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Zhen Luan
Northern Zhou official, calendar maker and mathematician who wrote the Mathematical Manual of the Five Government Departments and a polemic against Daoism
In a calculation room, a wide table holds a board of black and yellow counting rods laid in neat bundles, beside an abacus, a ruler and a sheet with a circle divided into equal parts; one person sits at a far desk with their back turned, and terraced fields lie outside.
Also known as Zi Shuzun
Zhen Luan, courtesy name Shuzun, came from Wuji in Zhongshan, was a devout Buddhist and an expert in calendrical calculation, and under the Northern Zhou rose to grand master of the capital police and governor of Hanzhong. His Tianhe calendar was adopted by the Northern Zhou in 566 and stayed in use until a new calendar replaced it near the dynasty's end. When Emperor Wu of Zhou called on his officials to weigh Buddhism against Daoism, Zhen submitted the Treatise Laughing at the Dao in three chapters, listing absurdities in Daoist scriptures; it survives in the Tang monk Daoxuan's anthology Guang hongming ji. In mathematics he wrote the Mathematical Manual of the Five Government Departments (Wucao suanjing) and the Arithmetic in the Five Classics (Wujing suanshu), and annotated the Zhoubi suanjing and the Records of the Traditions of Arithmetic Methods (Shushu jiyi), and the Tang state mathematics school included both of his own manuals among the Ten Mathematical Classics.
Life and times
Dates 535 CE–death unknown