China, the only civilization among the four ancient kingdoms that has survived to this day, has made remarkable achievements in many fields, especially in mathematics. From the pre-Qin period to the 16th century, classical Chinese mathematics experienced many peaks of development, and finally reached its peak during the Song and Yuan dynasties.
Unlike Western classical mathematics, which focuses on proving theorems, ancient Chinese mathematics emphasizes the creation of algorithms, especially those for solving equations. This idea has had a profound impact on Chinese history, including the Zuo Chuan, the oldest chronicle of the dynasties.
This history book records the life of the ancients in the Spring and Autumn Period in detail, which involves many interesting mathematical problems. Today, let's take a look at a math problem from "Zuo Biography".
This question originated in 544 BC, when the capital of Qi was moved to Chunyu, but due to the small strength of the country, it was unable to complete the construction of the city defense. As a result, Qi Guo made a request to the overlord Jin State to assist in building the city.
Uncle Lu Zhong Huibo (Shu Pengsheng) will be a son (郤deficiency) in the age of Cheng Kuang. It's a year old, Devarus. Uncle Zhuang was defeated by Uncle Zhuang, and won the Chang Di Qiaoru and Yu Ye Leopard, and they were all named after their sons.
Seventy-three years. ”
Shi Kuang Shi Zhao's way of solving the problem is very humorous, he answers the puzzle with a puzzle: "Hai has two heads and six bodies, and the next two are like the body, which is the number of days." According to Shi Zhao's prompt, the taxi next to him replied, "Then, it is twenty-six thousand six hundred and sixty-six days." ”
The doctors' way of solving the problem was too elegant, and it involved a lot of knowledge of the traditional calendar, so it was difficult to understand their train of thought. In short, we only know that the old man is now seventy-three years old, and it is difficult to understand how his age was calculated.
For his actual age, it is difficult to even know his age without understanding how his age is calculated.
Learn about the ancient Chinese calendar to crack this fun charade. The Jiazi timing method is to pair the ten heavenly stems and the twelve earthly branches in pairs to form a combination of 60 groups of stems and branches that start from Jiazi and end in Guihai.
Whether it is counting years or days, it is a cycle of sixty and repeating it. Knowing this rule, let's solve the problem! In the title, it says "its season is on the third day of today", which means that one-third of the last Jiazi day has passed since then, that is, twenty days.
And Lu Shuzhong Huibo will be a son in the age of Cheng Kuang, in the eleventh year of Lu Wengong. Based on this information, we can calculate that the old man's birth year is the fifth year of Jin Linggong. According to the calculation of the imaginary age, the old man was born to the fourteenth year of Jin Pinggong, which is exactly seventy-three years old.
Now do you know how to solve the problem?
In Shi Kuo's answer, "26,600" refers to the life span of the elderly, and "60 years" is converted into 60 days, so it can be concluded that the old man has lived 26,660 days, which is in line with the calculation in Article 2.
After Zhao Wu's stills, he intended to let the old man hold an official position to assist him in governing. However, the old man politely declined, citing his advanced age. In order to show respect, Zhao Wu invited the old man to his home, presented him with a piece of land, and appointed him as the Jiangxian teacher, responsible for presiding over the work of exempting him from forced labor.
At the same time, he also asked the public lieutenant who had requisitioned the old man to be dismissed on the spot.