Luó Shìlín 羅士琳
Style name Cìqiú 次璆, sobriquet Míngxiāng 茗香. Native of Gānquán 甘泉 (modern Yángzhōu, Jiāngsū). Born Qiánlóng 49 (1784); died Xiánfēng 3 (1853). CBDB id 65978 confirms the lifedates.
The principal Dào-guāng-era recoverer of 朱世傑 Zhū Shìjié’s Sìyuán yùjiàn. Luó Shìlín’s mathematical formation was through self-study and the company of the Yángzhōu mathematical circle (焦循 Jiāo Xún, 李銳 Lǐ Ruì, 沈欽裴 Shěn Qīnpéi, 阮元 Ruǎn Yuán). A zhūshēng (regional scholar) without higher examination success; his scholarly identity was that of a working mathematician and editor rather than an official.
Principal works:
(1) The Sìyuán yùjiàn xìcǎo 四元玉鑑細草 (KR3fc018) in 8 juàn (also entitled Xīnbiān sìyuán yùjiàn 新編四元玉鑑) — the detailed-procedure exposition of Zhū Shìjié’s KR3fc017 Sìyuán yùjiàn, recovered from a Cháoxiǎn / Korean recension in the late 1820s and put through final editing and publication in the 1839 Yíjiātáng 宜稼堂 cóngshū. Parallel to but independent of 沈欽裴 Shěn Qīnpéi’s KR3fc019 commentary on the same work; the two scholars exchanged drafts, but produced separate published expositions.
(2) The Xīnbiān suànxué qǐméng zǒngkuò 新編算學啟蒙總括 (KR3fc020) — Luó Shìlín’s annotated re-edition of Zhū Shìjié’s KR3fc016 Suànxué qǐméng, prepared in 1839 from the 1660 Korean recension, with extensive zǒngkuò (summary-table) appendices.
(3) The Suànxué jiā chuán 算學家傳 — a biographical compilation of Chinese mathematicians from the Hàn through the Qīng, providing the first systematic Chinese-language biographical reference for the history of Chinese mathematics. The work is one of the principal documentary sources for our knowledge of pre-modern Chinese mathematical authors and is the principal source for many of the biographical details supplied in the present catalog’s Person notes.
(4) Editor of the Chóu rén zhuàn xùbiān 疇人傳續編 (1840), the continuation of 阮元 Ruǎn Yuán’s biographical compilation of Chinese mathematicians and astronomers, covering the Qīng dynasty figures not included in Ruǎn Yuán’s original.
Luó Shìlín is the principal late-Qīng historiographer of Chinese mathematics, in the same sense that 阮元 Ruǎn Yuán is the principal late-Qīng historiographer of pre-modern Chinese astronomy. His Sìyuán yùjiàn xìcǎo recovery, in collaboration with 沈欽裴 Shěn Qīnpéi and 宋景昌 Sòng Jǐngchāng, made the SòngYuán algebraic tradition newly accessible to mid-Qīng working mathematicians and laid the foundation for the late-19th-century synthesis with European algebra in 李善蘭 Lǐ Shànlán’s KR3fc078 Zégǔxī zhāi suànxué.