Zhuāng Hēngyáng 莊亨陽
Style name Yuánzhòng 元仲. Native of Nánjìng 南靖 (Fújiàn). Born Kāngxī 25 (1686); died Qiánlóng 11 (1746). Jìnshì of Kāngxī wùxū (1718).
A Yōngzhèng-Qián-lóng-period official-and-scholar with strong mathematical interests. Successive offices reached HuáiXú Dào (Circuit Intendant of the Huái-and-Xú region). His mathematical work derived from his official-administrative engagement with hydraulic-engineering measurement: per the Sìkù 提要 of KR3f0055 Zhuāngshì suànxué, “[the work] is the result of [Zhuāng Hēngyáng], from his Bureau-of-the-Ministry posting going-out to direct river-defense, on the height-and-depth measurement-suitability, [in] every matter pushing-and-investigating, setting up question-and-answer in order to exhaust their variations, accordingly with the brush noting them in his book”.
His mathematical writings were assembled posthumously by his descendants from his working notebooks; the result is the Zhuāngshì suànxué 莊氏算學 (KR3f0055) in 8 juàn. The work is methodologically a synthesis-and-abridgment, drawing heavily on the KāngxīYōngzhèng KR3f0048 Shùlǐ jīngyùn, the Ricci-Xú KR3f0047 Jǐhé yuánběn, and Méi Wéndǐng’s KR3f0026 Lìsuàn quánshū. The final section of Qīzhèng bùfǎ (Seven-Regulator Step-Methods) draws on the KR3f0013 Xīnfǎ suànshū. The Sìkù 提要 commends the work as a useful introductory compendium that abridges the more extensive synthetic works to a more accessible level: “[Zhuāng Hēngyáng] selects-and-raises the refined-essentials, separately gathers-and-collects, condensed-but-not-leaking, summarized-but-not-branching — can serve as the river-raft for entering the gate”.