Jeungdoga book indisputably showing
the world's oldest movable-metal-type printing
By: Hyungwon Kang

Korea's early metal type printing from the Goryeo period shows surface tension of the ink which is a common tendency of liquid on metal surface at rest to shrink into circular liquid drops.

A 87-page book from the year 1239 of the Goryeo period is full of Hanja characters printed on Hanji paper showing movable-metal-type printing characteristics.

Might was always right during Korea's Goryeo Empire period. The political elite in the 13th century was the Goryeo's military leaders who had the fate of the empire in their hands.

When the Mongols invaded Goryeo in 1231, by moving into Ganghwa Island fortress, military leaders of the Choi family protected Goryeo from annihilation from the mighty Mongol army who destroyed every culture which it conquered, except Koreans. The Koreans did not grant outright victory to the invaders by making periodic tactical concessions.

Unspeakable brutalities during the Goryeo - Mongol war which went on for the next 40 years turned Goryeo people to Buddhism seeking protection from the divine power of Buddha.

When the first Tripitaka Koreana wooden printing blocks, which were carved early 12 century, were burned down in 1232 at the Buinsa Buddhist temple in Daegu by nomadic Mongols who had little respect for written language nor any cultural or religious monuments, Goryeo people answered that tragic cultural and religious loss with a 15-year project from 1237 to carve the Tripitaka Koreana, an improbable set of more than 81 thousand wooden printing blocks.

No civilization has accomplished documenting all known Buddhism thoughts as the Goryeo Empire did by creating the incredible wood carvings of more than 52 million Hanja characters in Palman Daejanggyeong which means 80-thousand Tripitaka, which was unimaginably labor intensive project.

Meanwhile in 1239, during a time of war and a clash of empires, Goryeo people made another history of mankind - printing books with movable-metal-types.

In "Nammyeong cheon hwasang song Jeungdoga," the 87-page Song of Enlightenment with Commentaries by Buddhist Monk Nammyeong Cheon book printed with movable-metal-type in 1239, Choi Yi (1166 - 1249), the de facto leader of Goryeo government in self-imposed exile in Ganghwa Island just west of Goryeo's capital city Gaegyeong, Choi articulated his stated objective in the publication statement on the last page in the Goryeo book as:

"Nammyung Jeungdoga is an important book that plays a pivotal role for those who practice Seon meditation. There is no one who does not reach the deep principles of meditation through this book. But the book is hard to find and not widely circulated.
Therefore, in the first part of the 9th month in Kihae (1239) year, we gathered able metal-type craftsmen to carve metal types to reprint this book.
Choi Yi, the Jinyanggong of the Choi clan."

When the Goryeo's national resources were dedicated to making woodblock printing which had been perfected since the Silla period in Korea, to carve the Tripitaka Koreana wooden printing blocks, Choi turned to reusable movable metal types for the printing of the Jeungdoga book in 1239.

"Gonginbon version is the product of metal type printing at the time when woodblock carvers were deployed to carve the Palmandaejanggyeong." said Professor Park Sang-kuk, a former member of the Korea Cultural Heritage Committee.

While Korea was head and shoulders above the rest in inventing the metal printing types during the early 13th century, unlike the west, the benefits of Korean printings were limited to the royal palace and Buddhist temples.

The 1377 Jikji, the earliest surviving book printed with movable-metal-type until now, is a product of Goryeo's movable-metal-type printing tradition.

Despite Goryeo people's invention of the movable-metal-type printing, the use of the more ancient woodblock printing was the preferred and more efficient printing method as movable-metal-type printing was imperfect with metal-types misaligned during printing and the cost of casting metal types were considerable compared with carving Hanja on woodblocks.

The reality was that once carved, the wooden printing blocks had indefinite reuse, while movable metal type printing required disassembling the printing plate after each use.

The woodblock printed version of the 1239 Jeungdoga book was first recognized as a national treasure by the Korean Cultural Administration in 1984.

"I was the one with Professor Cheon Hye-bong who designated the woodblock printed version of the Jeungdoga book as a National Treasure in 1984" said Park Sang-kuk, a retiree from the Cultural Heritage Ministry after 31 years of service. A renowned ancient book researcher Cheon Hye-bong who passed away in 2016 at the age of 90, reviewed a woodblock reprint version of the original 1239 book when all of the four Jeungdoga books available to researchers were of woodblock print versions.

'I cannot blame the late researcher, but he misinterpreted the Hanja forward by Choi Yi as "woodblock reprint from the earlier movable-metal-type version, not the book printed with movable-metal-type." said Park.

The correct translation of Choi Yi's forward, according to Professor Yun Jae-seug, an expert Hanja scholar of Department of History at Kyungpook National University reads: “Therefore, I have gathered metal type molding workers and have them carve metal type again, so that the book will be pass down for a long time.”

But the power of the first impression by the late Cheon and subsequent absence of critical thinking by future researchers who took it for granted that 1239 was the year the original metal type print book was reprinted in woodblock prints stayed.

When a Jeungdoga book printed with movable metal type surfaced in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province in 1988, it did not generate any traction as national attention was on Jikji, the 1377 book printed with movable metal type which was located in France.

In June 2001 the late Park Dong-seup of Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, looked up Ven. Won-jin in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province to trade his Jeungdoga book of 1239, the oldest surviving book printed with movable-metal-type, to trade with other Goryeo books in Ven. Won-jin's possession.

Park had been discouraged with researchers and the Cultural Ministry not accepting his prized Jeungdoga book as a movable-metal-type-printed book prior to the Jikji which was printed in Korea in 1377.

Ven. Won-jin studied the 87-page Hanja book for 11 years before he was able to convince the Korean Cultural Ministry to acknowledge the 1239 Gonginbon version book as a National Treasure in 2012.

In recent years, image comparisons analysis of individual characters, lines of characters, pages and borderlines of all six versions of Jeungdoga books offered a clear result that "Gonginbon version is the metal type print version while the rest were from woodblock prints which originally were carved in different times from the metal type version or woodblock print versions." said the lead researcher Dr. Woo Sik Yoo, a semiconductor physicist of Palo Alto, California.

To celebrate Jikji and the early metal type printing tradition, a local government even built the Cheongju Early Printing Museum at the site of the Heungdeoksa temple where the Jikji was printed in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province in Korea in 1992.

Movable-metal-type printing is one of mankind's great innovations in advancing knowledge of everyone who had access to printed books.

For reference, at around 1440, goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg successfully made the movable-metal-type printing press in Germany, which started the Printing Revolution in the West.

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