Culturec. 1234 (recorded)

Metal-type Printing of the Sangjeong gogeum yemun

Yi Gyu-bo’s collected works record that, after the move to Ganghwa, 28 copies of the ritual code Sangjeong gogeum yemun were printed with metal type. No copy survives.

The Sangjeong gogeum yemun was a 50-volume compendium of rites compiled under King Injong by Choe Yun-ui and others. In a colophon written on Choe U’s behalf, Yi Gyu-bo explains that the original nearly perished in the move to Ganghwa and that from the surviving copy "28 copies were printed with cast type" and distributed to government offices. The printing is usually dated to about 1234, though some place it more broadly between 1234 and 1241.

If the record is accurate, it predates the Jikji (1377) by some 140 years, but with no surviving copy it cannot be confirmed.

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States and rulers at the time: Goryeo — Gojong
Places: Ganghwa

People

Yi Gyu-bo1168 – 1241
author · Writer of the Lay of King Dongmyeong whose collected works record the metal-type printing of the Sangjeong gogeum yemun
Choe U1249
related figure · Son of Choe Chung-heon who set up the Jeongbang personnel office and moved the court to Ganghwa in 1232

Before and after

Earlier: 1231 Mongol Invasions of Goryeo
Later: 1236 Carving the Tripitaka Koreana

Themes that include this event

Printing and Documentary HeritageAD 751 – 2011
From the Dharani Sutra to the May 18 archives — woodblock and metal-type printing, and the records inscribed on the Memory of the World
Ganghwa Island1000 BC – 2011
From dolmens to the Treaty of Ganghwa — Goryeo’s refuge capital and the stage of Korea’s opening, the island the kingdom fell back on in every crisis