Elements of reflection on the Chinese reaction to Euclidean geometry at the end of the 17th century. The Jihe lunyue \(\{a\}\) of Du Zhigeng \(\{b\}\) mainly seen by starting from the author's preface and two bibliographical notices edited by famous scholars (Q2367151): Difference between revisions

The paper is a study of the Jihe lunyue (``Abridged geometry'', 1700), an abridgement of the Chinese translation of the six first books of Euclid's Elements of Geometry (1607). After summarising the historical context of the book, the author discusses some important terms and the translation problems related to them. In the next section, three translations are given: the preface to the Jihe lunyue by its author Du Zhigeng, a bibliographical notice on the book written by imperial bibliographers towards the end of the 18th century, and another notice they wrote concerning one of Mei Wending's (the most famous mathematician of Du Zhigeng's time) works. Then a brief description of the content and structure of the Jihe lunyue and of the Shuxue yao (``Key to mathematics''), the other mathematical work written by Du Zhigeng is given. In the last part of the paper, it is argued (but the argument is not demonstrative) that the fundamental motivation of Chinese scholars in simplifying the Elements was the assimilation of its axiomatic-deductive style to the rhetorics of Christian theology, introduced by the same Jesuits who brought Euclid to China.