The goal, though, remains the same: to rediscover mathematics developed over the centuries in this part of the world. We are committed to working from the available sources, showing how this work was original compared with what was being done elsewhere – in Europe in particular – during the same periods, exploring the mechanisms by which knowledge was transmitted, highlighting the diversity behind what, seen from afar, we are readily tempted to imagine as a single whole, and engaging with these practices without distorting them.
A first feature will be devoted to the founding texts, insofar as they had an impact not only in China but throughout the Far East. We will then turn to mathematical practices in China through the ages. Finally, we will leave the Middle Kingdom to explore the Land of the Rising Sun and the Land of the Morning Calm: Japan and Korea.
The authors of the articles you are about to read are among the leading researchers on the subjects they address. It is a great honour to feature here contributions from Karine Chemla, a member of the Académie des sciences, who kindly took the time to offer us the fruits of her research and to answer our questions about her career. Furthermore, two articles and one interview were written by English-speaking authors – translated here into French – to allow specialists to present their unpublished research to the wider French-speaking public. Thus, among the thirteen articles offered here, a good many come from researchers based outside France, such as at the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, at National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, at National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, or at the University of Edinburgh.
Special thanks are due to Charlotte Pollet for her invaluable help in putting together this issue and for the time she generously devoted to it, with all the passion she brings to her research.
From Liu Hui to Kikuchi Dairoku, from Yang Hui to Choi Seok-jeong, we hope you thoroughly enjoy it!
