Jikji is the abbreviated title of a Buddhist document, whose full title can be translated "Baegun Hwasang's Anthology of the Great Priests' Teachings on Identification of the Buddha’s Spirit by the Practice of Seon." Printed in Korea in 1377, it is the world's oldest extant movable metal print book. Hangul also refers to a word processing application widely used in Korea. ... It has been suggested that Sino-Korean be merged into this article or section. ... The Revised Romanization of Korean (Korean: 국어의 로마자 표기법; 國語의 로마字 表記法) is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. ... McCune-Reischauer romanization is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems, along with the Revised Romanization of Korean, which replaced (a modified) McCune-Reischauer as the official romanization system in South Korea in 2000. ... A replica of an ancient statue found among the ruins of a temple at Sarnath Buddhism is a philosophy based on the teachings of the Buddha, Siddhārtha Gautama, a prince of the Shakyas, whose lifetime is traditionally given as 566 to 486 BCE. It had subsequently been accepted by... The Seon school is a Korean branch of Buddhism that shares its origins and many characteristics with Chinese Chan and whose influence originated aspects of Japanese Zen. ... Korea (한국, Hanguk, or ì¡°ì„ , Choseon) is a civilization and geographical area situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia, bordering China to the northwest and Russia to the northeast, with Japan situated to the southeast across the Korea Strait. ...

Book's content

The Buddhist priest Baegun Hwasang compiled and annotated the book, a collection of excerpts from analects by 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 grounds of Koreas Buryeongsa Temple. ... The state of Goryeo ruled Korea from the fall of Silla in 935 until the founding of Joseon in 1392. ...

The Jikji propounds on the essentials of Seon, the predecessor to Japan's Zen Buddhism. The Seon school is a Korean branch of Buddhism that shares its origins and many characteristics with Chinese Chan and whose influence originated aspects of Japanese Zen. ... Bodhidharma, woodcut print by Yoshitoshi, 1887. ...

Printing

On the last page of "Jikji" is its record of publication, indicating that it was published in the 7th Year of King U (July 1377) by using the metal type at Heungdeoksa in Cheongju. The Jikji originally consisted of two volumes totalling 307 chapters. U was born in 1363, and ruled Goryeo (Korea) from 1374 until 1388. ... Cheongju is a city in North Chungcheong Province, South Korea, and the capital of North Chungcheong. ...

It was printed using metal movable type by Baegun's disciples Seokchan and Daldam (Daljam?) under the auspices of a Buddhist nun Myodeok. [1] This predates Gutenberg's printing of the Gutenberg Bible by 78 years. Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (c. ... The Gutenberg bible owned by the U.S. Library of Congress The Gutenberg Bible (also known as the 42-line Bible, and as the Mazarin Bible) is a print of the Latin Vulgate translation of the Bible that was printed by its namesake, Johann Gutenberg, in Mainz, Germany. ...

Preservation

Toward the end of the Joseon Dynasty, a French diplomat took the second volume of "Jikji" from Korea to France, which has since been preserved at the National Library of France in Paris. The Joseon Dynasty was the final ruling dynasty of Korea, then called Joseon, lasting from 1392 until 1910. ... The new buildings of the library. ... The Eiffel Tower, the international symbol of the city, with the skyscrapers of La Défense business district 3 miles behind. ...

According to UNESCO records, the Jikji “had been in the collection of Collin de Plancy, a chargé d’affaires with the French Embassy in Seoul in 1887 during the reign of King Gojong. The book then went 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 Biliothèque nationale de France, where it has been ever since.” [2]

Today only 38 sheets of the second volume exist, although a full version printed earlier from wood type is preserved in the National Library of Korea.

Commemoration

Jikji was displayed at the exhibition of 'BOOK', organized by the National Library of France in commemoration of the "Year of the Books" in Paris in 1972, gaining worldwide attention for the first time. The new buildings of the library. ...

It is Korea's national cultural treasure No. 1132.

It was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list on September 4, 2001. The Jikji Memory of the World Prize was created in 2004 to commemorate the inscription of the Jikji. Elabana Falls is in Lamington National Park, part of the Central Eastern Rainforest Reserves World Heritage site in Queensland, Australia. ... UNESCO Jikji or Memory of the World is a UNESCO prize to further promote the objectives of the Memory of the World Programme and to commemorate the inscription of the Jikji, the oldest known book of movable metal print in the world. ...

See also

• List of Korea-related topics
• History of Korea
• Korean Buddhism
• Jikji prize

This is a list of Wikipedia articles on Korea-related people, places, things, and concepts. ... Joseon dynasty court architecture This article is about the history of Korea. ... The grounds of Koreas Buryeongsa Temple. ... UNESCO Jikji or Memory of the World is a UNESCO prize to further promote the objectives of the Memory of the World Programme and to commemorate the inscription of the Jikji, the oldest known book of movable metal print in the world. ...

References

• UNESCO Jikji Prize
• [Exhibit flyer (PDF)
• Carnegie Council article on Jikji ownership controversy
• Korean National Commission for UNESCO
• Korea Times article on Chongju's promotion of Jikji