Product Description: Presented from the viewpoint of the history of mathematics, this book explores both epistemological aspects of Chinese traditional mathematical astronomy and lunisolar calendrical calculations. The following issues are addressed: (1) connections with non-Chinese cultural areas; (2) the possibility or impossibility of using mathematics to predict astronomical phenomena, a question that was constantly raised by the Chinese from antiquity through medieval times; (3) the modes of representation of numbers, and in particular the zero, found in the context of Chinese calendrical calculations; and (4) a detailed analysis of lunisolar calendrical calculations...read more

The book is made up of two mutually explanatory parts, the first devoted to the general, historical and cultural background, and the second to the development of each subdiscipline that together comprise Chinese mathematics. This section is organised topically rather than chronologically, and is enriched in each case by examples, guides on how to intepret the contextual setting and by exhaustive references - both mathematical and sinological. This makes the book uniquely accessible, both as a topical reference work, and also as an overview that can be read and reread at many levels of sophistication by both sinologists and mathematicians alike. Indeed anyone with an interest in Chinese culture or the history of ideas will derive great benefit from this book