June 2014
A Mathematical World
by Zhishang Mofang
Do you know the story of “Tui Bi San She” (retreat about thirty miles as a condition for peace)? How to calculate “half jin and eight liang”(both jin and liang are Chinese measurement units)? How many soldiers and horses are there in “a country of one thousand sheng” (sheng means military forces in ancient Chinese)? People in Yuan Dynasty were named by numbers. Have you read “poetry of numbers” in the famous painting called “Bai Niao Gui Chao Tu” (one hundred birds’ homing)? Now let’s explore the digital treasures in history!
