President
"Our forefathers created excellent traditions, which can strike the world with wonder, in the fields of science and art and culture, too."
The wise Korean people with 5 000-year-long history and brilliant cultural traditions have achieved many outstanding successes admired by the world in the field of science and technology.
Among them is "Jikjisimyong" that leaves an indelible trace in the world history of publication and press.
It is a Buddhist Scripture written by Kyong Han (1298-1374), a monk in the late period of Koryo, and is one of the world cultural assets that is accepted as the oldest among the existing printed metal types.
Its original name was "Paekunhwasangchorokbuljojikjisimcheyojol" in two volumes, which means that a monk Paekun summarized the profound law of the Buddist scripture, but now the second volume only remains in the National Library of Paris, France.
In 1972, under the sponsorship of UNESCO, a general exhibition called the "History of Books" was held in Paris as part of an event for the International Book Year, where this scripture was on display, and it was admitted as the oldest of all the existing metal types in the world, thus creating a great sensation.
The front page of the last chapter of this book, Chapter 39, says, "It was cast and printed in Hungtok Temple in the outskirts of Chongjumok in July, Jongsa year(Sonkwang 7)" and the back page says, "Yonhwa writers – Sokchan and Taldam, and a mendicant Buddhist nun-Myotok ", which makes the scripture accepted as the oldest of all the existing metal types in the world.
The front page clearly shows that the second volume of "Jikjisimkyong" was cast and printed in a temple called Hungtok in the outskirts of Chongjumok in July of 1377(the third year of King U, Koryo)."
And the back page gives the names of Yonhwa writers and the mendicant Buddhist nun, Sokchan, Taldam and Myotok who lived at that time, which supports the casting year written above in the other way.
That was the reason why this book was the oldest metal type in the world's publishing culture, which was the source of a sensation.
Before the second volume of this book was discovered, the books admitted as the oldest were the "World's Judgement" and "An Astronomical Calendar" that Gutenberg of Germany first invented and printed in the metal type in the late 1440s.
But the fact that "Jikjisimkyong" was published about 80 years earlier proved that Korean nation was a civilized nation that invented and introduced metal types first in the world and created the excellent tradition of publication and press technology.
Like this, "Jikjisimkyong" is one of the precious cultural assets that displays the wisdom of Korean nation to the full, as the another reality proving that Korean ancestors invented metal types for the first time in the world and made the most of them in publishing.
