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The Discovery and Classification of Li Yan's Correspondence with Yoshio Mikami

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The Discovery and Classification of Li Yan’s Correspondence With Yoshio Mikami * Seisho YOSHIYAMA ＊＊ Abstract Yoshio Mikami and Li Yan are the pioneers of the study of mathematical history in East Asia. They were corresponding about the study of mathematical history from 1914 to 1937. Mr. Li wrote Mr. Mikami 45 letters for over these 23 years. Mr. Sadao Fuji‘i dicovered the letters before 2004, and published the list in “Mikami Yoshio’s Remaining Manuscripts Catalogue” in 2004. This discovery of Mr. Fuji‘i is very significant for researching the exchanging history of the study of mathematical history between China and Japan. Keywords: China, Japan, mathematics, history, correspondence. Introduction Li Yan and Yoshio Mikami are the pioneers of the study of mathematical history in East Asia. They have been corresponding for 23 years concerning the study of the East Asian history of mathematics. Li Yan’s letters to Yoshio Mikami were discovered by Mr. Sadao Fuji’i about nine years ago. Professor Han Qi and professor Zou Dahai classified and published them entitled “The Correspondences between Li Yan and Yan Dunjie”. I began classifying the correspondences because I was enlightened by their papers last year. Keywords : China, Japan, mathematics, history, correspondence. 1. Yoshio Mikami and the study of East Asian history of mathematics Yoshio Mikami [ 三上義夫, February 16,1875 - December 31,1950] was a historian of Asian science. He was born in Kotachi（which now belongs to Akitakata City）, Hiroshima Prefecture. In April of 1891, he transfered to the 2nd grade at the Chiba th ＊＊ This paper is based on the author’s presentation with the same title in The 5 International Symposium on Ancient Chinese Books and Records of Science and Technology, in Tsinghua University, Beijing, China, September 23-25, 2011. ＊＊ Aka: Qingxiang Wang, Faculty of Environmental and Information Sciences, Yokkaichi University. － 107 － Ordinary Junior High School after finishing his elementary school education. At the same time, he also started studying at the Tokyo School of Mathematics and the National School of English in 1892. In 1896, he entered the 2nd Sendai High School, left the school several months later due to his eye disease. And then he was admitted to an elective course in the Department of Philosophy at Tokyo Imperial University as a special student（a non-regular student） in October of 1911. He went on to the Graduate School of Philosophy at the same university in October of 1914（until 1919）. Mr. Mikami was entrusted with surveying the Japanese history of mathematics by the Imperial Academy（the Current Japan Academy） from 1908 to 1915. He was elected to be a commissioner of the international committee for the history of science in 1929. This was the first Asian commissioner in the committee. He was an instructor at the Tokyo School of Physics（ the forerunner of Tokyo University of Science） from 1933 to 1944. Mr. Mikami recieved a doctral degree of science from Tohoku University in 1949, however he died of a stroke on December 31 the next year. He was given a posthumous Buddhist name “Immortal Education Master of Science” [ 理学院教導義仙居士 , Rigakuin kyodo gisen kyoshi]. Mr. Mikami began researching the history of mathematics in 1905. This year, the United States’ mathematician George Bruce Halsted（November 23,1853 - March 16,1922） asked Mikami to write a paper to introduce the Japanese history of mathemetics. But at the time, there was just Toshisada Endo’s “Big Japanese History of Mathematics”（1896） as books concerning Japanese history of mathematics. So Mr. Mikami decided to study Japanese history of mathematics himself. Mikami’s first academic paper is “Another Proof and Extension of Euler’s Theorem on Angles, Edges and Areas of Polyhedrons” in 1902. In 1905, he published his first academic paper on the history of science entitled “A Chinese Theorem on Geometry”. In 1913, he published his first book in the English language, entitled “The Development of Mathematics in China and Japan”（Leipzig, January 1913）. He published more than two hundred papers or books which included 35 papers and 3 books in both English and German language until his death in 1950. 