Доклады Международного конгресса ИИСАА. Т. 1

III. Far East, South and South-East Asia / Дальний Восток, Южная и Юго-Восточная Азия Доклады Международного конгресса по источниковедению и историографии стран Азии и Африки. Т. 1. 2020 417 The center of Chosŏn official publishing was Kyosŏgwan 校書館 (Office of Editorial Review), and regional offices also had facilities to reprint and distribute official publications. In the private sector, Confucian academies and Buddhist monasteries published scholarly and religious books and scripts, and elite families also issued various publications to record their family lineages to honor their family members. These publications were still non-profit in nature and commercial publishing in the form of mass-productive woodblock prints only appeared in the 19 th century (these commercial woodblock print editions are called panggakpon 坊 刻本 ).As printing required high expense, it either needed high demand of the readers (consumers) or publishers who could willingly pay the expenses. In Chosŏn, most books were printed in the second context. This means that the range of people who published and read books was extremely narrow and limited, which is again a key reason that commercial publishing never flourished in Chosŏn. As mentioned, the high percentage of metal type prints is a distinctive characteristic of Chosŏn, when compared to Ming and Qing China and Edo Japan. Metal type printing required even higher expense and advanced technology of casting. For this reason, it was not easily accessible to private publishers, and has been largely reserved for central government projects. Until the 17 th century Kyosŏgwan was practically the only institution in Chosŏn that issued metal type print editions. As metal typesets should be disassembled after uses, metal type printing is not suitable for mass prints. This technology, on the other hand, is perfect for “multi-item, small-sized production.” Books officially published by Kyosŏgwan were intended to circulate within a small circle of elite as gifts. In this circle, there was a continuous demand for copies of various new texts introduced from China. Metal type, which enabled quick reproduction of texts in a small number of high quality prints, was therefore most favored. In this context, the popularity of metal type in Chosŏn is closely related to the fact that the demand for printed books stayed within a small, limited circle of readers. Certain books of high demand such as textbooks, medical texts, and agricultural and other practical manuals were first printed in metal type in central government offices and sent to regional offices. There, the copies were reprinted in woodblock prints and distributed to a wider group of readers. Private families and institutions also chose woodblock prints or wooden type prints instead of expensive metal type prints for their own publications. Throughout the Chosŏn dynasty, metal type print books were published out of the public needs of the state and the royal family. They include historic records such as the Annals of the Chosŏn Dynasty 朝鮮王朝實錄 , Confucian texts, and various manuals used for ruling and administrative purposes. Books for personal interests or tastes were not entitled to be published using this high-expense system, as such intentions could not be justified. Metal type editions, in principle, were the type of books that served foremost public interests.