Читать книгу Memory of the World: The treasures that record our history from 1700 BC to the present day - UNESCO - Страница 58
ОглавлениеInscribed 2001
What is it
The second of two volumes of a Korean book containing the essentials of Zen Buddhist teaching and dating from the 14th century.
Why was it inscribed
Buljo jikji simche yojeol, or simply Jikji, was printed in 1377 and is an anthology of Zen Buddhist teachings. It is the oldest extant book in the world to be printed with movable metal type.
Where is it
Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France
Buljo jikji simche yojeol means ‘Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests’ Zen Teachings’ and its compilation was the work of Baegun, a Buddhist priest in Korea. Its contents represented the teachings of his master, Seogok Cheonggong, a master of Zen or Buddhist meditation which aimed at achieving enlightenment.
Buddhism was a Korean national religion under the long-lasting Goryeo dynasty which ruled the country from AD 918 to 1392. Towards the end of this period however, the religion became corrupted by secularism. Baegun worked to correct this decay and his compilation, written in 1372 when he was 75 years old, was intended as a continuation of his life’s work, disseminating the essential ideas of Zen to his hundreds of students and beyond.
Jikji contains Buddhist texts in verse, song, chant, scripture, letters and poems drawn from the works of 145 priests and monks from Korea, India and China. It originally contained thirty-nine chapters, although the first chapter is now missing. The book was the second part of a two-volume set and the first volume has not been found.
Printed in July 1377 at Heungdeok-sa temple in Cheongju, the volume is the world’s oldest known book to be printed using movable type, an advance that stands as one of the single most significant in the dissemination of knowledge and information. It predates Johannes Gutenberg’s famous Bible – which was printed in the early 1450s – by over 70 years. Old Korean books contain references to some even earlier metal-type printings, but Jikji is the only known one still extant. The place and date of its publication are printed on the book’s final leaf together with the names of two of Baegun’s student priests, Seokcan and Daldam, and a Buddhist nun Myodeok who all helped with the printing.
Although Jikji is Korean, the book is currently kept at the Bibliothèque Nationale, the National Library in Paris. By 1887 it was part of the collection of a member of staff at the French Embassy in Seoul and from there passed into the hands of Henri Vever, a collector of classic books. After his death it was donated to the French National Library.
