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Jiuzhang suan fa zuan lei
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Blaise Pascal first described his triangle for generating the coefficients of a binomial expansion in 1665. The Chinese version, however, is centuries older. It was included as an illustration in Zhu Shijie's Siyuan yujian (1303; “Precious Mirror of Four Elements”), where it was already called the “Old Method.”
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Jiuzhang suan fa zuan lei

work by Yang Hui
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Blaise Pascal first described his triangle for generating the coefficients of a binomial expansion in 1665. The Chinese version, however, is centuries older. It was included as an illustration in Zhu Shijie's Siyuan yujian (1303; “Precious Mirror of Four Elements”), where it was already called the “Old Method.”
Blaise Pascal first described his triangle for generating the coefficients of a binomial expansion in 1665. The Chinese version, however, is centuries older. It was included as an illustration in Zhu Shijie's Siyuan yujian (1303; “Precious Mirror of Four Elements”), where it was already called the “Old Method.”

The Jiuzhang suan fa zuan lei (c. 1275) is a work by the Chinese mathematician Yang Hui. This text is a compilation and reclassification of problems from the earlier Jiuzhang suanshu (Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Procedures), originally from the Han dynasty.1

Yang Hui's work includes an early representation of what is known in the West as Blaise Pascal's triangle. Yang Hui stated that he copied this from an older text by Jia Xian. The Jiuzhang suan fa zuan lei was influential, with copies being made and studied in Korea and Japan.12

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4 Britannica Sources
  1. Yang Hui
  2. Liu Hui
  3. Jia Xian
  4. Zhu Shijie

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