Tripitaka Koreana Research Articles

VGTS: Visually Guided Text Spotting for novel categories in historical manuscripts

In the field of historical manuscript research, scholars frequently encounter novel symbols in ancient texts, investing considerable effort in their identification and documentation. Although existing object detection methods achieve impressive performance on known categories, they struggle to recognize novel symbols without retraining. To address this limitation, we propose a Visually Guided Text Spotting (VGTS) approach that accurately spots novel characters using just one annotated support sample. The core of VGTS is a spatial alignment module consisting of a Dual Spatial Attention (DSA) block and a Geometric Matching (GM) block. The DSA block aims to identify, focus on, and learn discriminative spatial regions in the support and query images, mimicking the human visual spotting process. It first refines the support image by analyzing inter-channel relationships to identify critical areas, and then refines the query image by focusing on informative key points. The GM block, on the other hand, establishes the spatial correspondence between the two images, enabling accurate localization of the target character in the query image. To tackle the example imbalance problem in low-resource spotting tasks, we develop a novel torus loss function that enhances the discriminative power of the embedding space for distance metric learning. To further validate our approach, we introduce a new dataset featuring ancient Dongba hieroglyphics (DBH) associated with the Naxi minority of China. Extensive experiments on the DBH dataset and other public datasets, including Egyptian Hieroglyph (EGY), Historical Arabic Documents (HAD), Tripitaka Koreana in Han (TKH), and Notary Charters (NC), show that VGTS consistently surpasses state-of-the-art methods. The proposed framework exhibits great potential for application in historical manuscript text spotting, enabling scholars to efficiently identify and document novel symbols with minimal annotation effort.

East Asian Buddhism and Korea’s Transnational Interactions and Influences

No one can dispute the significant influence of Sinitic Buddhism in East Asia, but Korean Buddhists were also unquestionably close to the center of the development of different schools of Buddhism in mainland China, particularly in the Jiangnan region, which had historically drawn monks from the peninsula. This article will briefly cover the historical transnational Buddhist interactions between Korea and China, with an emphasis on doctrinal Buddhism, the significance of Ŭisang and Ǔich’ǒn, and the influence of Hangzhou’s Buddhist intellectual advancements. Even though the article’s main focus is on doctrinal contacts, we will also briefly discuss Chan Buddhism in China and how it influenced the texts and techniques of the Korean Sŏn (Zen) monk Chinul (1158–1210), who made an effort to integrate the doctrinal and meditational traditions, as did Ǔich’ǒn. This process of idea-cross-fertilization led to the Tripitaka Koreana, the largest collection of Buddhist texts in East Asia, created by Buddhists during the Koryŏ dynasty (918–1392), which is discussed below. This will aid in our understanding of these transnational exchanges and highlight the fact that Koreans were not only absorbing new ideas as they emerged in China, but they were also influencing them.

