province, and invited Xu shou (1811-1884), a famous chemist, and Hua Jianfang (1833-1902), a mathematician, to the curtain. In 1862, Li Shanlan was "employed as a strategist in the army and also as the main publisher". As soon as he arrived in Anqing, he took out mathematics books such as the original geometry, which had been destroyed by the war. He asked Zeng Guofan to reprint them, and recommended Zhang Wenhu, Zhang Sigui and others to the screen. They lived together, often had academic discussions, and actively participated in the scientific and technological activities in the Westernization new deal. In the summer of 1864, Zeng Guofan conquered Tianjing (now Nanjing), the capital of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Li Shanlan and others also followed him to Nanjing. He once again proposed to print his translated mathematics books, which was supported and funded by Zeng Guofan. As a result, 15 volumes of geometry in 1865 and 24 volumes of zegu Xizhai mathematics in 1867 were published Li Hongzhang (1823-1901), who founded Jinling Machinery Bureau in Nanjing, also supported Li Shanlan to reprint 20 volumes of "re study" and publish 3 volumes of "theory of conic curve". In 1866, an astronomy and arithmetic museum was set up in Beijing's Tongwen library. Guo Songtao (1817-1891), governor of Guangdong Province, recommended Li Shanlan as the general teacher of astronomy and arithmetic. However, Li Shanlan was busy publishing books in Nanjing and did not go north until 1868. From then on, he completely turned to mathematics education and research until his death in 1882. During this period, more than 100 students have been taught. It has been more than ten years. Many students have been successful in their studies, either in other provinces or abroad "(Cui Jingchang's biography of Li Renshu's expedition to the throne). Famous scholars include Xi Gan, GUI Rong, Xiong fangbai, Chen Shoutian, Hu Yulin, Li Fengchun, etc. In his later years, Jiang huaiting and Cai Xiyong, two Italian students, wrote a letter to Hua juofang, saying that "there is nothing more gratifying in recent days than this, and they are eager to tell you.". These people played an important role in spreading modern science, especially mathematics. after Li Shanlan arrived at Tongwen library, he was awarded the title of Zhongshu in the second year (1869). In 1871, he was given the title of Shidu in Neige. In 1874, he was promoted to head of the household department, and he was given the title of liupinqing. In 1876, he was promoted to yuanwailang (wupinqing),

Chinese PinYin : Li Shan Lan