Propagating the Best of Our Nation: Science Society of China and Early Historiography of Chinese Mathematics
Abstrakt
The Science Society of China (SSC) and its journal Science (Kexue) provided from its early years space for historical studies on Chinese mathematics. Despite dismissive attitude of SSC's first president Ren Hongjun to China's intellectual heritage, younger members were eager to cover history of Chinese mathematics.
The bridge engineer Mao Yisheng was especially instrumental by inviting Li Yan and Qian Baocong to publish in Kexue. The journal published almost 20 per cent of all articles on the history of Chinese mathematics between 1915 and 1939.
The reasons for this alignment include a) emergence of history of mathematics as a modern discipline abroad, serving as a model and opportunity to provide a Chinese contribution to international scholarship, b) interest of the generation of scientists born in the 1890s to raise China's international profile, c) traditional mathematics was a "safe" historical product in contrast to e.g. traditional Chinese medicine.