• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.103-114
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• 2020

In 1607, Matteo Ricci and Xu Guangqi translated Euclid's 《Elements》 and published 《Jihe yuanben, 幾何原本》. Though 《Elements》 consists of 13 volumes (or 15 volumes according to its editions), they translated only the first 6 volumes on the plane geometry. Why did they do so? This paper discusses about the three questions which naturally arise: What might be the motive of the translation of the 《Elements》? What method did they adopt for the translation? And why did they translate the 6 volumes, especially, the first 6 volumes, not completing the whole?

• Journal for History of Mathematics
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.55-72
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• 2018

Matteo Ricci and Xu Gwangqi translated the first six Books of Euclid's Elements and published it with the title Jihe Yuanben, or Giha Wonbon in Korean in 1607. It was brought into Joseon as a part of Tianxue Chuhan in the late 17th century. Recognizing that Jihe Yuanben deals with universal statements under deductive reasoning, Jo Tae-gu completed his Juseo Gwan-gyeon to associate the traditional mathematics and the deductive inferences in Jihe Yuanben. Since Jo served as a minister of Hojo and head of Gwansang-gam, Jo had a comprehensive understanding of Song-Yuan mathematics, and hence he could successfully achieve his objective, although it is the first treatise of Jihe Yuanben in Joseon. We also show that he extended the results of Jihe Yuanben with his algebraic and geometric reasoning.