Person

Zu Chongzhi

429–500 · 5th century

Zu Chongzhi was a Chinese mathematician and astronomer of the Liu Song and Southern Qi dynasties. He calculated pi to lie between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927, a precision not surpassed for nearly a thousand years, and gave 355/113 as a close approximation. His Daming calendar of 462, the first in China to take account of the precession of the equinoxes, was adopted in 510.

Zu Chongzhi
Image: 三猎 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Mentioned in 1 state history

Liu Song

See also

Cite this entry
APA
The Epoch Institute. (2026). Zu Chongzhi. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/zu-chongzhi
MLA
“Zu Chongzhi.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/zu-chongzhi. Accessed .
Chicago
The Epoch Institute. “Zu Chongzhi.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/zu-chongzhi.
Harvard
The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Zu Chongzhi’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/zu-chongzhi (Accessed: ).

Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