User:ChoiJaeyoung/Jikji

Restoration
The restoration process of the lower volume of Jikji was completed in 2013, restoring pages 2 to 14 by January of 2012 and pages 15 to 29 in January of 2013. In March of 2013, the Cheongju Early Printing Museum commissioned the Humanities Research Institute at Kyungpook National University to research further restoration processes to complete a full restoration of the two volumes of Jikji.

The completed restoration of the Jikji metal movable type was revealed at its Metal Type Casting Training Center, having successfully replicated the 31,200 characters in the upper and lower volumes of Jikji with a total of 78 plates engraved with 400 characters per plate. This restoration work, done by expert Im In-ho, was done by reproducing the printed type of Jikji using the wax casting method that was used widely at the time of Jikji's original creation.

The wax casting method engraves letters by attaching the letters to beeswax that were procured by heating honeycomb. A mold of the letter is then made by wrapping it with soil and pouring molten iron into the spaces where the wax has melted.

Because only one incomplete copy of the metal type printed Jikji remains, missing information was filled in by referring to the woodblock print version of Jikji, published a year after the metal type printed version. The new restoration then now includes the page of the lower volume that was lost in the copy at the French National Library. The typeface replicates the type of Jabidoryangchambeophae, which is known to have been produced at Heungdeoksa Temple in Cheongju around the same time period. Characters not found in the Jabidoryangchambeophae were created by combining strokes as printed in the lower volumes of Jikji.

In total, Cheongju city invested a total of ₩1.81 billion(~$1.5 million) on the Goryeo era metal type restoration project that began in 2011.

Controversy
Towards the end of the Joseon Dynasty, a French diplomat bought the second volume of the Jikji in Seoul and took it off to France, where it is now kept at the National Library of France in Paris.

According to UNESCO records, the Jikji “had been in the collection of Victor Emile Marie Joseph Collin de Plancy, a chargé d'affaires with the French Embassy in Seoul in 1887 during the reign of King Gojong. The book then passed into the hands of Henri Véver, a collector of classics, in an auction at Hotel Drouot in 1911, and when he died in 1950, it was donated to the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, where it has been ever since.” Today only 38 sheets of the second volume of the metal print edition are extant.

In May 1886, Korea and France concluded a treaty of defense and commerce, and as a result in 1887 official diplomatic relations were entered into by the treaty's official ratification by Kim Yunsik (1835–1922) and Victor Emile Marie Joseph Collin de Plancy (1853–1924). Plancy, who had majored in law in France and went on to study Chinese, had served for six years as translator at the French Legation in China, between 1877 and 1883. In 1888 he went to Seoul as the first French consul to Korea, staying until 1891. During his extended residence in Korea, first as consul and then again as full diplomatic minister from 1896–1906, Victor Collin de Plancy collected Korean ceramics and old books. He let Kulang, who had moved to Seoul as his official secretary, classify them.

Although the channels through which Plancy collected his works are not clearly known, he seems to have collected them primarily from the early 1900s. Most of the old books Plancy collected in Korea went to the National Library of France at an auction in 1911, while the metal-printed Jikji was purchased in that same year for 180 francs by Henri Véver (1854–1943), a well-known jewel merchant and old book collector, who in turn donated it to the French National Library in his will.

The right of ownership remains disputed, with the French National Library maintaining that the Jikji should remain in France, while Korean activists argue it should belong to Korea. The National Library of France says that as an important historical artifact of all mankind, the Jikji should remain in France as it represents a common, worldwide heritage, and does not belong to any one country. In addition, they claim the Jikji would be better preserved and displayed in France because of the prestige and resources the Library possesses. On the other hand, Korean organizations claim that it should belong to its country of origin and that it carries historical significance for the Korean people. The Committee to Bring Jikji Back to Korea led by the American Richard Pennington is one such organization in Seoul, Korea that is working to repatriate the Jikji back to Korea from France. The French President François Mitterrand promised to investigate ways to return various Korean books including the Jikji, should the French high-speed rail technology be exported to Korea. From April to June 2011, 297 volumes with 191 different Uigwes of the Kyujanggak (Oegyujanggak), were shipped back in four separate installments and subsequently kept at the National Museum of Korea. However Jikji was not included, following opposition in France, including a protest lodged by the librarians of the National Library.