Talk:Alexander Wylie (missionary)

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Chinese translation of the Euclid's Elements[edit]

According to the following free paper,

With China's doors reopened to foreigners in 1842, missionaries from the West—especially from Great Britain—flooded in. Among them was Alexander Wylie from Scotland, who was sent to Shanghai by the London Missionary Society in 1847.
— Yibao Xu, The first Chinese translation of the last nine books of Euclid's Elements and its source, February 2005, Historia Mathematica 32(1):4-32, doi:10.1016/j.hm.2003.12.002

The statement is corroborated by more external sources. The abstract affirms that "Books VII to XV of the Elements (Books VII to XIII by Euclid and Books XIV and XV by Hypsicles of Alexandria) were first translated into Chinese by the British missionary Alexander Wylie and the Chinese mathematician Li Shanlan between the years 1852 and 1856." The research adds:

After three years of hard work, they had finished the first six books. Although Xu Guangqi wanted to continue to translate the rest of the book, Ricci thought it would be better to publish their partial translation first.

The WP article of Li Shanlan refers the same about Ricci and Xu Guangqi, but it doesn't mention Alexander Wylie. This information can be hopefully integrated into the current WP article.Theologian81sp (talk) 13:56, 3 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]