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Title :《Exchange of Writing Systems and Communication in Ancient East Asia》

Edited by Northeast Asian History Foundation
Northeast Asian History Foundation | Printed on A5 | 406 pages | 12,000 Won | 2011.07.04
ISBN 978-89-6187-237-9 93910

Chinese characters were used as an essential tool for exchange and communication in pre-modern societies in East Asia. For this reason, there comes a claim that Chinese characters should not be regarded as an invention or cultural inheritance of one particular nation, but ‘an inherited intellectual property for peace and coexistence’ of the many nations and states in East Asia.

Having turned our attention to this claim, Northeast Asian History Foundation decided to publish a book containing the 13 papers presented by Korean, Chinese and Japanese scholars in an international academic conference "Exchange of Writing Systems and Communication in Ancient East Asia" hosted in June 2009 by the Foundation.

While each of the papers viewed Chinese characters as a common inheritance in East Asia, the papers highlighted – considering the relations between Korea, China and Japan - the distinctive ways in which Korean people used their writing systems including Chinese characters. Koguryo’s writing system has been introduced, focusing on Kogyro’s exchanges with China, the state of its adoption (of Chinese characters) and the country’s influences on Silla and Baekje, where new facts are included as much as possible on the basis of the successful findings from recent archeological excavations. Furthermore, it also looks at how Chinese characters were passed through the Korean peninsula to Japan and how the characters were adopted by Japan.

Introducing the fruits of the studies on the written relics of Koguryo, Baekje, Silla and ancient Japan, archeological evidences and calligraphic analyses of inscriptions on stones, this book provides an opportunity to understand more deeply the writing systems of East Asia including the Korean peninsula, and therefore, this book should be regarded as academically valuable.