JOURNAL

OF

THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY.

ART. XII.-Writing, Printing, and the Alphabet in Corea. By W. G. ASTON.

Writing.

THE first definite statement with regard to a knowledge of the art of writing in Corea belongs to A.D. 372, the same year in which Buddhism was introduced from Tsin in Western China. The standard history of ancient Corea, known as the Tong-kuk-thong-kam, or, more briefly, the Tongkam, informs us that in this year "Kokuryö established a High School, in which pupils were taught." Two years later, the same work contains the following notice :

"Pèkché appointed one Kohung as Professor. From the establishment of the kingdom of Pèkché until this time it had no letters. It now for the first time had written records."

Of course the writing here referred to was the use of the Chinese character. As we shall see presently, it was not until centuries later that any means were invented committing the Corean language to writing. It is probable,

of

1 Corea was at this time divided into three kingdoms-Kokuryö, Pèkché, and Silla.

J.R.A.S. 1895.

833

however, that these notices refer only to a regular course of study of Chinese under official auspices and the use of that language in official documents. There is good reason to think that some knowledge of writing already existed at least on the part of individuals, and it is unlikely that the Chinese occupation of Corea during the Han dynasty should not have left some traces of literary culture among the inhabitants.

The ordinary Japanese chronology gives A.D. 285 as the date of the first introduction of the art of writing from Corea into Japan. This is, of course, irreconcilable with the above statements. But for reasons I have given elsewhere, the Japanese chronology must here be rejected. The true date is A.D. 405, or 31 years after the first use of written records in Pèkché.

The Japanese scholar Hirata mentions 514 as the date of the first introduction of the art of writing into Silla, but on what authority he does so is not clear.

Printing.

The subject of printing in Corea has been fully dealt with by Mr. E. Satow in two papers published in the Transactions of the Japan Asiatic Society for 1882,1 and I merely take this opportunity of supplementing his essays by a few gleanings from the native histories of that country.

I have not been able to discover any record of the first introduction of the art of printing into Corea, but it may be provisionally referred to the end of the tenth or the beginning of the eleventh century. Printed books were known in Japan in 987, and printing introduced early in

It is not a little surprising that the interesting account given by Mr. Satow of early printing in Japan and Corea should have attracted so little attention from writers on the history of printing and from lovers of old and curious books. Many of the works described by him date from a period anterior to the so-called invention of printing in Europe, and bibliopoles whose horizon is not limited by the Suez Canal may still hope to secure copies. The libraries of the monasteries of Corea are said to possess treasures of this kind which no European has seen, and Japan is perhaps not quite exhausted.

A good number of the books referred to by Mr. Satow are now in the British Museum.