Did you know Korea made an invention that changed the world?
Life Magazine’s millennium special issue, published by Time, listed the invention of the printing press in the top 100 events that changed the world in the last millennium. And many world history books published in North America and Europe devote major coverage to the printing of the Gutenberg Bible in the 1450s. Why is the printing press historically so significant? It is because the invention of movable metal type enabled mass printing and the spread of knowledge, leading to the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Civil Revolution, and the Industrial Revolution. However, there is another fact that many westerners are unaware of. The country that invented movable metal type was actually the Korean kingdom of Goryeo(918-1392).
A historical text, DonggukYisangGukjip (Collected Works of Minister Yi of Goryeo), mentions that SangjeongGogeumYemun, a 50-volume series of books about rituals, was printed in 1234 with movable metal type. That is over 200 years earlier than the printing of the Gutenberg Bible in 1455. Unfortunately, SangjeongGogeumYemun has not been found. However, Goryeo’s Jikji, the oldest extant book printed with movable metal type, was found at the National Library of France in 1972.
Dr. Park Byeongseon, who worked as a librarian at the library, came across Jikji mixed with unsorted documents. Inside the book, it was clearly indicated that Jikji was printed with movable metal type in 1377. Jikji proved that Korea was indeed the first country to use movable metal type for printing. In September of 2001, UNESCO inscribed Jikji on the Memory of the World Register. Jikji is the only UNESCO world heritage artifact that is not in the country of register. Jikji was printed in 1377, which is 78 years earlier than the printing of the Gutenberg Bible. Researchers suspect that Goryeo’s movable metal type printing technology was spread to Europe through China. Korea’s printing technology was spread to China and Japan. There is a record in a Japanese document, TokiyoshiKyoki, that Joseon’s movable copper type was brought to Japan and used to print books. Although it is lesser known than Gutenberg’s printing press, Korea’s printing technology made a significant impact on world history.