Chiungtze C. Tsen

"Tsen" redirects here. For other uses, see Tsen (disambiguation).

Chiungtze C. Tsen (Chinese: 曾炯之; pinyin: Zēng Jiǒngzhī; Wade–Giles: Tseng Chiung-chih; Chang-Du Gan: [tsɛn˦˨ tɕjuŋ˨˩˧ tsɹ̩˦˨],^{[n 1]} April 2, 1898^{[n 2]} – October 1, 1940^[1]), given name Chiung (Chinese: 炯; pinyin: Jiǒng),^{[n 3]} was a Chinese mathematician born in Nanchang, Jiangxi. He is known for his work in algebra. He was one of Emmy Noether's students at the University of Göttingen.

1932 near Göttingen

In this Chinese name, the family name is Tsen.

One of his research interests was quasi-algebraic closure. In that area he proved a fundamental result which is now called Tsen's theorem.

Biography

Tsen was born in a poor fisherman's family in Xinjian Country, Nanchang, Jiangxi Province. His father Tschu-Wun Tsen^{[n 4]} (曾祖文 Zeng Zuwen) had two sons and several daughters, and Tsen was the eldest son.^[2] His uncle Lei Heng (雷恒), who was a jinshi and a member of the Hanlin Academy, persuaded Tsen's father to send Tsen to school. Due to poverty, Tsen had to take leaves from school intermittently to work. After leaving primary school, he worked in a coal mine while self-studying.^[3]

In 1917, he passed the entrance examination and was admitted to Jiangxi Provincial First Normal College in Nanchang. He was subsidised by Lei Heng's son Tsebu S. Lee^{[n 4]} (雷子布 Lei Zibu, given name 宣 Xuan), who was studying in Japan on government scholarship. After graduation in 1920, Tsen taught in primary school for two years. In 1922, Tsen entered National Wuchang Senior Normal College, later National Wuchang University,^{[n 5]} to study undergraduate mathematics, and he graduated in 1926. After graduation, he worked as teacher in high schools for two years to perform the mandatory teaching service of his degree.^[3]

In 1927, when Kuomintang split with the Chinese Communist Party, Tsen and some teachers and students protested against the breakup and called for alliance. Several of them including Tsen were beaten up and were sent to hospital. Guo Moruo, then serving as director of the political department of the National Revolutionary Army, visited them in the hospital.^[3]

In 1928, Tsen passed the Jiangxi provincial government scholarship examination for studying in Europe and America. He went to Berlin University for language training for a year, and then he started studying mathematics at University of Göttingen in the summer semester of 1929. He studied algebra under Emmy Noether. Tsen received his doctoral degree in February 1934 under the supervision of Emmy Noether and Friedrich Karl Schmidt, and he dedicated his dissertation to his elder cousin Tsebu S. Lee. Having fled to the US, Noether evaluated the dissertation in a letter as "sehr gut" (very good). As a research fellow sponsored by the China Foundation for the Promotion of Education and Culture, Tsen did a postdoctoral research with Emil Artin at Hamburg University for a year. There he became friend with Shiing-Shen Chern, who was a graduate student back then. Chern remembered him as a cordial and open-minded person well-liked by everyone.^[2]

Tsen returned to China in July 1935 and was invited by Chen Jiangong to National Chekiang University in Hangzhou as professor in the area of algebra. Chen was Tsen's teacher at Wuchang Senior Normal College and had encouraged Tsen to study in Germany. Tsen taught a course on algebra and a course on group theory based on the German textbooks of van der Waerden and Andreas Speiser respectively. As the books were in German, it was not easy for the students to understand, so he edited the notes taken by his student Chuan-Chih Hsiung and printed out for the students.^[3]

In 1936, Tsen published his third paper in the journal of the new Chinese Mathematical Society. The paper contained the work that he had done in Hamburg, and he dedicated it to the memory of his advisor Noether, who died in the previous year. The paper was hardly known outside China before 1970s, and the results therein were rediscovered by Serge Lang in his dissertation. Ernst Witt, who was Tsen's friend and had also been a student of Noether, always talked about Tsen's results in his algebra lectures and would correct others if they attributed them to Lang but not Tsen, thus helped bring attention to this paper.^[2]

Tsen and Chen fell out because of a failed matching of Tsen and Chen's younger sister for marriage.^[4] In 1937, Tsen left Chekiang University and was invited by National Beiyang Institute of Technology to become a professor. That year, the full-scale Japanese invasion of China started, and the school was evacuated from Tianjin to Xi'an. Tsen went to Xi'an to take up his post. The school merged with some other evacuated universities to form National Xi'an Provisory University. The new university moved to Hanzhong and was renamed to National Northwestern Associated University, and it moved again to Chenggu. The university soon split into several schools, one of which was National Northwestern Institute of Technology, and Tsen became a professor of this school.

In 1939, Shu-tien Li, former president of Beiyang Institute of Technology and the president of the newly-founded National Xikang Institute of Technology, invited Tsen to be a professor at the new school. The campus of the school was temples scattered on Mount Lu [zh] in the suburb of Xichang in Xikang Province.^[2] Tsen had a chronic stomach problem, and his condition was made worse by poor living condition and shortage of medical supplies in time of war. Tsen died of a stomach ulcer in Xichang, Xikang^[3] on October 1, 1940,^[1] and the school held a memorial service for him on November 18, 1940.^{[5][n 6]}

 

Tsen's death reported by the journal Xin Ningyuan Yuekang, Vol. 1, No. 3.

