Dùsuàn jiě 度算解
Exposition of Surveying Calculations by 陳藎謨 (撰)
About the work
陳藎謨 Chén Jìnmó’s supplementary commentary on the computational procedures of his KR3fc030 Dùcè, with particular focus on the use of the proportional-divider (bǐlìguī 比例規) and the related calculation tables. The work is presented as the jiě 解 (exposition) of the parent treatise’s suàn 算 (calculation) procedures.
Abstract
The Dùsuàn jiě extends the Dùcè by supplying detailed worked examples of the surveying-and-measurement procedures introduced there. Each procedure of the parent text is restated, with explicit step-by-step computation and (where applicable) instrument-manipulation instructions for the proportional-divider. The work also includes auxiliary tables — chord-and-sine tables, multiplication tables for instrument-graduation, and the standard bǐlìfèncùn 比例分寸 (proportional-graduation) reference values — that were not included in the parent text.
The work is a key documentary record of mid-Chóng-zhēn-era integrated practical mathematics. Together with the Dùcè, it shows the level of integrated Sino-European surveying-mathematical practice achievable in the closing decades of the Míng — distinct from but comparable to the contemporaneous work of 徐光啟 Xú Guāngqǐ in Beijing.
For the substantive discussion of Chén Jìnmó’s surveying methodology see KR3fc030; for biographical context see the Person note at 陳藎謨.
Dating: NotBefore / notAfter bracketed at 1620–1650 as for the parent work, with the supplementary commentary plausibly completed in the same productive period.
Translations and research
No substantive English-language secondary literature located on the Dù-suàn jiě specifically. For the general late-Míng integrative mathematical context see the references at KR3fc030.
- Engelfriet, Peter M. 1998. Euclid in China. Leiden: Brill.
- Jami, Catherine. 2011. The Emperor’s New Mathematics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Wú Wénjùn 吳文俊, ed. 1985. Zhōng-guó shù-xué shǐ dà-xì 中國數學史大系, vol. 6.