Of all the mathematicians in ancient China, we know the least about the life of Sun Zi. The fact that he was given the honorific designation of Zi (Master) after his surname led some people like Zhu Zunyi (AD 1629–1709) to identify him with Sun Wu, a celebrated tactician in the sixth century BCE. Then Ruan Yuan (AD 1764–1849) assigned him to the late Zhou period of the third century BCE. With regard to the text written by Sun Zi, Dai Zhen, the eighteenth century scholar and mathematician, citing from internal evidence, argued that the text could not have been written earlier than the Han dynasty at the turn of the Christian era. Though this text by Sun Zi was listed in all the bibliographical chapters of the Sui Shu (Standard History of the Sui dynasty), the Jiu Tang Shu (Old Standard History of the Tang Dynasty), and the Xin Tang Shu(New Standard History of the Tang Dynasty), there was no mention of its author. This shows that as early as the middle of the seventh century AD, no one...
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References
Lam Lay Yong and Ang Tian Se. Fleeting Footsteps: Tracing the Conception of Arithmetic and Algebra in Ancient China. Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co., 1992.
Mikami, Yoshio. The Development of Mathematics in China and Japan. 2nd ed. New York: Chelsea Publishing Company, 1974.
Qian, Baozong ed. Suanjing Shi Shu (Ten Mathematical Classics). Beijing: Zhonghua Shuju, 1963.
Ruan, Yuan, Chouren Zhuan (Biographies of Mathematicians and Astronomers). Vol. 1. Shanghai: Shangwu Yinshuguan, 1955.
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Se, A.T. (2008). Sun Zi. In: Selin, H. (eds) Encyclopaedia of the History of Science, Technology, and Medicine in Non-Western Cultures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4425-0_9063
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