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Li Shanlan
Qing mathematician who completed the Chinese Euclid with Alexander Wylie, coined Chinese terms for algebra and calculus, and taught at the Tongwen Guan
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 Renshu · Hao Qiuren
Li Shanlan, courtesy name Renshu, came from Haining in Zhejiang and taught himself from the Nine Chapters and the first six books of Euclid, writing early studies of logarithms and series by his 'pointed cone' method. In 1852 he went to Shanghai and at the London Missionary Society's Mohai Press translated the remaining nine books of Euclid's Elements with the missionary Alexander Wylie, followed by De Morgan's Elements of Algebra and Loomis's Analytical Geometry and Calculus; with Joseph Edkins he translated a text on mechanics. Terms he coined, including daishu for algebra, weifen and jifen for differential and integral, and hanshu for function, are still in use. He later joined Zeng Guofan's staff and in 1867 published his collected mathematical writings at Nanjing. Summoned to Beijing in 1868, he served for more than a decade as chief instructor of mathematics at the Tongwen Guan, the government school of foreign languages and sciences, and died in 1882.
Life and times
Dates 1811 CE–1882 CE