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 .

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）, 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 o