中国传统的优长之处在技术、在博物学（自然志），不在数理科学。如果一味出于面子需要，挖空心思去寻找数理科学方面的世界第一，那是自欺欺人，也不能真正找到传统文化与当代世界的交汇点。

五六年前，跟老师到武汉参加一个会议，他引用了一个例子证明中国数理科学的强大，说：
I know that in mathematics the so-called Pascal triangle (a Frenchman who lived in the 17th century) was actually published by the Chinese mathematician  朱世杰  (Zhū Shìjié) in 1303, together with the much more difficult Vandermonde (18th century) convolution  

In: Jade Mirror of the Four Unknowns (四元玉鉴, Sìyuán yújiàn). In this book Zhū writes that what we nowadays call Pascal’s triangle was not invented by him but even much earlier by Jiǎ Xiàn (贾宪) in the 11th century.