Commemorating Liu Hui: His significance as a UNESCO World Heritage mathematician

In September 2024, a meeting was held in Paris to celebrate the life and works of the Chinese mathematician Liu Hui. This included a UNESCO-sponsored exhibition devoted to Liu Hui and an international symposium organized under the joint auspices of UNESCO and the Chinese Association for Science and Technology to consider ‘Liu Hui's academic thought’. In this paper, brief descriptions and assessments of Liu Hui's two major works, Nine Chapters on the Art of Mathematics and the Sea Island Mathematical Manual , are presented, along with an evaluation of their importance in the global history of mathematics. Liu Hui was a pioneering mathematician of outstanding significance, as reflected in the UNESCO symposium and exhibition in Paris honouring him as a ‘world treasure’. UNESCO designates World Heritage sites all over the world and, likewise, it has designated Liu Hui as a World Heritage mathematician.