Zu Chongzhi
| Zu Chongzhi | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 祖沖之 | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simplified Chinese | 祖冲之 | ||||||||
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| Wenyuan (courtesy name) | |||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 文遠 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 文远 | ||||||||
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| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Zǔ Chōngzhī |
| Wade–Giles | Tsu Ch'ung-chih |
| Transcriptions | |
|---|---|
| Standard Mandarin | |
| Hanyu Pinyin | Wényuǎn |
Zu Chongzhi (429–500 AD), courtesy name Wenyuan, was a prominent Chinese mathematician and astronomer during the Liu Song and Southern Qi Dynasties.
Chongzhi's ancestry was from modern Baoding, Hebei. To flee from the ravage of war, Zu's grandfather Zu Chang moved to the Yangtze, as part of the massive population movement during the Eastern Jin. Zu Chang (祖昌) at one point held the position of Chief Minister for the Palace Buildings (大匠卿) within the Liu Song and was in charge of government construction projects. Zu's father, Zu Shuozhi (祖朔之) also served the court and was greatly respected for his erudition.
Zu was born in Jiankang. His family had historically been involved in astronomy research, and from childhood Zu was exposed to both astronomy and mathematics. When he was only a youth his talent earned him much repute. When Emperor Xiaowu of Liu Song heard of him, he was sent to an Academy, the Hualin Xuesheng (華林學省), and later at the Imperial Nanjing University (Zongmingguan) to perform research. In 461 in Nanxu (today Zhenjiang, Jiangsu), he was engaged in work at the office of the local governor.
Zu Chongzhi, along with his son Zu Gengzhi wrote a mathematical text entitled Zhui Shu (綴述; "Methods for Interpolation"). It is said that the treatise contains formulas for the volume of the sphere, cubic equations and the accurate value of pi. This book didn't survive to the present day; it has been lost since the Song Dynasty.
His mathematical achievements included:
Zu was an accomplished astronomer who calculated the values of time with unprecedented precision. His methods of interpolating and the use of integration is far ahead of his time. Even the astronomer Yi Xing's isn't comparable to his value (who was beginning to utilize foreign knowledge). The Sung dynasty calendar was backwards to the "Northern barbarians" because they were implementing their daily lives with the Da Ming Li. It is said that his methods of calculation were so advanced, the scholars of the Sung dynasty and Indo influence astronomers of the Tang dynasty found it confusing.
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