徐岳

徐岳（?—220年），字公河，东莱人，东汉末年数学家、天文学家。

生平

徐岳曾随刘洪学《乾象历》，徐岳潜心研究月球运动，进一步完善《乾象历》。黄初年间，太史丞韩翊以为《乾象历》不精确，遂自造《黄初历》。韩翊与徐岳就乾象历与黄初历的优劣进行了一场辩论，徐岳在历法辩论会中指出：“效历之要，要在日蚀。”徐岳还把《乾象历》传授给东吴中书令阚泽。后来阚泽为刘洪的《乾象历》做注，并且在东吴推行该历法。徐岳首次提出了“珠算”的概念。曹魏黄初元年（220年）卒。著有《数术记遗》一卷。《隋书经籍志》记载，徐岳曾有两部有关《九章算术》的著作。

Xu Yue was a second-century mathematician born in Donglai, in present-day Shandong province, China. Little is known of his life except that he was a student of Liu Hong, an astronomer, and mathematician in second-century China, and had frequent discussions with the Astronomer-Royal of the Astronomical Bureau.

Works

Xu Yue wrote a commentary on Nine Chapters on Mathematical Art and a treatise, Notes on Traditions of Arithmetic Methods. The commentary has been lost, but his own work has survived with a commentary from Zhen Luan.

Notes on Traditions of Arithmetic Methods mentions 14 old methods of calculation. This book was a prescribed mathematical text for the Imperial examinations in 656 and became one of The Ten Mathematical Classics (算经十书) in 1084.