• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.101-110
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• 2014

Joseon is mainly an agricultural country and its main source of national revenue is the farmland tax. Since the beginning of the Joseon dynasty, the assessment and taxation of agricultural land became one of the most important subjects in the national administration. Consequently, the measurement of fields, or the area of various plane figures and curved surfaces is a very much important topic for mathematical officials. Consequently Joseon mathematicians were concerned about the volumes of solids more for those of granaries than those of earthworks. The area and volume together with surveying have been main geometrical subjects in Joseon mathematics as well. In this paper we discuss the history of volumes of solids in Joseon mathematics and the influences of Chinese mathematics on the subject.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.259-270
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• 2019

Haidao Suanjing was introduced into Joseon by discussion in Yang Hui Suanfa (楊輝算法) which was brought into Joseon in the 15th century. As is well known, the basic mathematical structure of Haidao Suanjing is perfectly illustrated in Yang Hui Suanfa. Since the 17th century, Chinese mathematicians understood the haidao problem by the Western mathematics, namely an application of similar triangles. The purpose of our paper is to investigate the history of the haidao problem in the Joseon Dynasty. The Joseon mathematicians mainly conformed to Yang Hui's verifications. As a result of the influx of the Western mathematics of the Qing dynasty for the study of astronomy in the 18th century Joseon, Joseon mathematicians also accepted the Western approach to the problem along with Yang Hui Suanfa.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.31 no.4
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• pp.169-181
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• 2018

We here discuss about the roles and meaning of Joseon mathematics in the history of Asian mathematics from cultural perspective. To do so, we focus on culture. We first look at the meanings and the definitions of the terms, civilization and culture, and their differences. We next discuss on the cultural perspective to look at the mathematical history of Korea, which is considered as a part of the history of Asian mathematics. It is notable that Joseon mathematics of Korea made Asian mathematics develop further, and played the roles of academic bridges among China, Korea and Japan. It also kept and prolonged the life of the Asian mathematics up to the beginning of the 20th century.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.36 no.3
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• pp.37-57
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• 2023

In the history of elementary school mathematics education in Korea, the period led by the Government-General of Joseon during the Japanese colonial period cannot be omitted. As a way to grasp the real state of elementary school mathematics education at that time, there is a method of analyzing elementary school mathematics textbooks published by the Government-General of Joseon. However, the actual state of the publication of them was not sufficiently known. For this reason, this study surveys the actual state of the publication of those textbooks. To this end, real information on textbooks owned currently by various institutions and information on the publication of those textbooks in the official gazette and documents of the Government-General of Joseon were checked and organized.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.73-113
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• 2022

In this paper we survey on the geometric development in the history of Joseon mathematics. We have relatively many research papers on the history of equations in Joseon but the history of geometry is limited to that of trigonometry (gugosul). We survey on the results on the whole geometry including the introduction of western geometry in Joseon. Joseon mathematics developed differently during several different periods. We investigate how geometric theories developed during those periods and the meaning behind them. We do not claim that our survey is anywhere close to a complete one. This is rather a preliminary attempt to collect research results to plan our research following those of our predecessors.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.65-72
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• 2015

The Joseon dynasty (1392-1910) is basically an agricultural country and therefore, the main source of her national revenue is the farmland tax. Thus the farmland tax system becomes the most important state affair. The 4th king Sejong establishes an office for a new law of the tax in 1443 and adopts the farmland tax system in 1444 which is legalized in Gyeongguk Daejeon (1469), the complete code of law of the dynasty. The law was amended in the 19th king Sukjong era. Jo Tae-gu mentioned the new system in his book Juseo Gwan-gyeon (1718) which is also included in Sok Daejeon (1744). Investigating the mathematical structures of the two systems, we show that the systems involve various aspects of mathematics and that the systems are the most precise applications of mathematics in the Joseon dynasty.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.75-101
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• 2020

