The Moveable Metal Printing Types
History of Korea's Metal printing press was head and shoulders above the rest.

When a French diplomat Victor Collin de Plancy (1853-1924), was posted in the Joseon kingdom of Korea, he collected many unique treasures including rare ancient Korean books.

Collin de Plancy returned to France with his treasures found in Korea including a 1377 Jikji book printed with movable metal types, and a beautiful wife named Lee Shim, a former royal palace dancer who he spotted performing for the Emperor Gojong of Korea Empire.

Sadly the Lady Lee Shim, who moved to France with Collin de Plancy in 1893 and accompanied him to Africa the following year, committed suicide later while suffering from depression.

The 1377 Jikji book, which happens to be the oldest surviving book printed with moveable metal types, is still being kept at the Manuscrits Orientaux division of the National Library of France.

Printed Hanja characters books were an exclusive domain of esoteric thoughts of scholars and Buddhist monks during the Goryeo Empire when Buddhism was the national religion.

While printing books with movable metal types was favored by Goryeo Kings for its speedy printing, for general distribution, a larger number of books were printed from woodblock (xylography) printing all on Hanji papers.

A lot of books printed on Hanji papers are still around after centuries and some are more than a thousand years old. In fact, "it was Korean Hanji paper that differentiated the quality of the evolution of printing in Korea compared with poorer papers available in China and in Japan." said professor Nam Kwon-hee, the preeminent authority in ancient printings and Goryeo movable metal type printing.

"Printed books were not widely popular among scholars who had always favored hand-written calligraphy which showed the personality and character of the author who wrote it." said Nam.

For mass production, an even earlier printing technology of woodblock (xylography) printing was used even after the invention of the movable metal type printing. The shifting of the metal types during the printing process presented misalignment of characters from shifting metal types.

"Goryeo printing evolved to eventually punched holes to run a wire behind the metal types to keep them aligned, and that technology improved through the Joseon period," said Professor Nam.

The Jikji book of 1377 was printed at a remote Buddhist temple which had its own capacity for printing books using moveable metal types.

"While Jikji is old, Korean metal type printing goes way back." said Professor Nam. Over the past several decades, Nam has been the go-to expert for the Korean Ministry of Culture.

As an expert in ancient printing and books, Dr. Nam was one of the experts who examined the authenticity of the second book of 1443 Hunminjeongeum when it was discovered in Sangju,Gyeongsangbuk-do. Hunminjeongeum is the book in which King Sejong the Great unveiled his invention of the Hangeul alphabet.

Jeungdoga book (short for Nammyungcheon Hwasangsongjeungdo book) was printed by the Goryeo military leader Choi Yi (1166 - 1249) in 1239, a reprint of an earlier book printed with metal types before 1232.

Researchers know that the original Jeungdoga book was definitely printed before 1232 since that's when the original book was transported into the Gwanghwa-do Island where the xylography printing took place in 1237. The last page of the book clearly says when the printing took place.

The year 1232 was when Goryeo Empire leaders evacuated its capital city from Kaesong to Ganghwado island fortress following the Mongol invasions of Korea in 1231. The brutal Goryeo Mongol war lasted 39 years until 1270.

Four copies of the Jeungdoga from 1237 have been located so far, all of which were printed with wooden blocks carved from the original moveable metal type printed pages in the early 1200s.

Researchers say woodblock carved from the book printed with metal types are almost 99% the same as the original printing, even reflecting detailed flaws and missing characters because the woodblock carving is done with the original printed page.

Dr. Nam who is one of the very few researchers who spent considerable time examining the 1377 Jikji book in France, says the Jeungdoga book printed with Goryeo moveable metal type printing technology of 1200's, the first in mankind's history, has better quality fonts than the fonts in the Jikji book.

"The difference is that the Jeungdoga book was printed in the capital with more resources versus Jikji printed at a remote Buddhist temple," said Nam. In fact the Jikji book shows varying size fonts of the same Hanja character on the same page.

Until a total of eight moveable metal types were found during a North and South Korean inter-Korean joint academic excavation of the Manwoldae site in Kaesong in 2007, there was only one Goryeo metal type which matches the font in the Jeungdoga book at the Korea's National Museum.

A Jeungdoga book font metal type for the Hanja character "bok" which was acquired by the National Museum in 1913 was from Kaesong, the main palace of the Goryeo dynasty of Korea.

A large number of Goryeo movable metal type Hanja characters matching the fonts in the Jeungdoga book of 1200's were smuggled out of North Korea by antique dealers to South Korea, around 2006, following the mass starvation and economic crisis starting from 1994.

Countless archaeological artifacts in Korean museums have some historical ties with Japanese antique dealers. Many if not most museum treasures were dug up during the Japanese colonial period from 1910 to 1945.

Officially, Jeungdoga Goryeo movable metal printing type also have their sources associated with existing antique trade routes in East Asia with origin being that they have been excavated at the Manwoldae, Kaesong site.

The metal type Hanja characters were said to have been excavated at the location of the Kaesong Mangwoldae, the main palace of the Goryeo Empire of Korea for almost 474 years from 918 to 1392. The Kaesong Mangwoldae was burned it down in 1362 during the Red Turban Uprisings which was the beginning if the end of the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271 to 1368).

Professor Nam examined some 300 pieces of the Goryeo movable metal types from Kaesong Mangwoldae.

After running the cutting edge C14 tests to determine the age of the ink under soil covering the metal types, Dr. Nam found the metal types to be from the years 1100 - 1200 with more than 94.5% accuracy.

"The metal type for "bok" in the collection at the National Museum of Korea, and the Jeungdoja metal types have matching grooves on their backs." says Professor Nam.

However the Korean Ministry of Culture, while acknowledging the scientific finding of authenticity, would not advance their recognition of the Jeungdoga metal types as national treasure. The government's reason was "not to make the collectors rich overnight," said Professor Nam, "with their decision to certify the value of the Jeungdoga metal types."

According to Professor Nam, some 97 metal types were taken out of Korea, when they were not recognized by the Culture Ministry.

In the last couple of years, several research papers falsely claiming them to be of Song dynasty origin have been released by PRC (People's Republic of China) researchers to distort the clarity of Korean historical accomplishments and contribution to humanity's collective printing history.

When the set of Jeungdoga metal types were taken out of Korea, disguised as an antique collector, Professor Nam went to Beijing in search of them in January 2019. At a Beijing auction company, the same 97 metal types which he examined in Korea were available for sale.

Nam had the opportunity to acquire the metal types, except the price they had set was beyond his ability. "All of these metal types for a cost less than a condo unit in Beijing," said the vendor, according to Professor Nam.

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