Zhou Bi Suan Jing: The Oldest Chinese Mathematical Text and the Power of Mathematics

A Dialogue at the Heart of Zhou Bi Suan Jing

Long ago, Rong Fang asked Chen Zi:

“Master, I recently heard something about your Way. Is it true that your Way can encompass the height and size of the Sun, the area illuminated by its brilliance, the measure of its daily movement, the greatest and smallest distances to it, the limits of human vision, the boundaries of the four poles, the constellations into which the stars are gathered, and the length and breadth of Heaven and Earth?”

“It is true,” said Chen Zi.

Rong Fang asked:

“Though I am not particularly clever, Master, I would ask you to honor me with an explanation. Can someone like me be taught this Way?”

Chen Zi replied:

“Yes. All things can be achieved through mathematics. Your capacity for mathematics is sufficient to understand these things, if you think about them seriously and persistently.”

The Ancient Chinese Mathematical Text Behind the Quote

This passage is a quote from the treatise Zhou Bi Suan Jing — the oldest known Chinese mathematical text, written between the 4th and 2nd centuries BCE, and possibly even earlier.