摘要
在查阅西方文献的基础上，考证了“中国定理”（ChineseTheorem，即Fermat定理之道定理）的来源，指出它是李善兰发明，由英国新教传教士伟烈亚为首次披露的。分析了李善兰得出“中国定理”的思路，并详细记述了由“中国定理”引发的讨论。最后指出中国数学史论著中有关论述之错误。
Based on the Notes and Queries on China and Japan, this paper points out that the Chinese Theorem was first invented by the Chinese mathematician Li Shanlan (1811-1882). The so-called theorem was translated into English by Alexander Wylie (1815-1887),a very famous British Protestant missionary of the London Missionary Society. The author also gives a detailed description of the debate on the Chinese Theorem among European readers such as J. von Gumpach (? -1875), a German teacher and colleague of Li Shanlan at the Tongwenguan in Beijing. The paper discusses Li Shanlan's way of thinking in determining prime numbers. Finally it analyses the reason why the historians of Chinese mathematics made mistakes in the study of history of prime numbers in China.
出处
《自然科学史研究》
CSCD
1999年第1期7-13,共7页
Studies in The History of Natural Sciences
