Early difficulties
Wang Lai's ancestors took "a poem is handed down from generation to generation, and a filial friend carries on the family line" as their family motto. His father, Wang Chang, has long lost his family and his fortune has fallen. However, Wang Chang is well-read, good at poetry, has won awards, and is the author of Poems of Jingshantang. 1On September 27th, 768, Wang Lai was born in such a poor scholar family, and his birthplace was Jingshantang, Shexian County, Anhui Province.
Wang Lai inherited literature from childhood and was able to write poems at the age of 6. 14 entered the library. At that time, the flood and drought in the county made life at home more difficult. Once Wang Lai was ordered by his parents to pawn his clothes in the city, and was bitten by a vicious dog on his way home, leaving a deep scar on his leg. This hard living environment has created his perseverance, tenacity and independent personality in the future.
Tongue breeding career
1788, Wang Chang died, and Wang Lai began to leave home to make a living. This year, he just turned 20 and came to Suzhou for the first time to teach in the Foreign Teachers' Hall. During this period, Wang Lai met famous scholars and began to study mathematical works such as Mei Yearbook and Essence of Mathematics. 1792, Wang Lai returned to his hometown, where he made his own armillary sphere, Jane Ping instrument, etc. And use them to observe astronomical phenomena. During this period, he completed the earliest mathematical work "Er Shen Shu Jing". From 1796 to 1798, Wang Lai discussed mathematics with his fellow villagers Bashugu and Jiang Yu successively, and completed two manuscripts, Arc Triangle and Pythagorean Shape. 1789, Ba Shu Gu published these two works in a collection and named them "Hengzhai Arithmetic", which was the earliest published mathematical work by Wang Lai. In the same year, Wang Lai failed after having obtained the provincial examination, and Aunt Bashu was injured by her son. The two of them "moved" their feelings to mathematics, "typed three dry words" and became the third in Hengzhai's arithmetic. 1799, at the request of Wang Yingpu, a relative, Wang Lai "constructed several doctors in arithmetic", which was another article "Arc Triangle" and the old book "General and Mathematical Theory", and later became the fourth part of "Hengzhai Arithmetic".
In A.D. 180 1 year, Wang Lai came to Yangzhou from Shexian and taught in Qin Hanlin. The Qin family has a rich collection of books, and Yangzhou at that time was the center where bachelors and celebrities gathered. Wang Lai read the works of Qin and Yuan mathematicians, and got to know Zhang Dunren, Qian Xianzhi and Li Rui. On the basis of studying Qin He's works, Wang Lai wrote the fifth volume of On Equations. In the autumn of this year, Wang Lai left Yangzhou for Lu 'an, and wrote the sixth book of Hengzhai Arithmetic on the way. At the end of the year, Wang Yanlin published and engraved six volumes of Heng Zhai Arithmetic for him in Yangzhou.
In 1800, Wang Lai first met Li Rui, another great mathematician in the Ganjia era. After the fifth volume of Heng Zhai Arithmetic was written, he distributed it to several people for advice. Among them, only Li Rui understood his intention and praised him as "extremely poor and really the best in the family". Li Rui made another postscript and was later included in Hengzhai Arithmetic. 1804, Li Rui came to Yangzhou as a screen guest at the invitation of the magistrate Zhang Dunren. At that time, Jiao Xun was also in Yangzhou, and Wang Lai had frequent contacts with them. At that time, they were called "three friends for chatting". During this period, Wang Lai continued to study the theory of equations and wrote the seventh volume of Hengzhai Arithmetic. At this point, Wang Lai's main mathematical works have been completed.
1805, the famous scholar Xia Luan was transferred to Xin 'an as an instructor. When he arrived in Shexian county, he heard the name of Wang Laixian and went to visit at once. At first glance, they called Wang Lai a "genius of the world", and Xia Man asked his disciples and Xia Man to learn mathematics from Wang. 1806, Wang Lai was invited by Tie Bao, Governor of Liangjiang River, to take charge of the elevation survey of the old and new estuaries of the Yellow River, and returned after success. 1807 passed the teaching of Shexian Eight Banners official school with the first place, and was transferred to Beijing to participate in the calendar revision of the National History Museum. During his stay in Beijing, Wang Lai read the manuscript of Tangut and Tangut by Mingatu, and commented on his works on Tangut and Arc. After the work of the National History Museum was completed, Wang Lai was assigned to Ren County, Shidai County, Anhui Province to study and teach in Chongqing in 18 1.
He was down and out all his life.
Wang Lai's talent is great and his behavior is almost wild, so he often conflicts with social customs. When he was young, he wrote a poem "I am also interested in country people" and "I am so excited that I cry ghosts and gods". After the township exam, I cried from the clouds. Xia Xin described his appearance as "slender and slender, with a beard and beautiful hair", while his temperament was "kneeling unevenly and often generous and sad." Before Wang Lai died, most scholars except Jiao Xun, Li Rui and Xia Man didn't know his achievements. Zhang Dunren once ridiculed that his research on equation theory was "too bitter", and later kept his own prescription supplements and Mingatou manuscripts secret. Fan Jiang, who had made friends with Wang Lai and Li Rui, played up their academic arguments, saying that they were "bitter as a crown, and never saw each other again" because of the disagreement of equations, and then criticized Wang Lai for "passing away". Later, Luo Shilin criticized him for "overcorrection, which is somewhat biased." Luo didn't understand his original intention at all, so he criticized his theory of equations as "ignorance deceives the world" and criticized his works by name. All kinds of facts show that Wang Lai was regarded as a heretic by the academic circle of Ganjia, which was advertised by textual research at that time.
After Wang came to the times, life was still cold. At this time, he had little contact with the outside world, but when there were enthusiastic students in the county school, he taught them carefully and took pains. A few months before his death, Xia Luan went to visit him and saw that he was "pale and silent", so he advised him to write another book. Wang Lai replied, "Textual research scholar Chen Chaoxu's preface was not published by the ancients." 18 13 12.4, Wang Lai, who was tortured by poverty and illness, died during his tenure. After Wang Lai died, the family was desolate and had no spare money. Students of the times thought he was honest and clean, so they sent him back to his hometown and buried him in the general Meiling Zen field in Shexian County.
Before Wang Lai died, Hengzhai Arithmetic had been published in three editions, but none of them were complete. After Xia Man's death, he was very concerned about his manuscripts and specially asked his eldest sons Xia Xin and Hu Peicui to collect and sort them out. After that, I got nine volumes of Hengzhai suicide note, but I failed to submit the sample for a long time. 1854, Xia Xie, the fourth son of Xia Man, was transferred to Duyang (now Boyang, Jiangxi) as the magistrate, that is, the manuscript of Hengzhai suicide note was obtained from Hu Peicui's descendants, and published together with Hengzhai Arithmetic as a combined edition of Hengzhai suicide note. The suicide note of Hengzhai also contains a variety of mathematical works. "The study of filial piety is profound and exquisite."