Abstract
Mathematics has been a well-defined branch of knowledge in China since at least the Qin dynasty (221-206 BCE). Our knowledge of early Chinese mathematics is however mostly based on transmitted texts from the first millennium of the common era.
These texts consist for the large part of calculation procedures (suan shu) and do not record much theoretical reasoning. Chinese mathematical books often appear to solve problems from daily administrative, commercial or productive practice.
But the same methods were also applied for more abstract purposes, especially calendar calculation, divination according to the Book of Changes, complex civil engineering works, and even tuning of musical instruments. Chinese mathematics was selectively interpreted in different ways according to the questions asked by different historians.
Their general beliefs about the nature of mathematics and the main issues of Chinese history were also often reflected in their evaluation of traditional Chinese mathematics. But behind this veil of ideology, there is an unchanging substrate of problems, methods and historical facts about well-known mathematicians.