Yang Hui

Yang Hui was a minor Chinese official who wrote two books, dated 1261 and 1275, which use decimal fractions (in the modern form). He refers to the work of an 11th Century mathematician Jia Xian who outlined a method of extending the calculation of square and cube roots to higher roots using what is now called the Pascal triangle. This is the first Chinese account of the Pascal triangle.

The 1275 work is called Cheng Chu Tong Bian Ben Mo which means Alpha and omega of variations on multiplication and division. One of the more remarkable aspects of this work is the document on mathematics education Xi Suan Gang Mu (A syllabus of mathematics) which prefaced the first chapter. Man Keung Siu, reviewing [10], writes that the syllabus:-

... is an important and unusual extant document in mathematics education in ancient China. Not only does it specify the content and the time-table of a comprehensive study program in mathematics, it also explains the rationale behind the design of such a curriculum. It emphasizes a systematic and coherent program that is based on real understanding rather than on rote learning. This program is a marked improvement on the traditional way of learning mathematics by which a student is assigned certain classical texts, to be studied one followed by the other, each for a period of one to two years!

Texto original por: J J O'Connor and E F Robertson

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JOC/EFR January 1997	School of Mathematics and Statistics University of St Andrews, Scotland
The URL of this page is: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/history/Mathematicians/Yang.htm