Wang Zhenyi (astronomer)

Wang Zhenyi (1768 to 1797) was a Chinese scientist of the Qing dynasty, known for her work in astronomy, mathematics and poetry. Her family came from Anhui and later settled in Jiangning, now Nanjing, where her grandfather taught her astronomy and her father taught her medicine, geography and mathematics. She studied astronomy and mathematics largely on her own, taught some male students after her marriage at twenty five, and died at twenty nine without children. Of her writings only about ten papers survive, among them Explanation of Lunar Eclipses and The Explanation of the Pythagorean Theorem and Trigonometry. She rewrote Mei Wending's book on calculation in simpler language as The Musts of Calculation, and wrote The Simple Principles of Calculation to make multiplication and division easier for beginners.