We considered the context of the publications and transmissions of mathematics books using the Korean traditional book lists and the catalogues of woodblocks in the Joseon Dynasty and DaeHan大韓 Empire period. Among the results, this paper first describes the context of the publication and transmission of mathematics textbooks of national math exams算學取才 in the first half of Joseon, adding a step more specific to the facts known so far. In 1430, 『YangHui SanFa楊輝算法』, 『XiangMing SuanFa詳明算法』, 『SuanXue QiMeng算學啓蒙』, 『DiSuan地算』, 『WuCao SuanJing五曹算經』 were selected as the textbooks of national math exams算學取才. 『YangHui SanFa』, 『XiangMing SuanFa』, 『DiSuan』 were included in the catalogues of woodblocks in the Joseon Dynasty before the Japanese invasion in 1592, and we could see that Gyeongju慶州, Chuncheon春川, and Wonju原州 were the printing centers of these books. Through other lists, literature records and real text books, it came out into the open that 『XiangMing SuanFa』 was published as movable print books three times at least, 『SuanXue QiMeng』 four times at least in the first half of Joseon Dynasty. And 『XiangMing SuanFa』 was published at about 100 years later than 『YangHui SanFa楊輝算法』 as xylographic books, 『SuanXue QiMeng』 was published twice as xylographic books in the second half of Joseon Dynasty. Whether or not the list of royal books included the Korean or Chinese versions of these books, and additional notation in that shows how the royal estimation of these books changed.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.375-394
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• 2014

The purpose of this study is to examine the transition of mathematical representation in Joseon mathematics, which is focused on numbers and operations, letters and expressions. In Joseon mathematics, there had been two numeral systems, one by chinese character and the other by counting rods. These systems were changed into the decimal notation which used Indian-Arabic numerals in the late 19th century passing the stage of positional notation by Chinese character. The transition of the representation of operation and expressions was analogous to that of representation of numbers. In particular, Joseon mathematics represented the polynomials and equations by denoting the coefficients with counting rods. But the representation of European algebra was introduced in late Joseon Dynasty passing the transitional representation which used Chinese character. In conclusion, Joseon mathematics had the indigenous representation of numbers and mathematical symbols on our own. The transitional representation was found before the acceptance of European mathematical representations.

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.203-219
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• 2017

As is well known, the most important development in the history of Chinese mathematics is materialized in Song-Yuan era through tianyuanshu up to siyuanshu for constructing equations and zengcheng kaifangfa for solving them. There are only two authors in the period, Li Ye and Zhu Shijie who left works dealing with them. They were almost forgotten until the late 18th century in China but Zhu's Suanxue Qimeng(1299) had been a main reference for the Joseon mathematics. Commentary by Luo Shilin on Zhu's Siyuan Yujian(1303) was brought into Joseon in the mid-19th century which induced a great attention to Joseon mathematicians with a thorough understanding of Zhu's tianyuanshu. We discuss the history that Joseon mathematicians succeeded to obtain the mathematical structures of Siyuan Yujian based on the Zhu's tianyuanshu.

• The Mathematical Education
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• v.53 no.1
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• pp.111-129
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• 2014

${\ll}$Xiang Ming Suan Fa${\gg}$ written by Ahn Ji-Jae, a scholar of Yuan Dynasty, is a very important mathematics text in development of mathematics in Joseon Dynasty. Also, ${\ll}$Xiang Ming Suan Fa${\gg}$ in possession of Keimeung university was designated as a Korean National Treasure on February 25, 2011. In this paper, we analyzed the structure and contents of ${\ll}$Xiang Ming Suan Fa${\gg}$. Also, we studied the influences of ${\ll}$Xiang Ming Suan Fa${\gg}$ on Joseon Dynasty's mathematics according to the comparing with mathematics books such as ${\ll}$Mook Sa Jib San Bub> and ${\ll}$San Hak Yib Moon${\gg}$.