Zu Chongzhi (祖冲之) had a thing for circles. In fact, he knew his way around an ellipse better possibly than gravity itself.
祖冲之（祖冲之）对圈子情有好。 事实上，他可能比重力本身更了解椭圆。
Such was the extent of Zu’s influence, this Great Nanjinger had parks, roads and schools named after him. Commemorative silver coins have even been struck in his image. Above us in the heavens, Zu’s name has been given to asteroids and craters.
这就是祖的影响力，这位伟大的南京人有以他的名字命名的公园、道路和学校。 纪念银币甚至以他的形象铸造。 在我们天上，祖的名字被赋予了小行星和陨石坑。
And as we will see, the modern automobile industry owes him a debt of gratitude too.
正如我們將看到的，现代汽车行业也欠他一份感激之情。
Zu was the mathematician of his day, but he also had a keen interest in natural science and literature, philosophy and astronomy. In retrospect, we might today describe Zu as the essential link between mathematics and astronomy.
祖是他那個時代的數學家，但他也對自然科學和文學、哲學和天文學有著濃厚的興趣。 回想起来，我们今天可能会把祖描述为数学和天文学之间的基本纽帶。
Born in 429 CE, when Nanjing went by the name of Jiankang, Zu’s ancestral home was Xishui County in Hebei Province. The family settled in our neck of the woods after an en-masse migration brought on by the outbreak of war.
祖出生于公元429年，南京改名建康，祖的祖家是河北省西水县。 在战争爆发带来的大规模移民后，一家人定居在我们的森林附近。
With his grandfather a master of civil engineering and a family involved in astronomical research, Zu’s exposure to astronomy and mathematics brought about in him a love for numbers.
祖的祖父是土木工程大师，家庭也参与了天文研究，他对天文学和数学的接触使他对数字的热爱。
Yet, he was also a revolutionary thinker who wished not to blindly accept conclusions of the ancients. His talent earned him much repute as an astronomer who calculated time values with unprecedented precision.
然而，他也是一个革命思想家，他希望不要盲目接受古人的结论。 作为一名天文学家，他的才华为他赢得了声誉，他以前所未有的精确度计算了时间值。
As a youth, Zu successfully predicted four solar eclipses over a 23 year period. His method utilised Zu’s own calculation for the length of the moon’s nodical period (draconic month) as 27.21223 days. We know today the actual number to be 27.21222 days.
作为一个年轻人，Zu在23年的时间里成功预测了四次日食。 他的方法利用了Zu自己的计算，即月球的月球周期（月）的长度为27.21223天。 我们知道今天的实际数字是27.21222天。
Such findings also paved the way for Zu’s calculating of the planet Jupiter’s year. He found it to be 11.858 Earth years. Today’s astronomy puts it at 11.862 years. That’s 1,500 years of progress for you.
这些发现也为Zu计算木星的年份铺平了道路。 他发现这是11.858地球年。 今天的天文学将其命为11.862年。 这对你来说是1500年的进步。
Zu also calculated the orbits of Earth, Venus, Mars and Saturn.
祖還計算了地球、金星、火星和土星的軌道。
No wonder, therefore, that the far side of the moon sports a small impact crater named “Tsu Chung-Chi” (one of many photographed by Luna 3 in 1959; politics of the time dictated that the list include an American and a Chinese) and that “1888 Zu Chong-Zhi” is the alternative name for asteroid “1964 VO1”.
因此，难怪月球的远侧有一个名为“Tsu Chung-Chi”的小撞击坑（Luna 3在1959年拍摄的众多撞击坑之一；当时的政治决定名单包括一个美国人和一个中国人），“1888 Zu Chong-Zhi”是小行星“1964 VO1”的替代名称。
In the realm of mathematics, as the Sheng-Ming reign period (477–479 CE) was coming to an end, Zu found himself commissioned to perfect the “south-pointing chariot”.
在數學領域，隨著盛明統治時期（公元477-479年）即將結束，祖發現自己受命完善了「指向南的戰車」。
The British scientist and historian of the time, Joseph Needham, wrote that, until Zu, “These vehicles, constructed as they had been by barbarian (Qiang) workmen, did not function particularly well. Though called south-pointing carriages, they very often did not point true, and had to negotiate curves step by step, with the help of someone inside to adjust the machinery”.
当时的英国科学家和歷史學家Joseph Needham寫道，在Zu之前，「這些由野蠻人（Qiang）工人建造的車輛，功能不是特別好。 虽然被称为指向南的马车，但它们往往不指向真，不得不在内部有人的帮助下，一步一步地谈判弯道，以调整机器。”
Without Zu’s solution, a precision three-gear differential, not only would the south-pointing chariot not have been perfected, we would also not have the cars we love driving around in so much today.
如果没有Zu的解决方案，精密的三速差速器，不仅南向战车就不会完美，我们也不会有我们今天如此喜欢驾驶的汽车。
More than a millennia and a half ago, this Great Nanjinger brought to the world many of its first modern inventions and discoveries. Zu’s lasting legacy however, would be a feat that was not to be surpassed for 800 years; the calculating of pi to seven decimal places, somewhere between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927.
一千多年前，这位伟大的南京人为世界带来了许多最早的现代发明和发现。 然而，祖的持久遗产将是800年来无法超越的壮举；将圆周率计算到小数点后七位，介于3.1415926和3.1415927之间。
