Xindu Fang (信都芳) | 24 Histories

Overview

The translated histories identify Xindu Fang as a mathematician, official, scholar, and scientist. This record brings together 7 passages from 2 chapters across 2 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Xindu Fang	信都芳	Xindu Fang
Personal	Xin Du Fang	信都芳	Xìn Dū Fāng

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · weishu:024:s0120

Roles

Mathematician
Official
Scholar
Scientist

Life and dates

Death

Circumstance: died before Spiritual Constitution Calendar was completed
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0046

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 信都芳 · Western Interval: Start: AD 515 · End: AD 530
Explicit event contextual date · weishu:024:s0120
Source Date: Text: 魏末 / 齊代魏前 · Western Interval: Start: c. AD 520 · End: AD 550
Explicit event contextual date · beiqishu:049:s0033

Career and standing

Office: Staff Officer in the Chancellor's Granary Bureau / 參軍丞相倉曹 · Action: appointed
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0038

Places and affiliations

Place: Hejian / 河間
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0033, weishu:024:s0120

Learning and skills

Skill: mathematics and calculation / 算術 · Level: master
Explicit · weishu:024:s0120
Skill: calculation / 算術
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0034, beiqishu:049:s0036
Skill: calendar calculation / 歷書
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0045
Skill: pitch-pipe ash testing / 律管吹灰
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0039, beiqishu:049:s0041

Works and attributed material

Work: commentary on instrument standards / 器準注 · Relation: annotator
Explicit · weishu:024:s0121
Work: Books of Music / 樂書 · Relation: author
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0044
Work: Classic of Hidden Stem / 遁甲經 · Relation: author
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0044
Work: Four Arts and Gnomon of the Zhou Tradition / 四術周髀宗 · Relation: author
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0044
Work: Spiritual Constitution Calendar / 靈憲歷 · Relation: author
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0045, beiqishu:049:s0046
Work: Standards of Instruments / 器準 · Relation: compiler
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0043
Kind: self-assessment · Role: speaker · Quoted: true · Topic: subtlety of calculation
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0036
Kind: technical-claim · Role: speaker · Quoted: true · Topic: need for Henei reed-ash
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0040

Assessments and attributes

Assessment: extreme concentration on calculation · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
Explicit · beiqishu:049:s0035, beiqishu:049:s0036, beiqishu:049:s0037

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Northern Qi, Chapter 49Volume 49 Biographies 41: Arts · 5 passages

Open chapter

信都芳，河間人。 Xindu Fang was from Hejian.

祖珽謂芳曰：「律管吹灰，術甚微妙，絕來旣久，吾思所不至，卿試思之。」 Zu Ting said, “The pitch-pipe ash test is subtle and long lost—I cannot recover it; try.”

芳遂留意，十數日，便云：「吾得矣，然終須河內葭莩灰。」 Fang labored ten days and said, “I have it—but only with reed-ash from Henei.”

芳又撰次古來渾天、地動、欹器、漏刻諸巧事，並畫圖，名曰《器準》。 He compiled ancient devices—armillary spheres, seismoscopes, tipping vessels, clepsydras—illustrated them in Standards of Instruments.

芳又私撰歷書，名為《靈憲歷》，算月有頻大頻小，食必以朔，證據甚甄明，每云：「何承天亦為此法，不能精，靈憲若成，必當百代無異議。」 His private Spiritual Constitution Calendar tracked the moon’s varying size and fixed eclipses at new moon with rare clarity. “He Chengtian tried this but lacked precision,” he said; “finish this calendar and posterity will not quarrel.”

Book of Wei, Chapter 24Volume 20: Emperor Wencheng's Five Princes · 2 passages

Open chapter

又以河間人信都芳工算術，引之在館。 He also summoned Xin Du Fang of Hejian, a master of mathematics, to his library.

其撰古今樂事九章十二圖，又集器準九篇，芳別為之注，皆行於世。 His nine chapters and twelve diagrams on music through the ages, and nine chapters on instrument measures with Fang's separate commentary, all circulated.