He married a high-school chemistry teacher Qin Hesui (秦禾穗) in Nanchang in 1937.^[3] His wife suffered a miscarriage on the long and difficult journey over mountainous terrains to Xichang.^[2] They had no children. He adopted a nephew as his son.^[3]

He bought a lot of mathematics books while in Germany, and he brought the books and his manuscripts back to China in seven full metal trunks. After the start of war, he kept them in his relative's home at a village in Xinjian, Jiangxi. Unfortunately, when the village had fallen, all his seven trunks of books and manuscripts were burnt by the Japanese invaders.^[3][6]

Publications

• Tsen, Chiungtze C. Divisionsalgebren über Funktionenkörpern. Nachr. Ges. Wiss. Göttingen, Math.-Phys. Kl. I, No.44, II, No.48, 335–339 (1933).
• Tsen, Chiungtze C. Algebren über Funktionenkörpern. Göttingen: Diss. 19 S. (1934).
• Tsen, Chiungtze C. Zur Stufentheorie der quasialgebraisch-Abgeschlossenheit kommutativer Körper. J. Chin. Math. Soc. 1, 81–92 (1936).

A Chinese translation of these three papers was published in a book in memory of Tsen.^[3]

Short articles

Some short articles written by Tsen in Chinese that can be found:

• 曾烱 Zeng Jiong (1924). "Faa de Bruno's Theorem". 國立武昌師範大學數理化雜誌 Guoli Wuchang Shifan Daxue Shulihua Zazhi (12): 38–41.
• 曾烱 Zeng Jiong (1930). "實數表示法及其應用一題問 Shishu Biaoshifa Ji Qi Yingyong Yiti Wen". 留德學誌 Liu de Xuezhi (1): 25–30.
• 曾烱 Zeng Jiong (1933). "數學討論（一） Shuxue Taolun (Yi)". 山東大學科學叢刊 Shandong Daxue Kexue Congkan. 1 (1): 24–26.

See also

• Tsen rank

Notes

1. Nanchang Fangyan Cidian and Hanyu Fangyin Zihui contain pronunciations of 曾 and 之, but not 炯 nor its homophone 迥. The pronunciation of 炯 is inferred from the article.^[7] To verify.
2. According to the genealogy of the Tsen family, he was born in the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897).
3. Chiungtze was his courtesy name.
4. Spelling used by Tsen in Germany.
5. It was renamed to National Wuchang Normal University in 1923, and again to National Wuchang University in 1924, from which Tsen graduated. It has now become Wuhan University.
6. His date of death was recorded on a local journal in Xichang. However, the date was forgotten for decades. Many sources mistakenly quote his date of death as November 1940.

References

• Chiungtze C. Tsen at the Mathematics Genealogy Project

1. "十月份甯屬要聞" [Main news of Ningshu in October]. 新寧遠月刊 Xin Ningyuan Yuekang [New Ningyuan Monthly] (in Chinese). 1 (3). Xichang, Xikang: 51. November 25, 1940. 一日 國立西康技藝專科學校教授曾烱之博士在西康衞生院病逝。 [1st: Dr. Chiungtze Tsen, professor at National Xikang Institute of Technology, died from illness in Xikang Health Center.]
2. Ding, Shisun; Kang, Ming-Chang; Tan, Eng-Tjioe (1999), "Chiungtze C. Tsen (1898–1940) and Tsen's theorems", Rocky Mountain Journal of Mathematics, 29 (4): 1237–1269, doi:10.1216/rmjm/1181070406, ISSN 0035-7596, MR 1743370
3. 著名数学家曾炯博士纪念文集 [Reminiscences of Dr. Chiung Tsen] (in Chinese). Nanchang: Press of Jiangxi Association of Sci. and Tech. 1993.
4. Guo, Jinhai (2017). "抗战西迁前国立浙江大学数学系的崛起 (The Rise of the Department of Mathematics, National University of Chekiang before 1937)". 科学文化评论 (Science & Culture Review) (in Chinese). 14 (5): 17–43.
5. "兩月份甯屬要聞" [Main news of Ningshu in the last two months]. 新寧遠月刊 Xin Ningyuan Yuekang [New Ningyuan Monthly] (in Chinese). 1 (4–5). Xichang, Xikang: 53. January 25, 1941. （十一月份）... 十八日 國立康專舉行曾故教授追悼大會。 [(November)... 18th: National Xikang Institute of Technology held a memorial service for late Prof. Tsen.]
6. Zeng Linglin (1995). "数学泰斗曾炯博士 Shuxue Taidou Zeng Jiong Boshi". 数学学习（高等数学季刊） Shuxue Xuexi (Gaodeng Shuxue Jikan) (in Chinese) (1): 41–44.
7. "梗攝合口字". Zhihu. 2021-05-27. Retrieved 2022-08-07.

 

Chinese Wikisource has original text related to this article:

In Chinese: works by Chiungtze Tsen