Gu Deng (;

Hepburn Hepburn may refer to: Surname People with the surname Hepburn (the most famous in recent times being actresses Katharine Hepburn and Audrey Hepburn): * Hepburn (surname) Linguistics * Hepburn romanization, a system for the romanization of Japa ...

: Ko Cho; 1882 - 1947?) was a mathematician and politician at the end of

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...

and in the early

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

. His

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theobald ...

was Yangwu ().

Biography

Gu Deng was born in

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

. In the end of

He graduated the department of mathematics, the Gezhi Academy (). In 1909 Gu translated the book about

quaternion In mathematics, the quaternion number system extends the complex numbers. Quaternions were first described by the Irish mathematician William Rowan Hamilton in 1843 and applied to mechanics in three-dimensional space. Hamilton defined a quatern ...

s, this is the first introduction about quaternions in Chinese history. Gu Deng became a teacher in Beijing University and

Qinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

, later he became the president of Beiping Women's College of Humanities and Sciences () and the chairperson of the department of mathematics,

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston. Established in 1898, the university offers undergraduate and graduate programs on its main campus as well as satellite campuses in ...

. In February 1934, he became a professor of the department of mathematics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Gu Deng was one of the founders of the Chinese Mathematical Society, the first academic organization for Chinese mathematicians, in 1935 in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

. He became the editor-in-chief of ''Magazine of Mathematics'' () which is published by the Chinese Mathematical Society and ''Information of Science'' () which is published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. 　 In April 1938, Gu Deng was appointed Vice-Minister for Education under the collaborationist Provisional Government of the Republic of China led by Wang Kemin. In July,

Chen Qun Chen Qun (died 7 February 237), courtesy name Changwen, was a Chinese politician of the state of Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period of China. He initiated the Nine-rank system for civil service nomination in Wei. Following the death of th ...

() was relieved from his post as Minister for Education, and Gu Deng became concurrently the provisional acting Minister as well until his official promotion to Minister for Education the following April. He remained in this post until the formation of the

Reorganized National Government of China The Wang Jingwei regime or the Wang Ching-wei regime is the common name of the Reorganized National Government of the Republic of China ( zh , t = 中華民國國民政府 , p = Zhōnghuá Mínguó Guómín Zhèngfǔ ), the government of the pup ...

under Wang Jingwei in March 1940. After he resignation, he lived in obscurity, and is believed to have died around 1947.

References

* "News about schoolfellow Gu Deng," ()
Homepage for an Alumni Association of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gu, Deng Politicians from Wuxi Republic of China politicians from Jiangsu Chinese collaborators with Imperial Japan 1882 births 1940s deaths Year of death uncertain 20th-century Chinese people Chinese editors Republic of China science writers Writers from Wuxi Educators from Wuxi Scientists from Wuxi Mathematicians from Jiangsu