Abstract
China adopted modern Western mathematics at the start of the 20th century. The interest in mathematics as the basis of modern science gave rise to discussions of mathematical topics in Republican-era journals.
Much inspiration was drawn from Japan, which successfully established modern mathematics prior to China; one of the points of inspiration was the historical study of Chinese and Japanese mathematical traditions, initiated in Japan by Yoshio Mikami (1875-1950). His most famous Chinese followers were Li Yan (1892-1963) and Qian Baocong (1892-1974), but there were many others who studied ancient and more recent Chinese mathematics and referred to the tradition to make wider points about Chinese intellectual history.
Sun Wenqing's thorough study of the Nine chapters (Jiuzhang suanshu) in 1931-2 was a demonstration of rigorous history applied to traditional mathematics, incited in part by less well informed attempts to portray the Nine chapters as an import from India. Others used the same ancient text simply as a source of "curious problems" (qu ti) for a classroom setting and as a proof of the remarkable mathematical competence of the ancient Chinese.
References to Chinese mathematical tradition occupied a relatively minor niche in a large body of popularizing literature on mathematics, its teaching, philosophy and relations to major social questions. The impact of this historical writing on the self-perception of Chinese mathematicians and the perception of mathematics by ordinary Chinese was however quite significant.
This can be illustrated on the readiness with which Chinese mathematicians who grew up in the Republican period, e.g. Hua Loo-Keng (1910-1985), used historical references in their writings in the post-1949 era.
The global phenomenon of mathematisation, the promotion of mathematics as the crucial component of the scientific way of life, thus found a special expression in China due to this interest in Chinese mathematical history.