Mei Juecheng

Mei Juecheng

(born May 19, 1681, Xuan Cheng, Anhui province, China—died Nov. 20, 1763, China) Chinese court official, mathematician, and astronomer. He learned mathematics from his grandfather Mei Wending. In 1713 he joined the Mengyangzhai (imperial bureau created to synthesize Western and Chinese scientific knowledge) as one of the chief editors of Lüli yuanyuan (c. 1723; “Source of Mathematical Harmonics and Astronomy”). Purely a work of Chinese authorship, the Lüli yuanyuan reapportioned credit to Chinese scholars for many discoveries that earlier Jesuit-Chinese compendiums had credited to Europeans. Studying Western algebra enabled Mei to decipher Chinese mathematical treatises from the Song (920–1279) and Yuan (1206–1368) dynasties whose methods had been lost; this led him to expound a theory of the Chinese origin of Western knowledge. While now acknowledged as grossly overstated, Mei's views helped to revive interest in traditional Chinese mathematics and remained highly influential for many decades.