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, Shanghai21 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 7th century to early 20th century – Covers philosophy, history, arts, politics, social sciences, economy,

military, geography, astrology, and more

Values: – 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

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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only briefly recorded in the Chinese historical documents– Valuable supplementary materials for scholars in studying Chinese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

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

Shift of Korean writing

~4th-6th century Chinese 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, 1368-1644)

New script invented – Hangul - Hunminjeongeum ( 훈민정음 ; 訓民正音 )

Promulgated in Joseon Dynasty ( 朝鮮 , 1392-1910), by the fourth king Sejong the Great ( 世宗 )

1940s Hangul became the exclusive writing system in North Korea & South Korea

Shift of Korean writingKorean 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

Classical Chinese script

Examples of poems in volume 7

Discovering valuable knowledge in “Hanguk Yoktae Munjip Munjip Chongso”《韓國歷代文集叢書》is not straightforward, we need a bridge ……

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.

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Korean Classics Indexing Project – the Bridge

A cross discipline project– Library professionals

– Academic specialists

A cross language project– Chinese

– Korean

– Western

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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

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Korean Classics Indexing Project

A collaborative model – departmental partnership within the university

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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

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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, Lu shi,

etc.)– Subject keywords– Volume title– Volume number– Page number

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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

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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

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Korean Classics Indexing Project

The image below shows a poem in v.7:

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Korean Classics Indexing Project--A sample record

The index entries for this poem will be:

Element Field

Author作者 Author’s DoB/DoD生卒年

Essay/PoemTitle篇名

Title Image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

이규보Yi, Kyu-bo

1168-1241. 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

7 105

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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

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Korean Classics Indexing Project

Anji Bridge – The oldest

If a bridge of old technology can establish long-lasting connection, with new technology, perhaps we

can connect the world.

Thank you!

hsching@cityu.edu.hklbceline@cityu.edu.hk