Minggantu

Minggantu

 Chinese Ming Antu, Mongolian Minganto

(born ?—died c. 1763) Chinese astronomer and mathematician. A Mongolian of the Plain White Banner (see Banner system), Minggantu first appeared in official Chinese records in 1712 as a student in the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. He spent his whole career there, at a time when Jesuit missionaries were in charge of calendar reforms. He took part in the compilation of the imperially commissioned Lüli yuanyuan (c. 1723; “Source of Mathematical Harmonics and Astronomy”), and from 1737 to 1742 he worked with the Jesuits on the revision of its astronomical section. In 1759 he became director of the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. He left an unfinished mathematical manuscript, the Geyuan milü jiefa (“Quick Methods for the Circle's Division and Precise Ratio”), which his student Chen Jixin completed in 1774.