Zhu Shijie Born: about 1260 in Yan-shan, near Peking, China
Died: about 1320 in Not known Zhu Shijie is also known as Chu Shih-Chieh. Little is known about his life other than that he wrote two outstanding mathematical texts. He must have been born around the time that Qin Jiushao died, which was about the same time that Yang Hui 's first texts were appearing, and he probably was not very old when Li Zhi died. Zhu was, therefore, the last of these four great thirteenth century Chinese mathematicians but it would appear from his writings that he was unaware of the work of his three famous predecessors. The birth dates and death dates we give are based solely on the dates on which Zhu's two texts appeared. However these tell us that he must have been brought up while the Nan (Southern) Sung dynasty was being defeated by the Mongols. Kublai Khan united the whole of China in 1279 and the Yuan dynasty came to power. The capital of the new united China became Dadu (today called Beijing or Peking) which Kublai Khan had built up as a walled city with splendid palaces and government offices. The unification of north and south China would have a significant effect on Zhu's life, for it allowed him to travel throughout the whole of China, and also allowed certain mathematical expertise which was previously known only in northern China to spread through the south. What little we know of Zhu is contained in the following quotation from the preface to the second, and most famous, of his texts. The preface, written by Mo Ruo, tells us that (see [4]):- | |
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