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Editorial
To discover the mathematics of other places and other times is to immerse oneself in an otherness that we often tend to flatten under the weight of a few received ideas picked up here and there. In our special issue no. 93, we set out to discover mathematics in the lands of Islam; this time, we travel to the Far East. These destinations open some of the most beautiful doors of our imagination: China, Japan and Korea.
Translation and transcription of Chinese texts | Tangente
Translating and transcribing writing systems and pronunciations very different from our own requires us to clarify certain conventions and practices.
Counting in Chinese: numeral systems and counting rods | Tangente
The Chinese numeral system dates back to the beginnings of written Chinese, around the third millennium BC.
Why study Chinese mathematics? | Tangente
The history of mathematics in Asia is marked by the central place occupied by China, as a producer of both knowledge and institutions for teaching the sciences. Both were, in the past, taken up by other countries in East Asia. Several of the mathematical classics developed in China were studied elsewhere and inspired the mathematical knowledge and practices implemented there.
Karine Chemla, mathematician and sinologist | Tangente
Karine Chemla is a central figure in the history of mathematics in China, which she has helped make accessible to a wide audience. A mathematician, historian and translator all at once, she looks back on her rich career and her work.