What is the history of the name "Chinese remainder theorem"? - MathOverflow

What is the history of the name "Chinese remainder theorem"?

2010-01-16T02:49:58Z

I'd be particularly interested in who first used the name in a European language and whether it was used in a non-European language such as Arabic, Persian, or an Indian language before that.

[Edit 2010/01/22: Thanks to everyone who responded. It took me a few days to check Jonas Meyer's references. (The discussion of the CRT is on pp 175-176 of Part III of Wylie's book.) As JM said, they seem to narrow the appearance of the name in a European language to 1853-1929, which is hundreds of years later than I expected, and it now wouldn't be so surprising if it first appeared in English, maybe even in Dickson's book. So,

Question: Are there any European languages in which the CRT has a name that is not a direct translation of "Chinese remainder theorem"?

One more point: Wylie says,

'In examining the productions of the Chinese one finds considerable difficulty in assigning the precise date for the origin of any mathematical process; for on almost every point, where we consult a native author, we find references to some still earlier work on the subject. The high veneration with which is has been customary for them to look upon the labours of the ancients, has made them more desirous of elucidating the works of their predecessors than of seeking fame in an untrodden path; so that some of their most important formulae have reached the state in which we now find them by an almost innumerable series of increments. One of the most remarkable of these is the Ta-yen, "Great Extension," a rule for the resolution of indeterminate problems. This rule is met with in embryo in Sun Tsze's Arithmetical Classic under the name of Wuh-puh-chi-soo, "Unknown Numerical Quantities," where after a general statement in four lines of rhyme the following question is proposed: ...

In tracing the course of this process we find it gradually becoming clearer till towards the end of the Sung dynasty, when the writings of Tsin Keu-chaou put us in full possession of the principle, and enable us to unravel the meaning of the above mysterious assemblage of numerals....'

The Song dynasty apparently ended in 1279, which gives an interval of several hundred years. So, it seems that the name Chinese Remainder Theorem is not completely unreasonable, since according to Wylie, it's not clear when the general form was discovered, or at least might not have been at the time the theorem got its name. ]

Answer by Anweshi for What is the history of the name "Chinese remainder theorem"?

2010-01-16T02:53:50Z

Wikipedia says that the theorem appears in Fibonacci's Liber Abaci (1202). So that could be the first European instance where this name is used(though wikipedia does not say anything about what name was used, as Jonas Meyer notes below).

I suggest that you check into Weil's overview of the history of number theory from Hammurapi to Legendre. That book must surely contain something.

Answer by Jonas Meyer for What is the history of the name "Chinese remainder theorem"?

2010-01-16T04:03:41Z

This is not a complete answer.

The website "Earliest Known Uses of Some of the Words of Mathematics" is made for just this kind of question, but it doesn't give any evidence that its example is really the first use. All it says is:

The term CHINESE REMAINDER THEOREM is found in 1929 in Introduction to the theory of numbers by Leonard Eugene Dickson [James A. Landau].

I thought it might be relevant that in Dickson's History of the theory of numbers, it says on page 57:

The rule became known in Europe through an article, "Jottings on the science of Chinese arithmetic," by Alexander Wylie, a part of which was translated into German by K.L. Birnatszki.

Like most sources, Dickson is giving the history of the spread of the idea and not the origin of the name. Wylie's article from 1853 can be read in full here (as reprinted in 1897); it includes an exposition of the Chinese work without using the name "Chinese Remainder Theorem". This could indicate that the name was not yet in use in 1853, but that's still a long way from 1929.

Answer by Pete L. Clark for What is the history of the name "Chinese remainder theorem"?

2010-01-16T04:06:11Z

The theorem is attributed to the mathematician Sun Tzu, also known as Sun Zi, and not to be confused with the military strategist Sun Tzu (of Art of War fame). People think Sun Tzu lived circa 400 AD.

See e.g.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Tzu_(mathematician)

http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Sun_Zi.html

Answer by Marko Amnell for What is the history of the name "Chinese remainder theorem"?

2010-01-22T16:41:20Z

The book A History of Mathematics: An Introduction by Victor J. Katz says:

"...probably the most famous mathematical technique coming from China is the technique long known as the Chinese remainder theorem. This result was so named after a description of some congruence problems appeared in one of the first reports in the West on Chinese mathematics, articles by Alexander Wylie published in 1852 in the North China Herald, which were soon translated into both German and French and republished in European journals..." (page 222)

This seems to suggest that the name "Chinese Remainder Theorem" was introduced soon after Wylie's 1852 article.

But the book Historical Perspectives on East Asian Science, Technology, and Medicine, edited by Alan Kam-leung Chan, Gregory K. Clancey and Hui-Chieh Loy says:

"A. Wylie introduced the solution of Sun Zi's remainder problem (i.e. "Wu Bu Zhi Shu") and Da-Yan Shu to the West in 1852, and L. Matthiessen pointed out the identity of Qin Jiushao's solution with the rule given by C. F. Gauss in his Disquisitiones Arithmeticae in 1874. Since then it has been called the Chinese Remainder Theorem in Western books on the history of mathematics."

This is ambiguous, as it is not clear whether the author means that the name "Chinese Remainder Theorem" came into use after 1852 or after 1874. But the phrasing does suggest that the name came into use before 1929.

In 1881, Matthiessen published the following article:

L. Matthiessen. "Le problème des restes dans l'ouvrage chinois Swang-King de Sum-Tzi et dans l'ouvrage Ta Sen Lei Schu de Yihhing." Comptes rendus de l'Académie de Paris, 92 :291-294, 1881.

But does the name "Chinese Remainder Theorem" ("le théorème chinois des restes") appear in this article?