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Nammyeong Cheon hwasangsong jeungdoga (Song of Enlightenment with Commentaries by Buddhist Monk Nammyeong)

남명천화상송증도가(2012) ( 南明泉和尙頌證道歌(2012) )

Heritage Search Detail
Classification Treasure
Name of Cultural Properties Nammyeong Cheon hwasangsong jeungdoga (Song of Enlightenment with Commentaries by Buddhist Monk Nammyeong)
Quantity 1 book (44 pages)
Designated Date 2012.06.29
Age Presumably in the 26th year of the reign of King Gojong of Goryeo (1239)
Address Gongin Museum 208-208, Tapgol-gil, Yangsan, Gyeongsangnam-do

This book authored by Song priest Nanming Faquan contains a total of 320 eulogies placed at the end of each chapter of Jeungdoga (The Song of Enlightenment), or Zhengdaoge in Chinese, written by a renowned Tang monk Yongjia Xuanjue (665-713). Yongjia sought to convey through these eulogies the ways to the enlightenment that came to him after he had met the sixth patriarch Huineng. It is now widely regarded as a great guide to Zen Buddhism. The postscript by Choe I (?-1249) included at the end of the book contains information about its publication, revealing that it is a xylographic book printed with woodblocks carved on the basis of an earlier movable metal type edition according to the decision made by one of the most powerful men of the late Goryeo period. Choe I’s postscript also shows that Goryeo had published an edition of movable metal types before 1239. The wood grain marks on the printed letters as well as the broken or missing strokes show that the book was printed with woodblocks copied from the earlier edition, which was itself printed with movable metal types. While the movable metal type edition no longer exists, the record of its existence in this xylographic book is highly valued because it constitutes an important source of information about not only Buddhism and the bibliography of Goryeo but also the early development of movable metal types in Korea.