The great warrior learned about ancient mathematics through gossip.

The math problem in gossip is a binary problem.

Leibniz and gossip

When this manuscript was finished, Leibniz was fifty years old. There is no doubt that he is the inventor of this binary system, which is the basis of modern computer technology. Moreover, before this, or at the same time with him, no one seems to have thought of this problem. This is rare in the history of mathematics.

Leibniz not only invented binary system, but also endowed it with religious connotation. In a letter to Joachim Bouvier, a French Jesuit priest who was preaching in China at that time (1662- 1732), he said:

"At the beginning of the first day is 1, that is, God. The beginning of the second day is 2 ... On the seventh day, everything is available. Therefore, this last day is also the most perfect. Because at this time, everything in the world has been created. So it is written as' 7', that is,' 1 1' (binary11equals decimal 7), without 0. Only when we only use 0 and 1 to represent this number can we understand why the seventh day is the most perfect and why 7 is a sacred number. It is particularly noteworthy that its characteristics (writing binary 1 1 1) are related to the trinity. "

Bouvier is a master of sinology, and his introduction to China is one of the most important reasons for the China fever in European academic circles in the 17 and18th centuries. Bouvier is a good friend of Leibniz and keeps frequent correspondence with him. Leibniz once translated many articles of Bouvier into German and published them. It was Buwei who introduced Zhouyi and the gossip system to Leibniz, and explained the authoritative position of Zhouyi in China culture.

Eight diagrams is a divination system composed of eight symbol groups, which are divided into continuous and discontinuous horizontal lines. In Leibniz's view, these two symbols, which were later called "Yin" and "Yang", were China replicas of his binary system. He felt that the relationship between this symbol system from China ancient culture and his binary system was too obvious, so he asserted that the binary system was the most perfect universal logic language in the world.

Another person who may arouse Leibniz's interest in gossip is Wilhelm Ernst Tentzel, who was then the head of the Dagong Coin collection room in Thuringia and one of Leibniz's good friends. There is a coin with a gossip symbol in the coin collection he is in charge of.