The publication of Yan dunjie's posthumous work "Zu Chongzhi's proofreading of scientific works": a good story
2022-07-27
Zu Chongzhi (429-500) was an outstanding scientist in the northern and Southern Dynasties of China. He made great contributions to the calculation of "Pi", the compilation of "Daming calendar" and mechanical design and manufacturing. He wrote scientific masterpieces such as "Daming calendar" and "conjugation". His "Daming calendar", namely "refutation", expounded the scientific spirit and defended the scientific truth. It is a rare denunciation of such exquisite scientific criticism written by scientists in the history of Chinese science. However, since the 10th century, most of Zu Chongzhi's scientific works have been lost at home and abroad, except that some of their contents have been preserved in books such as Song Dynasty almanac, Southern Qi Dynasty almanac, Sui Dynasty almanac, Sui Dynasty astronomy almanac and so on, which has become a great pity to study the academic life and scientific achievements of Zu Chongzhi and his sons for more than a thousand years. Yan dunjie (1917-1988) was one of the Chinese historians of science who made the greatest contribution after Li Yan and Qian baocong. He had unique research on the history of Chinese mathematics, astronomy and history, navigation history, ancient books sorting and the history of science and technology. However, during his lifetime, he did not have any scientific works that matched his academic attainments and academic status. Mr. yandunjie has been committed to the collection and research of Zu Chongzhi's works for a long time. He has not only collected a large number of valuable lost documents, but also published many papers on Zu Chongzhi's scientific achievements. Yan dunjie carefully collated and annotated the scientific works of Zu Chongzhi that he could collect. In 1957, he completed the manuscript of the complete works of Zu Chongzhi's Science (Volume I and Volume II), with the cover, catalogue and Book Shadow design in front. However, due to various reasons, this book was not published until the death of Mr. Yan dunjie in 1988, which is deeply regretted by the academic circles. Mr. guoshuchun first edited and proofread Zuchongzhi's scientific works. 2000 is the 1500 anniversary of Zuchongzhi's death, and Mr. Yan dunjie has also died for 12 years. Guo Shuchun, a former colleague of Mr. Yan, a researcher of the Institute of the history of natural sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a communication academician of the International Academy of the history of science, and then the president of the National Society for the history of mathematics, collated Yan dunjie's manuscript with the support of his family. He considered that Zuchongzhi's most important mathematical work "Jieshu" had been lost because the scholar of the Sui and Tang School of mathematics "couldn't study its profundity", so it was not suitable to be called "Zuchongzhi's complete scientific works"; At the same time, the proofreading space of Mr. Yan in the manuscript is much longer than the original work of Zu Chongzhi, so the title of the book is changed to "proofreading and interpretation of Zu Chongzhi's scientific works". As the first of the series of "new century history of Science Series" jointly planned by the Institute of the history of natural sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Liaoning Education Press, the book was published by Liaoning Education Press in October 2000. At the same time, it was a tribute to the "international academic seminar to commemorate the 1500th anniversary of Zu Chong's death" held in Laishui County, Hebei Province, the hometown of Zu Chong, in October 2000. The book includes the preface to the publication of the "new century history of Science Series" by Liu blunt and Yu Xiaoqun, the preface by academician Xi Zezong, the body, appendix and postscript. The first part of the text is "the correction and interpretation of Zu Chong's scientific works", including the correction and interpretation of the Daming calendar, the upper Daming calendar table, the Daming calendar discussion, the translation of the "Daming calendar discussion", the correction and interpretation of Zu Chong's request for the earth and the middle law, the correction and interpretation of the Pi of Zu Chong, the annotation of the round field technique of the nine chapter arithmetic of Zu Chong, and the correction and interpretation of the open round technique; The second part is "on zuchong's father and son", including "conjugation", zuchong's biography and interpretation, zuchong's bibliography, zuchong's biography, and the six-year astronomical calendar of the Ming Dynasty. Guoshuchun checked all the words. The appendix includes three parts: "report on visiting the hometown of Zu Chong in Laishui county" (Yi County Cultural Center), "reading history and cherishing Zu junchong" (Zhan Tonglan in the Qing Dynasty), and "research catalogue of Zu Chong" (Li Di, Guo Shuchun). At the end of this book, there is a postscript written by guoshuchun, which introduces the retention and collation of Mr. Yan dunjie's manuscript materials. After guoshuchun's systematic collation, Mr. Yan's book was known by the academic community and became a necessary book to study Zu Chongzhi's scientific achievements in calendar and mathematics during the Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties. This is the first time that Mr. guoshuchun edited and proofread Zuchongzhi's scientific works. In 2017, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mr. Yan dunjie, the revised edition of the revision of Zu Chong's scientific works compiled by Yan dunjie and Guo Shuchun was published and distributed by Shandong science and Technology Press. The main part of this edition is reprinted as it was in the 2000 Liao textbook, and the "zuchong's request for the correction and interpretation of Dizhong law" is moved to the back of the "correction and interpretation of the open circle technique" to highlight the outstanding contributions of zuchong's father and son in the calculation of PI and the solution of the ball volume formula. The main deletions and supplements of the book include: first, according to the opinion that the contemporary Chinese mathematical leader wuwenjun's academic works should not publish the imaginary statues of ancient scientists, Jiang Zhaohe's painting "the statue of Zu Chong" was deleted; The second is to add the preface to the collation written by guoshuchun, which introduces in detail the causes and consequences of this collation, as well as the content and source of the account of differences; The third is to supplement Zuchongzhi's "Shuyi Ji". In this process of collation, Mr. guoshuchun also showed a rigorous and realistic attitude and deep foundation in philology collation, He