The book addresses for the first time the dynamics associated with the modernization of
mathematics in China from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century from a transcultural
global historical perspective. Rather than depict the transformations of mathematical knowledge
in terms of a process of westernization the book analyzes the complex interactions between
different scientific communities and the ways in which the past modernity language and
mathematics were negotiated in a global context. In each chapter Andrea Bréard provides vivid
portraits of a series of go-betweens (such as translators educators or state statisticians)
based on a vast array of translated primary sources hitherto unavailable to a non-Chinese
readership. They not only illustrate how Chinese scholars mediated between new mathematical
objects and discursive modes but also how they instrumentalized their autochthonous scientific
roots in specific political and intellectual contexts. While sometimes technical in style the
book addresses all readers who are interested in the global and cultural history of science and
the complexities involved in the making of universal mathematics. While the pursuit of
modernity is in the title entanglement is of as much interest. Using the famous 'Nine
Chapters' as a framework Bréard considers a wide range of that entanglement from divination to
data management. Bréard's analysis and thought-provoking insights show once again how much we
can learn when two cultures intersect. A fascinating read! (John Day Boston University).
