Wang Zhenyi

Wang Zhenyi (1768-1797) was a Chinese astronomer, mathematician and poet of the Qing dynasty, notable as one of relatively few women of imperial China whose scientific work survives in detail despite having no access to formal scientific education, which she pursued instead through her family's library and self directed study. She wrote clear, accessible explanations of the causes of solar and lunar eclipses and of the equinoxes and solstices, at one point reportedly using a lamp, a mirror and a round table to model the sun, earth and moon in order to work out and explain eclipse mechanics. She also wrote on trigonometry and computational methods for pi, and produced poetry addressing the social barriers facing women who wished to pursue scholarly or scientific study in her era. She died at 29, and much of her written work survived only through later re-publication by other scholars.