Description |
1 online resource (223 pages) |
Series |
Needham Research Institute Series |
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Needham Research Institute series.
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Contents |
Cover; Title Page; Copyright Page; Table of Contents; List of figures; List of tables; Preface and acknowledgements; List of abbreviations; 1 Introduction; 'You fight your way and I fight my way'; Wu Wen-Tsun as a historian of mathematics; Wu Wen-Tsun as the subject of history writing; A note on transcriptions and Chinese characters; 2 The making of a prominent Chinese mathematician; Early life (1919-45); Becoming a famous topologist (1945-51); Topological career in China (1952-58); Wu's search for a research direction; 3 Mathematics and Chinese socialist construction |
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Science and politics in China, 1949-66The Institute of Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Political campaigns in the 1950s; Leaping from theory to practice and the post-GLF adjustment; The University of Science and Technology of China and Wu's further work in pure mathematics; Conclusions; 4 The transformative effect of the Cultural Revolution; Writing about the Cultural Revolution -- methodological questions; Cultural Revolution in the Institute of Mathematics, 1966-69; Years under military rule, 1969-71; The late CR period, 1971-78; World mathematicians in China in the 1970s |
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Wu Wen-Tsun's turn to history in the Anti-Lin Anti-Confucius campaign5 Wu Wen-Tsun's construction of traditional Chinese mathematics; 'Making the past serve the present'; Wu Wen-Tsun's philosophy of mathematics and mathematical style; Wu Wen-Tsun's reaction to Western historiography; Chinese priorities and mathematical style; Chinese mathematicians' use of the history of mathematics; Construction of traditional Chinese mathematics; 6 Independence and inspiration: Wu Wen-Tsun's work since 1977; Wu Wen-Tsun's modernization of mental labour; From mechanization to equation-solving |
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Wu's method -- brief descriptionWu's method -- an example; Wu's elimination and traditional Chinese mathematics; J.F. Ritt's theory and constructive mathematics; Wu's method and the limitations of Euclidean proof; 7 Saving the nation with mathematics and its history; Wu Wen-Tsun's research and international recognition; Nationalism as a creative and disturbing reaction; Nationalism and universalism in modern mathematics; Wu Wen-Tsun's social rise since 1978 and his legacy; Bibliography; Index |
Summary |
Twentieth-century China has been caught between a desire to increase its wealth and power in line with other advanced nations, which, by implication, means copying their institutions, practices and values, whilst simultaneously seeking to preserve China's independence and historically formed identity. Over time, Chinese philosophers, writers, artists and politicians have all sought to reconcile these goals and this book shows how this search for a Chinese way penetrated even the most central, least contested area of modernity: science. Reviving Ancient Chinese Mathematics</I |
Notes |
Print version record |
Subject |
Wu, Wen-ts̈un
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SUBJECT |
Wu, Wen-tsün fast |
Subject |
Mathematicians -- China -- Biography
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Mathematics, Chinese -- History -- 20th century
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MATHEMATICS -- Essays.
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MATHEMATICS -- Pre-Calculus.
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MATHEMATICS -- Reference.
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Mathematicians
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Mathematics, Chinese
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China
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Genre/Form |
Biographies
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History
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Form |
Electronic book
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ISBN |
9781134468256 |
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1134468253 |
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