Wang Hs'iao-t'ung

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Wang Hs'iao-t'ung

fl. c. 625

Chinese mathematician whose Ch'i-ku Suan-ching includes the first known use of cubic equations in a Chinese text. The work offers 20 problems involving mensuration, but does not provide any rule for solving cubic equations. Foremost mathematician in China during the seventh century, Wang Hs'iao-t'ung was regarded as an expert on the calendar.