Lesson 05  Beyond Your Dreams

미래엔 영어I Reading_5과.hwp

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“We still don’t know what cultural properties we lost to the French troops in 1866 and where they are now. As you have studied history, I hope you will try to find them.”

This request was made by a professor to his student, Park Byeongseon, who was about to leave for Paris. She graduated from a college of education as a history major and planned to study education in France. On August 11, 1955, Park arrived in Paris, without imagining she would spend the rest of her life in France.

In 1967, while in a doctoral program, Park received a life-changing job offer from the National Library of France. She took the part-time job without hesitation because she thought that, by being on the staff, she would be able to read books whenever she needed them. There is no doubt that she kept her professor’s request in mind. She thought, she might be able to find or even bring home the precious books taken to France.

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She Found Jikji

Later that year at the library, Park discovered a very old book, with the title clearly printed on the cover: Jikji. It was the second volume of Baegun Hwasang Chorok Buljo Jikji Simche Yojeol, written and published in the late Goryeo period. It was donated to the library in 1950, by a French art collector who had bought the book at an auction in 1911. To her surprise, an inscription at the end of the book read “printed with movable metal type at Heungdeok Temple in the seventh year of Seonkwang (the third year of King Woo of Goryeo).” The year was 1377. If the inscription was true, it meant that the book was printed with movable metal type 78 years earlier than the Gutenberg Bible, which had long been thought to be the world’s first book printed with movable metal type.

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It was a stunning discovery, but it did not seem that the world would believe her. She needed proof. Park began to study ancient Korean printing technology and experimented with letter blocks made from various materials. After years of effort, she managed to find that the metal type printing leaves traces of metal on the edges of printed words. Jikji was proved to have been printed with movable metal type. Presented at the 1972 International Book Year Exhibition, Jikji became known as the world’s oldest book printed with movable metal type. In 2001, it was listed on the UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

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The Search for Lost Books Continued

Park’s hunt for lost Korean books did not end there. Through her ceaseless searching, she discovered the royal books that had been taken away from Oegyujanggak, the royal library on Ganghwado, by French troops during their attack in 1866. To find them, she searched every possible place for over 10 years, but her efforts were in vain. One day in 1977, her French co-worker told her that she had seen piles of damaged Chinese books in another building in the National Library. There, among the damaged books, she found 297 volumes of Uigwe, the royal books that recorded major national events in texts and images.

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In 1978, Park told the Korean embassy and reporters in Paris about the books, and she insisted that the books should be returned to Korea. When the books became known to the world, she was forced to resign from her job for the reason that she had revealed some of the library’s secret information. However, she continued her research to interpret the records in Uigwe, which was completed in 1990. Thanks to her research, more and more Koreans became concerned with the royal books and demanded their return. The Korean government officially requested the return of the books in 1992, and, at last, 297 volumes of the Oegyujanggak Uigwe arrived in Seoul in April and May 2011.

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To Young Koreans

When visiting Korea to see Uigwe returned, Park gave this message to young Koreans.

“I’m very glad to see Uigwe finally back in Korea. Yet, since it is not a permanent return but a lease, we should work together to have the books stay in Korea forever and not ever go back to France.”

On November 22, 2011, she passed away from cancer. Even in the last days of her life, she did not stop dreaming. She planned to collect documents in France about some Korean independence movements during the Japanese occupation. Her passion will give young Koreans courage to reach for their dreams, and her love for Korea will be remembered as a precious heritage.