• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.33-46
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• 2007

In this Paper the change of trends over historical research of mathematics, that has been developed since 1970, is inquired. Most of all it deals with the controversy concerning so-called 'geometrical algebra'. It covers the contents of Euclid' work II. And the relation of the controversy with the change of direction over historical research of mathematics is examined.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.1-19
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• 2011

HPM(History and Pedagogy of Mathematics) become an important issue to us now. Study on old Korean mathematics books were made recently. We study mathematics books in Kyujanggak in this article. Horng Wann-Sheng 洪萬生, an math. historian and a member of editorial board of Historia Mathematica, visited Kyujanggak, the royal library of Joseon Dynasty. After his visit, he published a paper, "The first visit to mathematics books in Kyujanggak 奎章閣收藏算書初訪"(2008 Kyujanggak 32, p. 283-293). In his paper, he also raised several research problems on the history of Korean mathematics. In this paper, we analyze his paper "The first visit to mathematics books in Kyujanggak" and give some answers to those raised problems on Korean mathematics. Also we correct some misunderstanding of Horng on some facts. Especially, we make it clear that the author of SinJungSanSul(New Arithmetics 新訂算術) was not Lee Sang-Seol(李相卨), whom Horng considered as the author, but Lee Gyo-Seung(李敎承) through the correct translation of its preface and an article about its copyright lawsuit. And we added some pathways how Chinese mathematics books were imported by Joseon. We introduce the case of Hong Dae-Yong(洪大容) in detail.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.341-360
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• 2011

This paper deals with contents that Sang-Seol Lee contributed to the natural science in the 19th century Korea. Prof. Sung-Rae Park, the science historian, called Sang-Seol Lee Father of the Modern Mathematics education of Korea. Sang-Seol Lee wrote a manuscript Botany with a brush in late 19th century. Botany was transcribed from Science Primers: Botany (written by J. D. Hooker), which is translated into Chinese by Joseph Edkins in 1886. The existence of Sang-Seol Lee's book Botany was not known to Korean scientists before. In this paper, we study the contents of Botany and its original text. Also we analyze people's level of understanding Western sciences, especially botany at that time. In addition, we study authors of 16 Primers jar Western Knowledge. We study the contribution of mathematician Sang-Seol Lee to science education in the 19th century Korea.

• Communications of Mathematical Education
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.641-651
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• 2011

In 2007, a Taiwanese mathematics historian Wann-Sheng HORNG made a visit to Kyujanggak(the royal library of Joseon Dynasty) in Seoul, Korea. During this visit, he found the Korean math book An abridged version of the Joseon Mathematics (<數學節要>, Su-Hak-Jeol-Yo), which was written by Jong-Hwa AN(9 Nov 1860 - 24 Nov 1924) in 1882. Then he mentioned the possible importance of AN's book in his article in the Journal Kyujanggak(vol. 32, June 2008). Jong-Hwa AN is a Korean scholar, activist of patriotism and enlightenment in the latter era of Joseon Dynasty. He passed the last examination of Joseon Dynasty to become a high government officer in 1894. The father of the modern mathematics education in Korea, Sang-Seol LEE(1870-1917) also passed the same examination with him. It is interesting that government high officer AN and LEE both wrote mathematics books in 19th century. In this talk, we now analyze this mathematics book of Joseon written in 1882.