The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art

The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art is a Chinese mathematics book, probably composed in the 1st century AD, but perhaps as early as 200 BC. The book indicates that, at the time of its publication, China was far ahead of the rest of the world in terms of mathematical knowledge.

Among the major topics covered in the book are square root and cube root extraction, fractions, areas and volumes, trigonometry, and systems of equations.

At the time that the book was completed, the Chinese had already developed a decimal numeral system, the number zero, elementary algebra and negative numberss.

This combination of developments was not achieved in the Middle East until the 10th century and in Europe until the 16th century. In spite of this the Greek concept of the rigorous mathematical proof was largely absent.

Liu Hui wrote a very famous commentary with solutions to several problems in this book in 263.