PRINTING: A NEW DISCOVERY
41
The Korean find adds one important brick to the edifice we may call the history of printing. It does not fundamentally change the edifice, however. Everything still points, in my opinion, to the beginnings of the invention in China, and its spread outward from there, Buddhism being one of the principal vehicles for its distribution. The monks of that day were a migratory lot. It seems entirely likely that one or more of them, Chinese or Korean, made use of the novel device in the kingdom of Silla, while another, Japanese or Chinese or Korean, introduced it a few years later to Nara, then capital of Japan. It is significant and curious that, in spite of its early introduction to both countries, printing does not really become established amongst either people until three centuries later.
This is a preliminary report, based on illustrations and newspaper articles sent me by Professor Young-gyu Minn of Yonsei University, Mr. Huh Young-kwan, reporter of the Hankook Ilbo (Seoul), and Mr. K. R. Crim of the Presbyterian Mission in Seoul. One may hope that before long the Korean authorities on early printing will publish an exhaustive monograph, fully illustrated, on this important discovery.
Note: In writing this sketch I have benefited greatly from discussion of the find with my colleagues Professors Chaoying Fang and Gari Ledyard, both of whom read Korean, which I do not.