The purpose of the campaign for
recovering ¡¸Jikji¡¹ is to establish the right sense of the old
printing culture in Cheongju, to recognize the old printing
culture, which has been historically and culturally brilliant,
through the preservation of the World Registered Legacy
¡¸Jikji¡¹ and to spread out our excellence of the printing
cultures to the inside and outside of the country. A start
of the campaign for recovering ¡¸Jikji¡¹ was originated from the
followings. In an academic seminar of Chungbuk UNESCO, , in MAY 1996, the gathered
people agreed that Cheongju was the city of the old printing
culture and thus there should be the original of ¡¸Jikji¡¹
somewhere in this country. In conclusion, they accorded that
they would try to recover and notify the fact that it is the
oldest existing Metal Printed Book, which was withdrawn from
Hungdeok Temple in Cheongju. However, only the last one volume
is kept in Manuscrit Orianteaux of France National Library
now, and there isn't any in Korea. After that, every
organization and all levels of society have joined in the
campaign of recovering ¡¸Jikji¡¹ and developed it so far, in
order to make Cheongju the international place. Since the
campaign was started by Cheongju Civilian Committee in MAR
1997, the Early Printing Museum of Cheongju made a ¡¸Jikji¡¹
recovering squard from OCT 1998, and has performed persistent
activities all around the country. With this campaign
spread out, the number of organizations joined so far is
uncountable now. Also, the campaign has extended abroad from
1995, because ¡¸Jikji¡¹ might be drained into foreign countries.
However, the Metal Printed ¡¸Jikji¡¹ has not been discovered
yet. The campaign for recovering ¡¸Jikji¡¹ should be
extended to the originals of another legacies such as
¡¸Mugujeongkwang Daedaranikyung¡¹in the period of the Three
Kingdoms, ¡¸Nammyungcheon Hwasang songjungdoga¡¹, which is the
Metal Printed Book, ¡¸Sangjeongyemun¡¹ and
¡¸Jabidoryangchambubjipae¡¹.
The Campaign for
Recovering Jikji