pointed out: "in the reprinted edition of the proofreading of Zu Chongzhi's scientific works, we have supplemented Zu Chongzhi's shuyiji. In this way, the remaining Zu Chongzhi's works are basically complete. Because shuyiji is a strange novel, which does not belong to the scope of scientific works and is not suitable for inclusion in the text, we take it as' Appendix I ', and change the original appendix into' Appendix II 'and' Appendix III '(the original Zuchongzhi research catalogue) It is listed separately as' Appendix II 'with an addendum from Mr. Zou Dahai and others). " After Mr. guoshuchun's collation, three appendices are attached to the "proofreading and interpretation of Zu Chongzhi's scientific works", which provides detailed information for the academic circles to further study Zu Chongzhi's academic thought and social background. In November 2019, the book won the book award of the seventh China excellent publication award organized by the China Publishing Association. For the author Yan dunjie and the organizer Guo Shuchun, this is a very memorable event. This is Mr. guoshuchun's second edition of "zuchong's scientific works proofreading". When Mr. guoshuchun edited and proofread zuchong's scientific works for the third time, the book was actually out of stock when he won the prize. After discussing with Shandong science and Technology Press, Guo Shuchun published a supplementary reprint of zuchong's scientific works proofread written by Yan dunjie and sorted out by Guo Shuchun in June 2021. On the basis of the 2017 edition, after the "six-year astronomical calendar of the Ming Dynasty" in the second part of the body "on the father and son of Zu Chong", two important papers on Zu Chong Zhi published by Mr. Yan dunjie in the famous journal "Xueyi" at that time when he graduated from high school in 1936 were added, of which the first was "the study of Chinese mathematician Zu Chong Zhi and his Pi", and the second was "the notes of Zu Chong Zhi's PI in Sui Shu · Lu Li Zhi". In Appendix 3, the supplement to the research catalogue of Zu Chongzhi (2017-2020) compiled by Xia Qingzhuo is added as Appendix 2, and the original "supplement to the research catalogue of Zu Chongzhi" is added as Appendix 1. Appendix 4 is the catalogue of works of Mr. Yan dunjie (Revised Draft) compiled by Wang Yusheng and updated by Zheng Cheng, which is also the new content of this book. After the original text, there is guoshuchun's "afterword of collation", and this time, a new article, "afterword of supplement and reprint", introduces the content supplement. Mr. guoshuchun said in the postscript of supplement and reprint that shortly after the revised edition was published, he "regretted and even felt guilty" for not supplementing Mr. Yan's two articles on Zu Chongzhi. He spoke highly of Mr. Yan's two papers and "deeply admired Mr. Yan's merits". After Mr. guoshuchun's third collation, "Mr. Yan's main papers on Zu Chongzhi are complete", which is the most complete book of "proofreading and interpretation of Zu Chongzhi's scientific works" written by Yan dunjie at present. This is Mr. guoshuchun's third edition of "zuchong's scientific works proofreading". The value and influence of Zuchongzhi's proofreading and interpretation of scientific works from 1957, when Mr. Yan dunjie first completed the first draft of Zuchongzhi's proofreading and interpretation of scientific works, to 2000-2021, when researcher guoshuchun collated and edited it three times. The writing, addition and revision of Zuchongzhi's proofreading and interpretation of scientific works lasted more than 50 years, which not only completely preserved Mr. Yan dunjie's research results on Zuchongzhi, but also collected a large number of historical books The lost scientific works of Zu Chongzhi in the books are of great value in literature and history. For example, the Daming calendar is Zu Chongzhi's most complete scientific work, including the Daming calendar, the upper Daming calendar and the Daming calendar. It is the first time to introduce the precession into the calendar and pioneered the method of calculating the winter solstice. It is Zu Chongzhi's major achievement in astronomy and calendar. Mr. Yan dunjie's emendation of the "Daming calendar" and "Liyi" is several times longer than the original, "which is by far the most detailed and accurate interpretation of Zu Chongzhi's" Daming calendar ". Another example is the five papers written by Mr. Yan dunjie, which are about the affixation, the biography of Zu Chong, the bibliography of Zu Chong's works, the separate biography of Zu Chong, and the astronomical calendar of the six years of the Ming Dynasty. They are also valuable materials for the study of Zu Chong's father and son. The four appendices contained in the "proofreading and interpretation of Zu Chong's scientific works", such as Zu Chong's "shuyiji" and its lost articles, Zu Chong's hometown report, Zu Chong's research catalogue and its supplements and supplements, as well as Mr. Yan dunjie's writing catalogue and its updates, also have high academic value, which will further promote the academic circles' scientific thought about Zu Chong Scientific achievements and even the study of the history of science and technology in the Wei, Jin, southern and Northern Dynasties provided original documents and research trends. Mr. guoshuchun has been engaged in the study of the history of Chinese mathematics for a long time. He has written more than 20 academic works, including the revision of the nine chapter arithmetic and its supplementary edition, the new school of the nine chapter mathematics, Liu Hui, the leader of ancient world mathematics, the translation and annotation of the nine chapter mathematics and its revisions, and edited more than 10 academic works, including the collection of Chinese classics of science and technology · mathematics volume, the history of science and technology · mathematics volume of China, and the Chinese classic · mathematics code, He is a great master in the literature collation of the history of mathematics in ancient China. The author greatly admires Mr. Guo Shuchun's collation of zuchong's scientific works three times in the past 20 years, and believes that this is not only a good story in the history of collation of ancient books in the history of science and technology, but also an example for fellow teachers and friends to learn from each other and respect each other, which is worthy of future generations of scholars to learn and follow forever. As academician Xi Zezong praised in the preface, "now he has sorted out and published this work that Mr. Yan has already completed, so that everyone can see it, which is another good thing." (Xinhua News Agency)
Edit：He Chuanning Responsible editor：Su Suiyue
Source：China Reading Weekly
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