Jikji

Metal type set used to create the Jikji, from the Jikji Museum of Printing.

Jikji is the abbreviated title of a Korean Buddhist document, whose full title can be translated as The Monk Baegun's Anthology of the Great Priests' Teachings on Identification of the Buddha’s Spirit by the Practice of Seon. Printed during the Goryeo Dynasty, in 1377, it is the world's oldest extant movable metal print book. UNESCO confirmed Jikji as the world oldest metalloid type in September 2001, and includes it in the Memory of the World program. Jikji was published in Heungdeok Temple in 1377, 78 years prior to Johannes Gutenberg's "42-Line Bible" printed during the years 1452-1455. The greater part of the Jikji is now lost, and today only the last volume survives, kept at the Manuscrits Orientaux division of National Library of France.

The purpose of the Jikji was to assist Baegun's quest in teaching Zen Buddhism. In fact, the type of Buddhism taught is a great deal like that which later caught on in Japan. Jikji, as the world's oldest printed book, is a great source of pride to modern Koreans, who view it not only as one of their many legacies to the world, but also as a testament to the fact that Korea was just as much an innovator and progressive nation as any other in the world—a testament to the great things that can be accomplished by humanity.

Authorship

The Jikji was written by the Buddhist monk Baegun (1298-1374, Buddhist name Gyeonghan), who served as the chief priest of Anguk and Shingwang temples in Haeju, and was published in two volumes in Seongbulsan in 1372. Baegun died in Chwiam Temple in Yeoju in 1374. There is a record indicating that in 1377, Baegun's students, priests Seoksan and Daldam, helped in the publication of Jikji by using moveable metal type and the female priest Myodeok contributed her efforts as well. Jikji was written so that Baegun could better succeed as a teacher of Buddhism.

The fact that the Jikji was printed at such a small temple indicates that it was likely in widespread use throughout the nation.

Contents

A statue of Buddha at a temple not unlike the one where the Jikji was printed.

The Jikji comprises a collection of excerpts from the analects of the most revered Buddhist monks throughout successive generations. It was created as a guide for students of Buddhism, then Korea's national religion under the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392). The Jikji propounds on the essentials of Seon, the predecessor to Japan's Zen Buddhism.

Jikji consists of two volumes, or fascicles. Part one deals with the recorded sayings of Indian patriarchs, touching on the themes of impermanence, emptiness, non-duality, Buddha-nature, wisdom, and eradication of a dualistic way of thinking, and part two comprises the thoughts of their Chinese counterparts, touching on non-attachment, cultivation of the mind, and patriarchal Chan, in addition to the themes of the Indian fascicle. The first volume tends to focus on emptiness and non-attachment to words and letters. The Chan monks, who flourished in the thirteenth century, are key figures in the second fascicle—as well as themes centering on motives of attaining enlightenment, soteriology, and eradication of deluded thought. Yet, the basic message can be boiled down, simply, to "free your mind from social status and agony, and you will find your true self inside," according to Seong-hae, a master monk at the Seoul-based Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism.

The metal-print Jikji that was published in Heungdeok Temple is kept in the Manuscrits Orientaux division of the National Library of France, with the first page of the last volume (Book 1 in Chapter 38) torn off. A wood carving print of Jikji published in Chwiamsa Temple contains the complete two volumes. This is kept in the National Library of Korea and Jangsagak and Bulgap temples as well as in the Academy of Korea Studies.

Structure

The Jikji is based on the genealogy of the Chen School, including seven Buddhas of the past, twenty-eight patriarchs of India and 110 members of Chinese genealogy. It is comprised of 307 short texts, divided into 165 subsections and two fascicles.

History

Printing

File:Buddha statue gold.jpg

A statue of Buddha.

The Jikji was published in Hungduk Temple, in Cheongju City, Chungcheong Province, in Korea, in the year 1377 C.E. It predates the so-called Gutenberg, 42-line Bible by 78 years. As such, it is the oldest metal printed book in the World. This can be confirmed because on the last page of "Jikji" is recorded details of its publication, indicating that it was published in the 3rd Year of King U (July 1377) by metal type at Heungdeok temple in Cheongju. The Jikji originally consisted of two volumes totaling 307 chapters, but the first volume of the metal printed version is no longer extant.

The surviving metal type's dimensions are 24.6 x 17.0 cm. Its paper is very slight and white. The whole text is doubly folded very slightly. The cover looks re-made. The title of Jikji also seems to be written with an Indian ink after the original. The cover on the surviving volume of the metal type edition records in French, "This is the oldest Printed Book with molded type," with the chronicle of 1377, written by Maurice Courant.

The lines are not straight, but askew. The difference of the thickness of ink color shown on drawn letter paper is large, and spots often occur. Even some characters, such as "day" (日) or "one" (一), are written reversely, while other letters are not printed out completely. The same typed letters are not shown on the same paper, but the same typed letters appear on other leaves. There are also blurs and spots around the characters.

