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Hua Hengfang
Late Qing mathematician and translator who helped Xu Shou build the steamboat Huanghu and rendered Western algebra, calculus and geology into Chinese
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 Ruoting
Hua Hengfang, courtesy name Ruoting, came from Dangkou in Jinkui near Wuxi, loved mathematics from boyhood, and formed a lifelong friendship with Xu Shou from the same district. In the early Tongzhi years the two joined Zeng Guofan's staff and experimented with steam engines and boats at the Anqing arsenal, and in 1865 the wooden paddle steamer Huanghu was completed at Nanjing. He then spent many years at the translation department of the Jiangnan Arsenal in Shanghai, translating works on algebra, calculus and trigonometry with the Englishman John Fryer and Lyell's Elements of Geology with the American Daniel Macgowan. Later he taught mathematics at the Tianjin Military Academy and at the Lianghu Academy and Self-Strengthening School in Hubei, and published his own Mathematical Drafts from the Xingsu Studio. He died at home in 1902.
Life and times
Dates 1833 CE–1902 CE