Abstract：During the 200 years of the 18th and 19th centuries, Europe produced numerous great mathematicians, while the oriental world remained relatively quiet in mathematics. Before 1868 (the Meiji Restoration in Japan), China fared better than Japan with respect to the achievements in that field, but China was overtook by Japan at the end of the 19th century. This paper presents a comparative study on the training of talents of mathematics in China and in Japan during the period from 1868 to the Second World War, to show the causes why China followed a downward road to become lagged behind Japan and the rest of the world in mathematics. In Japan, the Meiji Restoration required its citizens to learn from Western countries in all fields in an all round way; in China, on the other hand, it was advocated to learn Western science and technology on the basis of the Chinese traditional system. With the latter altitude, one could not seek truth whole-heartedly, which constitutes the most important cause for China to be lagged behind in mathematics and other sciences. Another reason is that in the early stage of learning from the West, Chinese tended to focus on technology and lacked the enthusiasm for mathematics. The importance of the most advanced mathematics was not recognized until the twenties of the 19th century and the frontlines in this field were not touched upon. The rapid development of mathematics in Japan had also something to do with their methods of learning. No great mathematician would be produced without the enthusiasm of researching and taking it as a loft goal. The prospect of mathematics in today's China depends on the training of young mathematicians. The training of graduate students should be traced to the training of middle school students. It is expected that the enthusiasm for mathematics will again be prevailed in Chinese.
2010, Vol. 28 
