Korean Classics Indexing Project: from Departmental to International Collaboration Professor Steve Ching ( 景祥祜 ) Celine Cheung ( 張曉寧 ) Run Run Shaw Library, City University of Hong Kong PRDLA 2010, Shanghai 21 October 2010

Hangguk Yoktae Munjip Chongso 《韓國歷代文集叢書》

Comprehensive resources on Korean culture that records Sino-Korean Relationship – written in classical Chinese by thousands of Korean authors – Covers works from 7 th century to early 20 th century – Covers philosophy, history, arts, politics, social sciences, economy, military, geography, astrology, and moreValues: – High research value for Sino-Korean relationship studies – An important source of materials for East Asian studies and Confucianism development studies – Highly attracted to local scholars and students as well as visiting researchers from overseas and Mainland China 3 Hangguk Yoktae Munjip Chongso 《韓國歷代文集叢書》

A treasure house of resources of cultural exchange history between Korea and China – Presented to Chinese scholars how China was known to and remembered by Korean at the ancient time – Some historical information about China were not recorded or only briefly recorded in the Chinese historical documents – Valuable supplementary materials for scholars in studying Chinese history, culture, philosophy, and foreign relations from the perspective of foreigners – Valuable for studying the development / spread of Confucianism in the East Asia region 4 Hangguk Yoktae Munjip Chongso 《韓國歷代文集叢書》

Shift of Korean writing ~4 th -6 th centuryChinese script was adopted to write Korean (Han - Tang Dynasty 唐朝 in China) during Silla Kingdoms ( 新羅 ) 1446 (Ming Dynasty 明朝 in China, ) New script invented – Hangul - Hunminjeongeum ( 훈민정음 ; 訓民正音 ) Promulgated in Joseon Dynasty ( 朝鮮, ), by the fourth king Sejong the Great ( 世宗 ) 1940sHangul became the exclusive writing system in North Korea & South Korea

Shift of Korean writing Korean work written in Chinese script Korean work written in mixed script Korean work written in Hangul script 우리가 관심을 갖는 문사철 영역 속의 고대 한적의 연구에 대해 말하자면, 한국학자의 고대중국 한적의 연구는 일제시대나 독립후인 1980 년 이전까지와 비교하면 아주 크게 증가했다고 할 수 있으니, 이는 전에는 상상하기도 어려운 일이었다.

Shift of Korean writing  Issues – Gap: today’s readers may have problems to understand/interpretate the Korean classic works written in Chinese – Gap: today’s readers may have problems to search the publications of Korean classic works written in Chinese

Hangguk Yoktae Munjip Chongso 《韓國歷代文集叢書》  Works in this set of anthologies were all written in Chinese in various literature formats – Essays – Poems – Religious works – Memorials – family pedigrees – And more

Hangguk Yoktae Munjip Chongso 《韓國歷代文集叢書》  Reading and interpretation difficulties – For Chinese – For Korean – For other people

Library, City University of Hong Kong 10 Traditional Chinese Characters (versus simplified Chinese now used in PRC) Ancient words (seldom used nowadays, uncommon to modern people Being a Chinese not necessarily means that one will understand the content Examples of poems in volume 7

 The aim is to make the treasurable resources well known to and be efficiently used by the scholarly communities.  to improve access to this set of scholarly research materials  The expected outcome is that the index would bridge between: −Chinese scholars and the Korean cultural & historical resources −Today’s readers and the ancient resources in classical Chinese −Modern generation of Chinese and Korean and the historical Korean resources written in Chinese  The project shall benefit scholars, researchers, faculties and students who plan to initiate research projects on Sino-Korean history and culture.  Help today's readers and enthusiasts understand and appreciate the ancient Korean intellectual works in an effective way. 12 Korean Classics Indexing Project – the Bridge

 A cross discipline project – Library professionals – Academic specialists  A cross language project – Chinese – Korean – Western 13 Korean Classics Indexing Project

 A collaborative model – Local partnerships - departmental – International partnerships  Value of collaboration – Opportunities for outreach – Sharing of the valuable outcomes – Sharing of the responsibilities & costs – Speeding up the production – Providing richer content elements 14 Korean Classics Indexing Project

 A collaborative model – departmental partnership within the university 15 Korean Classics Indexing Project Library Develop prototype of the index Establish index structure Determine indexing elements Define indexable terms Staff training Chinese Civilisation Centre Provide academic advices in the perspective of Chinese history and culture Department of Chinese, Translation & Linguistics Provide academic advices in the perspective of Korean language and culture

 A collaborative model – international partnership 16 Korean Classics Indexing Project CityUHK Do index entries in Chinese and Pinyin – the Chinese romanization Kyungin Publishing Co., Korea Offer the PDF files of the anthologies to CityUHK to assist in indexing tasks Jeju National University, Korea Translate the Chinese entries into Hangul script East Asian Library, University of California, Berkeley, USA Provide the McCune- Reischauer Korean romanization of the index entries

 Data elements –Author name and date of birth and/or date of death –Title of individual work ( 篇名 ), e.g. essay title, poem title –Image of the individual title –Form of literature of the individual work (Ci, Fu, Jue ju, L ü shi, etc.) –Subject keywords –Volume title –Volume number –Page number 17 Korean Classics Indexing Project

 Data format – Author names & individual titles: Original script, i.e. Chinese Chinese Pinyin romanization Korean script – Hangul Korean romanization – McCune-Reischauer romanization – Form of literature & Subject keywords Chinese script 18 Korean Classics Indexing Project

 The indexing database will be made searchable by all the aforementioned elements and in all the data formats  It can also be published in print with specified data formats and elements when demanded 19 Korean Classics Indexing Project

 The image below shows a poem in v.7: 20 Korean Classics Indexing Project-- A sample record

 The index entries for this poem will be: Element Field Author作者Author’sDoB/DoD生卒年Essay/PoemTitle 篇名TitleImage 影像 篇名影像 Form of Work 文體SubjectKeywords Volume Title 書名VolumeNumber冊 Page Number 頁 Data李奎報 Li, Kuibao 이규보 Yi, Kyu-bo 醉書示文長老 Zui shu shi Wen zhang lao 취서 시 문 장노 Chwiso si Mun changno 古律詩 - 七言 绝句 Jue ju 東國李相國集 Dong guo Li Xiangguo ji 동국이상국집 Tongguk Yi Sang- guk Jip Korean Classics Indexing Project-- A sample record

 What’s next – Expand partnership – Expand collection in similar kind – Enhance library services to increase effective usage of library materials – Contribute to scholarly communication and research activities 22 Korean Classics Indexing Project

Thank you!