Mei Wending

Mei Wending

(born 1633, Xuangcheng, Anhui province, China—died 1721, China) Chinese writer on astronomy and mathematics whose work represented an association of Chinese and Western knowledge. In his comparative study, Lixue yiwen (c. 1701; “Inquiry on Mathematical Astronomy”), Mei tried to situate the new European knowledge properly within the historical framework of Chinese knowledge. In Jihe bubian (“Complements of Geometry”) he calculated the volumes and relative dimensions of regular and semi-regular polyhedrons by traditional Chinese methods. Mei helped rehabilitate traditional Chinese mathematics. The comprehensive collection of his works, Lisuan quanshu, was published in 1723.