American mathematician Klein's Thoughts on Ancient and Modern Mathematics (Shanghai Science and Technology Publishing House) is a masterpiece in the history of mathematics. Its Chinese translation consists of four volumes, with *** 1500 pages and nearly1200,000 words. It has been translated by many academicians and professors of Peking University Department of Mathematics 10 for many years. Starting from ancient Egypt and Babylon, this book describes the development of mathematics in a comprehensive, in-depth and detailed way until AD 1930. The mathematics in the book is expressed in the form of academic discussion and debate among mathematicians, and great attention is paid to placing mathematics in the cultural background. It is also interspersed with the short life of a great mathematician from time to time, so it is very interesting.

Mathematics after 1930 is not mentioned in ancient and modern mathematical thoughts. Considering the complexity and profundity of mathematics in the 20th century, it is almost impossible to write a decent history of mathematics in the 20th century. At this time, the 20th Century Mathematical Jingwei (Zhang Dianzhou, East China Normal University Press) came out. Professor Zhang has interviewed many times and is very thoughtful. Moreover, he loved literature since he was a child and his writing style was quite good. In the 70 chapters of the book * * *, more than 100 masters have been biographed, often with only a few strokes, and the images and achievements of the masters are vividly on the paper, which makes readers admire them. Jingwei means that 70 sections are independent and not written in historical order, but you can still clearly see the central idea of the book, which is to tell you what is good and representative mathematics. Masters like Poincare and Atia focus on grasping mathematics as a whole, promoting the development of mathematical theory, promoting the connection between mathematics and related disciplines, or studying important issues such as three-body and Fermat's Last Theorem. This is good mathematics, which requires deep intuition and insight; The simple pursuit of technical difficulty (a large number of problems in elementary number theory are most suitable for this appetite) can only be regarded as "not bad" mathematics at most; As for some artificially defined concepts and axioms, they are very isolated and have no direct relationship with mainstream mathematics. They can't help solve practical problems, or they are doing "bad" mathematics. All extreme and artificial practices are not long-lasting. Everything belongs to nature and to the middle way. This is the truth. Liaoning Education Publishing House has been making great efforts in publishing books on the history of mathematics. Their latest contributions are Collation and Interpretation of Zu Chongzhi's Scientific Works (by Yan Dunjie) and General History of the History of Mathematics in the World (by Liang Zongju, Volume I and II). Liang Zongju is a professional researcher in the history of mathematics. He used to be vice chairman of chinese society of history of science and technology and vice chairman of the National Society of Mathematical History. The book General History, with a total of 1.3 million words, describes in detail the history of the emergence and development of mathematics in various civilizations in the world, including some original opinions of several authors, such as the classification of notation at home and abroad, Taylor's measurement of pyramids, and new understanding of Fermat's last theorem. The second volume of this book was written by Mr. Liang Zongju's students on the basis of his manuscript after his death, which was very impressive.

Recently, there is a book "The Story of Mathematics" (Hainan Publishing House), which was recommended by two experts, Wang Yuan and Hu Zuoxuan. It tells the story of past lives in mathematics from a cultural point of view. The illustrations are particularly beautiful and suitable for people who don't know much about mathematics. History of Mathematics (written by Scott, translated by Hou Derun of Guangxi Normal University Press) is also a well-known book, which reflects the earlier history of mathematics and is quite innovative in content.