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Mei Wending
Early Qing mathematician and astronomer from Xuancheng who reconciled Chinese and Western mathematics in some eighty works and was received by the Kangxi Emperor in 1705
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 Dingjiu · Hao Wuan · Xuancheng Meishi
Mei Wending, courtesy name Dingjiu, sobriquet Wu'an, came from Xuancheng and first learned the computations of the Ming *Datong* calendar from a local teacher, Ni Guanhu; he remained a private scholar all his life. Versed in both Chinese and European methods, he wrote some eighty works, among them *Questions on Astronomy* (*Lixue yiwen*) and treatises on plane and spherical trigonometry, which set out to explain Western geometry through traditional Chinese mathematics. Li Guangdi presented *Questions on Astronomy* to the Kangxi Emperor, who annotated it in his own hand. During his southern tour of 1705 the emperor received Mei aboard the imperial boat for three days running, gave him a four-character inscription in praise of his learning, and brought his grandson Mei Juecheng to court to study. Mei Wending died in 1721 at eighty-nine; Wei Litong printed his collected works in 1723, and Mei Juecheng later re-edited them as the *Essentials of the Mei Family Collection* (*Meishi congshu jiyao*).
Life and times
Dates 1633 CE–1721 CE