The Suàn shù shū 筭數書 is an ancient Chinese collection of writings on
mathematics approximately seven thousand characters in length, written on 190
bamboo strips. It was discovered together with other writings in 1983 when
archaeologists opened a tomb at Zhāngjiāshān 張家山 in Húběi 湖北 province.
From documentary evidence this tomb is thought to have been closed in 186 BC,
early in the Western Hàn 漢 dynasty. The occupant of the tomb - whose name is
unknown to us - appears to have been a minor local government official, who had
begun his career in the service of the Qín 秦 dynasty, but started work for the Hàn
in 202 BC: see Péng Hào (2001) 11-12. The Suàn shù shū is anonymous, in the sense
that we do not know the name of the person who assembled this material. A few
sections of text are however marked with the common surnames Wáng 王 and
Yáng 楊; whether these persons were merely scribes or were the actual authors of
mathematical material is not clear.