Overview

Chinese mathematical progress during the medieval period reached its pinnacle between 1000-1300, during which time there was both innovation and discovery, and an increasingly systematic organization of the great traditions of Chinese math. Advances were made in solving problems for remainders, solving numerical equations, negative numbers, "magic squares" (vertical and horizontal arrangements of numbers that resulted in interesting properties among the columns), extractions of roots and calculations of congruences, and polynomials. Much of the mathematical effort took the form of proofs for existing problems and commentaries on mathematical histories and the problems presented in those histories. Despite the diversity of mathematical topics and challenges undertaken by scholars during this time, genuine mathematical progress was relatively limited, and theoretical mathematics all but unknown, other than in the form of diversions such as magic squares. The emphasis throughout was upon the pragmatic uses...