Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v1.c6.39

v1.c6.39

Ancient Indian knowledge in metrology spread through the translated sutras. In the Wu state during the Three Kingdoms Period, in the translation of the Indian Tripitaka's *Mo deng jia jing* (*Matangi Sutra*), Zhu Luyan and Zhi Qian in their chapter VI entitled 'Observing Disaster and Auspiciousness' records Indian jin and liang algorithms. This includes the conversion relations among weight units such as wheat, soybean, Suvarna, 'zhu', 'liang', 'jin', 'Para', 'cuo', 'ju', 'bo xi ta', Magadha 'Bo xi ta a' and so on. The *Matangi Sutra* also provided information regarding methods of division and calculation of distance – li and you *xun* (*yojana*) as well as of using a water clock for measuring time, length of day and night and seasons. The other translated version of *Mo deng jia jing* (*Matangi Sutra*) entitled *She tou jian tai ze er shi ba su jing* (*Sutra on Twenty Eight Constellations Remonstrated with the Prince*), (translated by Indian Dharmaraksa in the Western Jin Dynasty) narrates in a much more detailed manner, the distance measurement in yojana and *li*, and the knowledge of distinguishing tastes and cereals. Methods of writing and remembering large and small numbers in *sutras* also had some influence on China. The *Suan xue qi meng* (*Enlightenment of Mathematics*) by Zhu Shijie, a mathematician of the Yuan Dynasty, recorded the Indian maximal numbers such as “sands of the Ganges”, *asamkhya*, *na yu ta*, “incredible” and “numerous”, and the minimal numbers such as “sand”, “dust”, “dirt”, “tiny”, “insignificant”, “vague”, “prowl”, “instant”, “moment”, “fillip”, “ksana”, “six virtues”, “voidness”, “emptiness”, “clearness”, “purity” and so on.