A study on Harada Shigeyoshi's Jujireki Chukai (Study of the History of Mathematics 2022)

Abstract

After being introduced to Japan, the important ancient Chinese calendar, the Shoushi Calendar, was reprinted and disseminated. The Shoushili Yi in Yuan Shi·Li zhi is an important document about the ancient Chinese calendar theory. No one studied it in the Ming and Qing dynasties, but Japanese scholars in the Edo period commented on it, such as Takebe Katahiro (1664-1739), Nishimura Tōsato (1718-1787), and Harada Shigeyoshi (1740-1807), they annotated the Shoushili Yi. The article firstly verifies that the author of the Jujireki Chukai in the library affiliated to Tohoku University is Harada Shigeyoshi, not Takahashi Yoshitoki (1764-1804). Secondly, an investigation was carried out on Harada Shigeyoshi and his writings. The investigation found that there were three manuscripts of Harada Shigeyoshi's Jujireki Chukai, and the contents of the annotations and knowledge sources were verified and sorted out. It is believed that the Jujireki Chukai cited the contents of Tianwen Tujie Fahui (Nakane Genkei), Lisuan Quanshu (Mei Wending) and Juji Kai (Nishimura Tōsato) mostly. Finally, the article analyzes the annotations on “Yanqi (Collect or modify data for the solar terms)” and “Buyong Jinian Rifa (Abolition of the calendar epoch)” in Harada Shigeyoshi's Jujireki Chukai, and thinks that Harada's annotations in “Yanqi” through diagrams are commendable. The “Buyong Jinian Rifa” section is rich in annotations, which supplement the three possible situations that Li Qian and Qi Lvqian proposed to calculate Yanji Shangyuan. The two new situations which do not provide calculation procedures are similar to the methods of Li Qian and Qi Lvqian, and the other two situations are caculated by Seki Takakazu's Jianguan-Method. This method is essentially the same as that of Dayan-Zongshu-Method (Da-yan Rule) [大衍總數術]

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