Choeseon Dynasty Chinese Language Textbook Series (Complete 4 volumes)

Author: Wang Weihui (Editor)
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910) adhered to the "Great Nation" policy, maintaining extremely close ties with China. As a result, learning Chinese became a significant matter in Joseon's foreign affairs. Over the course of more than 500 years, Joseon compiled and used no fewer than ten Chinese language textbooks. This series selects ten of these texts for collation and facsimile reproduction to meet the needs of scholars in Chinese studies. The selection follows the principle of reflecting actual spoken language while avoiding texts native to China. Whenever available, annotated editions are used, as the phonetic annotations provide valuable data for the study of modern Chinese phonology.
This four-volume set, Collected Chinese Language Textbooks of the Joseon Dynasty, edited and collated by Professor Wang Weihui of Nanjing University, is published in large 32-page format with hardcover binding. It was released in January 2005 and is priced at a total of 290.00 yuan. The first volume contains collated editions of ten textbooks in traditional vertical printing; the second volume features facsimile reproductions of Original Laoqida, Laoqida with Hanja Annotations, New Interpretation of Laoqida, and Reprinted Laoqida with Hanja Annotations; the third volume includes facsimile reproductions of Puk Tongsa with Hanja Annotations and New Interpretation of Puk Tongsa with Hanja Annotations; and the fourth volume contains facsimile reproductions of Xun Shi Pinghua, Huanyin Qimeng with Hanja Annotations, Nin Neung Guixing, and Xue Qing.
Each of the ten books included in this series consists of three parts: an introduction, a collated edition, and a facsimile reproduction. The introduction provides an overview of each book's basic information and its value, as well as explains the collation methodology. The collation section includes paragraph division, punctuation, and correction of common errors, variants, and omissions in the text. The facsimile reproduction carefully selects the best available versions for publication, with original page numbers marked for reference with the collated sections. This is valuable and hard-to-obtain primary data.
An appendix titled Bibliography of Related Works is included at the end, categorized into data, scholarly works, and other materials, offering clues for further research. Among the ten books in this series, except for Original Laoqida, Laoqida with Hanja Annotations, and Puk Tongsa with Hanja Annotations, none have been officially published on either side of the Taiwan Strait. Works like Nin Neung Guixing and Xue Qing are even difficult to find in South Korea. The publication of this collection is expected to play its due role in the study of the history of the Chinese language, teaching Chinese as a second language, the history of Sino-Joseon relations, as well as economic history, folk history, paleography, and literary history.
Professor Jiang Shaoyu, a renowned linguist from Peking University, wrote the preface for this series, stating that its publication is "a welcome news for researchers of the history of the Chinese language" and "will deepen related studies."