Mathematics education in East Asia from antiquity to modern times

Since the early 1990s the learning process of Asian students brought up in the tradition of the Confucian heritage culture (CHC) has become a much discussed issue. As a consequence the teaching process of Asian teachers in CHC classrooms has attracted the same attention. These two related issues are brought into focus in the so-called “CHC Learner / Teacher Paradox”. It is therefore natural to look at the history of mathematics education in some Asian countries such as China, Japan and Korea. This paper attempts to give an account of this long episode from ancient to medieval to modern times with illustrative examples.postprin