2. About Mr. Mikami’s remaining manuscripts concerning the history of science After putting his manuscripts concerning the history of science in Shinichi Oya’s keeping, Mr. Mikami evacuated from Tokyo to his hometown Kotachi in Hiroshima on May 18, 1945. By the way, it was September 6, 1945 when the atomic bombing happened in Hiroshima, but fortunately he was safe. Shinichi Oya(1907-1991) was a professor at Fuji Junior College in Tokyo, he had been a － 108 － student at Tokyo School of Physics, where Mr. Mikami had been an instructor. After Oya’s death, Mikami’s remaining manuscripts were entrusted to Mr. Sadao Fuji’i to classify them by the Kinki Society for the Study of Mathematical History in Japan in March, 2001. So Mr. Fuji’i recieved 26 cardboard boxes of Mikami’s remaining manuscripts. Of course, they were just a part of what Mikami put in Oya’s keeping. It is said that a part of them was carried into the library at Fuji Junior College（current Tokyo Fuji University）by Mr. Oya, and a part of them was sold to a second hand bookstore with Oya’s book collection. So it is convinced that what Mr. Fuji’i recieved is most of Mikami’s remaining manuscripts. 3. The discovery of Li Yan’s correspondences with Yoshio Mikami by Mr. Sadao Fuji’i Mr. Sadao Fuji’i was born on March 30,1932, in Dalian City, China as a Japanese. Lyushun Institue of Technology was closed down on September of 1945 when Fuji’i was a college student there, then returned to Japan. Later he went to Kyoto University, graduated in the Department of Metallurgy, Faculty of Engineering in 1951. He had been a math and science teacher at High schools in Hiroshima Prefecture for 30 years. Studying how to read archives was the catalyst for him to study the history of mathematics. He began classifying Mikami’s remaining manuscripts in 2001, and then edited “Mikami Yoshio’s Remaining Manuscripts Catalogue” in 2004. The Catalogue included the list of Li Yan’s correspondences with Yoshio Mikami. 4. The classification of Li Yan’s correspondences by Seisho Yoshiyama I first met Mr. Sadao Fuji’i just after I read a book on Wajuro Hodoji in 1986 when I was a student at the Graduate School of Science, the University of Tokyo. The book was edited by Mr. Fuji’i. I noticed that there was a list of Li Yan’s Correspondence With Yoshio Mikami in it as soon as I Got “Mikami Yoahio’s Remaining Manuscripts Catalogue” from Mr. Fuji’i in 2004. In September of 2006, I went to the Kota Branch Office of the Education Committee, Akitakata City in Hiroshima Prefecture, to take a closer look into the correspondences. I began classifying the correspondences in 2010 after knowing that professor Han Qi and professor Zou Dahai classified and published them entitled “The Correspondences Between Li Yan and Yan Dunjie”. By now, I have almost finished inputting them to print files, except several Chinese characters that I have not understood yet. I also noticed several things concerning Li Yan’s correspondence with Yoshio Mikami. （1） Mr. Li Yan [ 李 儼 ]（1892-1963） started to correspond with Yoshio Mikami in 1914, － 109 － but stopped in 1937. Namely, he had corresponded with Mr. Mikami for 23 years, in which time he wrote Mr. Mikami 45 letters. The details are as follows. Years Number of letters 1914 2 1915 2 1916 5 1917 5 1918 4 1919 1 1920 5 1921 0 1922 1 1923 0 1924 0 1925 2 1926 0 1927 1 1928 0 1929 0 1930 5 1931 6 1932 1 1933 0 1934 1 1935 1 1936 1 1937 2 （2） The corresponding between Mr. Li and Mr. Mikami seemed to begin with Mr. Li’s letter to Mr. Mikami in 1914（the postmark on the envelope is September 17,1914）. In 1914, after reading Mr. Mikami’s paper on a journal “The World of Mathematics”, Mr. Li wrote to Mr. Mikami to introduce Japanese researchers and discuss the study of mathematical history with each other. （3） Mr. Li’s last letter to Mr. Mikami was on October 24, 1937. On July 7 of this year, “Lugou-Qiao”event related “China-Japan war” occurred in Beijing. It is probably due to this event that the corresponding stopped between Mr. Li and Mr. Mikami. － 110 － （4） It is believed that Mr. Li was influenced by Mr. Mikami in the study of mathematical history. Actually, the following things are clear. In 1905, Mr. Mikami began researching the history of mathematics. He published his first academic paper on the history of science entitled “A Chinese Theorem on Geometry” in the same year. In 1913, Mr. Mikami published his first book in the English language, entitled “The Development of Mathematics in China and Japan”. Mr. Li tried to translate this book into Chinese language. In 1913, Mr. Li decided to study the history of Chinese mathematics after he read a Japanese researcher’s paper concerning the history of Chinese mathematics. This was probably one of Mr. Mikami’s papers. 5. Conclusion： The perspectives on the study of Li Yan’s correspondences with Yoshio Mikami Yoshio Mikami and Li Yan are the pioneers of the study of mathematical history in East Asia. They were corresponding about the study of mathematics from 1914 to 1937. Mr. Li wrote Mr. Mikami 45 letters for over these 23 years. Mr.
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