A man named Daljam is seen as the man that made an offering to publish the Jikji, a year after typing it. In addition, the printing could never have happened without the financial support of a female monk named Myo-deok, who is believed to have turned to Buddhism after becoming disenchanted with her life in the Goryeo dynasty royal court. She devoted herself to several independent printing activities that would have been impossible had it not been for her wealth and influence.

National Library of France

Toward the end of the Joseon Dynasty, a French diplomat took the second volume of the Jikji from Korea to France, which has since preserved it at the National Library of France in Paris.

According to UNESCO records, the Jikji “had been in the collection of (Victor Emile Marie Joseph) Collin de Plancy, a chargé d’affaires with the French Embassy in Seoul in 1887 during the reign of King Gojong. The book then passed into the hands of Henri Véver (in an auction at Hotel Drouot in 1911), a collector of classics, and when he died in 1950, it was donated to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, where it has been ever since.” Today, only 38 sheets of the second volume of the metal print edition are extant.

In May 1886, Korea and France concluded a treaty defense and commerce, and as a result in 1887, official diplomatic relations were entered into by the treaty's official ratification by Kim Yunsik (1835-1922) and Victor Emile Marie Joseph Collin de Plancy (1853-1924). Plancy, who majored in law in France and went on to study Chinese, had previously served as translator at the France Legation in China for six years from 1877. In 1888, he came to Seoul as the first French consul to Korea, staying until 1891. During his extended residence in Korea, first as consul and then again as full diplomatic minister from 1896-1906, Victor Collin de Plancy collected Korean ceramics and old books. He let Kulang, who had moved to Seoul as his official secretary, classify them.

Although the channels through which Plancy collected his works are not clearly known, he seems to have had collected them mostly beginning from the early 1900s. Most of old books Plancy collected in Korea went to the National Library of France at an auction in 1911, while the metal printed Jikji was purchased in that same year for 180 francs by Henri Véver (1854-1943), a well-known jewel merchant and old book collector, who in turn donated it to the French National Library in his will.

Rediscovery

The metal printed Jikji became known to the world in 1901, through its inclusion in the appendix of the Hanguk Seoji, compiled by the French Sinologist and scholar of Korea, Maurice Courant(1865-1935). In 1972 the Jikji was displayed in Paris during the "International Book Year" hosted by the National Library of France, gaining it worldwide attention for the first time.

The Jikji was printed using metal print in Hungdeok Temple outside Cheongjumok in July 1377, a fact recorded in its postscript. The fact that it was printed in Hungdeok Temple in Uncheondong Cheongju was confirmed when Cheongju University excavated the Hungdeok Temple site in 1985.

Hungdeok Temple was rebuilt in March 1992. In 1992, the Early Printing Museum of Cheongju was opened, and it took the Jikji as its central theme from 2000. Only the final volume of the Jikji is preserved by the Manuscrits Orienteux department of the France National Library. On September 4, 2001, the Jikji was formally added to the UNESCO's Memory of the World.

Cultural significance

The Gutenberg Bible was long held to be a revolutionary linchpin in the development of Western Civilization. It helped break down social barriers and stomp out corruption in the Church. It led to major upheaval in Europe. The Jikji, however, focuses mainly on the teaching of Zen Buddhism, aiming to help overcome human psychological anguish and help people reach inner freedom. When the Jikji was named a UNESCO a Memory of the World, it shocked the world, forcing people to re-write the history of printing. According to Yoo Chang-jun, a senior publisher at the Korean Printers Association in Seoul, "It startled the world because no one thought an obscure Far Eastern country would have developed metallic printing far ahead of Gutenberg." There is, in fact, some speculation that, thanks to the Mongolian Empire of the time, which stretched from Korea to Europe, that the Jikji technology may have inspired the Gutenberg press. There is, however, no evidence to support this.

The Jikji is an important source of pride for Koreans. The fact that without the financial support of a female Monk displays a great degree of progressiveness, especially for the fourteenth century. Korea strives to live up to that legacy, through the UNESCO Jikji Memory of the World Prize, given out biannually to individuals or groups who make significant contributions to the preservation and accessibility of documentary heritage. In 2007, the $30,000 award was given to the Vienna-based Austrian Academy of Sciences, in recognition of its commitment to the preservation of audiovisual research archives.

See also

• List of Korea-related topics
• History of Korea
• Korean Buddhism
• Jikji prize
• History of typography in East Asia

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• English, Alex, and Robert Storey. Lonely Planet Korea. Lonely Planet Publications, 2001. ISBN 978-0864426970.
• Greenfield, Jeanette. The Return of Cultural Treasures. Cambridge University Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0521802161.
• Haeoe Munhwa Hongbowon. Handbook of Korea. Hollym International Corporation, 2004. ISBN 978-1565912120.

External links

• Campaign Web site to inform the world of Jikji
• Korea.net profile

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