Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Li Shanlan
open-in-new
<p>Li Shanlan (李善蘭, <a href="/facts/Courtesy_name/T51gfmRe">courtesy name</a>: Renshu 壬叔, <a href="/facts/Art_name/6AHfocn7">art name</a>: Qiuren 秋紉) (1810 – 1882) was a Chinese mathematician of the <a href="/facts/Qing_Dynasty/5j6r4p5m">Qing Dynasty</a>. </p><p>A native of <a href="/facts/Haining_City/SdVVWXWM">Haining</a>, <a href="/facts/Zhejiang/TQtpFHdJ">Zhejiang</a>, he was fascinated by mathematics since childhood, beginning with the <i><a href="/facts/Nine_Chapters_on_the_Mathematical_Art/INGLo2Cm">Nine Chapters on Mathematical Art</a></i>. He eked out a living by being a private tutor for some years before fleeing to Shanghai in 1852 to evade the <a href="/facts/Taiping_Rebellion/2jcD49yd">Taiping Rebellion</a>. There he collaborated with <a href="/facts/Alexander_Wylie_(missionary)/qGFlo849">Alexander Wylie</a>, <a href="/facts/Joseph_Edkins/IPfzCU9d">Joseph Edkins</a>, and others to translate many Western mathematical works into Chinese, including <i>Elements of Analytical Geometry and the Differential and Integral Calculus</i> by <a href="/facts/Elias_Loomis/1yclWgAW">Elias Loomis</a>, <a href="/facts/Augustus_De_Morgan/6fQ1KTPb">Augustus De Morgan</a>'s <i>Elements of Algebra</i>, and the last nine volumes of <i><a href="/facts/Euclid%27s_Elements/nPKvCIxs">Euclid's Elements</a></i> (from <a href="/facts/Henry_Billingsley/WUJIvrUR">Henry Billingsley</a>'s edition), the first six volumes of which having been rendered into Chinese by <a href="/facts/Matteo_Ricci/t1qN8eGl">Matteo Ricci</a> and <a href="/facts/Xu_Guangqi/a0Uwf1Ls">Xu Guangqi</a> in 1607. With Wylie, he also translated <i>Outlines of Astronomy</i> by <a href="/facts/John_Herschel/Hcg9pFEp">John Herschel</a> and coined the Chinese names for many of the low-numbered <a href="/facts/Asteroid/g7Ulr1VB">asteroids</a>. </p><p>Li coined a great number of mathematical terms that are still used in Chinese today and that were later borrowed into the <a href="/facts/Japanese_language/EEv485a5">Japanese language</a> as well. He discovered the <a href="/facts/Li_Shanlan_identity/ccNuyYJl">Li Shanlan identity</a> (Li Shanlan's summation formulae) in 1867. Later he worked in the think tank of <a href="/facts/Zeng_Guofan/1bYuQ0UI">Zeng Guofan</a>. In 1868, he began to teach in <a href="/facts/Tongwen_Guan/SM4XGPnL">Tongwen Guan</a> where he collaborated closely with linguist <a href="/facts/John_Fryer_(sinologist)/wwoD89Gq">John Fryer</a>.: 6–79 </p>