The greatest invention, JIKJI

What do you think the greatest invention throughout the entire human history? The worlds most famous news media, such as BBC, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and Time Magazine reported that movable metal type printing was the greatest invention throughout the entire human history.

In Europe, Gutenberg published the 42-line bible in 1455 while, Koreas Jikji was published in 1377. Those two books were inscribed on the UNESCO on the same day. In Sep 4th, 2001, UNESCO registered them on the Memory of the World which is UNESCO's programme aiming at preservation and dissemination of valuable archive holdings and library collections worldwide.

This video introduces the value of JIKJI and metal type printing of Korea. You can get more information about Jikji from http://www.prkorea.com

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Jikji
• Gutenberg
• metal type
• type road
• UNESCO

[bravusliu]

Jikji is just the oldest extant movable metal type printing.

[bg24955]

when i was 9 yr old, i forged my parents' seal by carving the exact character on a soap bar. it worked, of course. my teacher's letter to my parent - showing my failing grade- was "acknowledged". I consider this my greatest invention (at that time).

[msk2808]

@xxwzaebd Movable metal types were invented actually in early 13th ct. in Korea, almost 200 years before Gutenberg. Jikji (1377) was a simple example of remaining Korean metal-printed books. There is a strong evidence that Gutenberg himself got informed about the existance and knowhow of metal printing from his friend dispatched to Asia by the Pope then. Metal printing idea and technology was not such kind of skill that could be developed in only 3 year period by Gutenberg.

[wildliongirl]

haha, At least Korea is know for something (minus VERY good movies and dramas, and more weirdly as my friend says, "Hot guys".) I think it's amazing, here's my cause and effect

Korea invents movable metal type print > Gutenberg "discovers it" > changes Western cultures

What the hell I don't get is that, why is this in FRANCE!? It's korean, anyone could obviously see that, but why it it in FRANCE? (not that i don't have anything against france, i think their food is very good...)

[xxwzaebd]

Here we are talking about movable types. They were invented in Korea earlier than in Europe but it didn't influence Western printing at that time. Of course, if evidence would be found showing that Gutenberg learned from Korean printing, the issue becomes different. Anyway, Korean rifles ,tanks,torpedoes and Aegis ships are better than anything else.

[kokosfoot]

iv — The fact is: Gutenberg invention took the western world out of the middle ages, although historically it was in the renaissance. Movable type alone wouldn't be enough, so Gutenberg invented a press and the idea, come from the art of wine making. Type alone don't do it. Press alone, don't do it. Now, type and press, do it!

[kokosfoot]

iii — That Gutenberg's movable type changed the world was possibly ( I like to think ) because the subject was the book of the books: The Bible. Which free the masses from receiving the word via The Clergy and the Land Lords, and people started reading for themselves.

[kokosfoot]

ii — Their movable type did not influenced the west and is probable that some european traveller stumble upon it and found in it a great idea, and kept records... If Gutenberg was influenced by the korean invention ( I like to think that ) I can not say.

[kokosfoot]

i — I always known that the chinese invented printing. I may be wrong but that's what I was told. They printed out of woodcarvings and I think that is the general idea all over the world.

Possibly, I don't know but i like to think that yes, the Koreans invented movable type as they were under the same geographic influences as the chinese.

[xxwzaebd]

The turning point was the '70s-when the Western world was inundated with leftist demonstrations. As a result, with following changes, it lost its identity; now people are not even allowed to call a table a table. Not to mention the loss of manufacturing capability. Last winter the Russians controlled gas supply and the Western world had to suffer,It should be noted that Asian societies didn't invade others to get access to economic resources.

[xxwzaebd]

Women and gays are not oppressed here; women even have better chance of getting good jobs than men.And the average living standard is higher now, with better SOC. (telecom infrastructure, highways, high speed rail etc,to name just a few). The Western world started to decline when it gave up its own identity in favour of marxism back in the '70s. It succumbed to bad guys like Baader-Meinhof when we enforced strict laws against marxism.