일제강점기 1937년 만주국 강덕제 발원 고려대장경 인경과 특징

In 1937, the printing of the Tripitaka Koreana was carried out under the supervision of Gyeongseong Imperial University professor Dakahasi Toru(高橋亨) through the cooperation of the Japanese Government- General of Korea at the request and praying of KangDeok-je, the emperor of Manchukuo.
 In 1935, the KangDe Emperor visited Japan and observed old books and paintings from Joseon, China, and Japan in the collections of the Palace Museum and Jesil Museum, and was interested in the Goryeo Tripitaka and the Hwangbyeokpan Tripitaka. In 1936, the KangDe Emperor requested the Japanese Government-General of Korea to print the Tripitaka Koreana. It is presumed that Kang Deok-je's request for printing the Tripitaka was based on his devout Buddhist faith, and that he wished for merit or reward through the printing of the Tripitaka, a compilation of Buddhism.
 The printing of the Tripitaka in 1937 was requested by the KangDe Emperor, but 2 sets of Tripitaka were printed with one copy for the Central Buddhist College. In addition, the items required for printing were produced in Joseon, and printing and binding were performed by Joseon people in the traditional way of Joseon.
 Preparation for printing began in June 1937, printing was done from September 2nd to October 17th, and binding and box production were completed by December 1937. The Tripitaka arrived in Manchukuo on January 19, 1938. What was sent to the KangDe Emperor was 1,163 books of the Tripitaka, 3 lists, and 48 boxes, as well as 2 books of Daegakguksa-munjib大覺國師文集 and 1 book of Haejangsa-sajinjang 海印寺寫眞帳 in Haeinsa. The printed version was enshrined in Manchukuo and Bohyeonsa in Mt. Myohyang, Pyongan-do, and the Tripitaka in Manchukuo is unknown.
 Regarding the characteristics of the printing of the Tripitaka in 1937, the missing scriptures and supplementation of missing letters were reviewed. At the time of printing in 1937, 18 plates were engraved again with the intention of reproducing the original plate of the Goryeo Dynasty for the re-engraved plate to supplement the missing plate in 1915. The missing letters due to the damage of the Tripitaka scriptures were supplemented using 1,017 letters in 136 places produced in 1915.

Engraving of Avataṃsaka Sutra Woodblock Translated by Buddhabhadra and It’s Succession in Haeinsa(海印寺)

This paper analyzes the characteristics of the so-called "Suchangpan" and it’s succession. In Haeinsa, there remains the wood block, “Suchangpan” made in 1098. The hinge wasn’t used in “Suchangpan”, there was a pronunciation at the end of the volume, the bottom had a rough engraving, and the index was described in the first of the volume. Based on these characteristics, as a result of analyzing the 35th edition of Avatamsaka Sutra Woodblock Translated by Buddhabhadra in Haeinsa, it was confirmed that two of the 35th edition were “Suchangpan”, and the 26th edition was likely to be ones.</br>Meanwhile, through the analysis of engraver, the shape of the wood block, and the presence of some letters of Tripitaka Koreana in back side of Avatamsaka Sutra Woodblock translated by Buddhabhadra, it was confirmed that the three edition of Avatamsaka Sutra Woodblock(Saganpan) was engraved at least 5 years earlier than the year, 1237 when the Tripitaka Koreana began to engrave</br>The Avatamsaka Sutra Woodblock(Saganpan) translated by Buddhabhadra in Haeinsa, was a reprint of the Suchangpan, and Tripitaka Koreana was a reprint of Avatamsaka Sutra Woodblock in Haeinsa. Haeinsae, a Huayan temple, has been a major engraving site of Avatamsaka Sutra Woodblock since the end of the 11th century, which lasted until the 13th century when Tripitaka Koreana was produced.

Fungal Distribution of the Janggyeong Panjeon, the Depositories for the Tripitaka Koreana Woodblocks in the Haeinsa Temple

Many investigations have been conducted on the biological damage and environmental conditions necessary to preserve the Janggyeong Panjeon and Daejanggyeongpan (woodblocks). We performed a survey on the concentration and diversity of airborne fungi in the Janggyeong Panjeon and compared them with the results of a survey from 2012. The temperature of the Beopbojeon building was slightly lower, while the relative humidity was higher than those found at the Sudarajang building. The concentration of airborne fungi in the Beopbojeon was 1.44-fold that of the Sudarajang. It was confirmed that the concentration and diversity of airborne fungi in the Janggyeong Panjeon differed depending on the sampling site. In total, 23 fungal genera were identified from the air samples, and 11 fungal and 1 bacterial genera were identified from the surface of the woodblocks. Among these, only five types of fungi were commonly distributed in the indoor air and surface of the Daejanggyeongpan; however, 58.3% of the fungi identified on the surface of the woodblocks were not observed in the in the air samples. The surface-dwelling fungi may accumulate dust to form microbial communities over time.

고려] 고려시대 연구의 2019~2020년 동향과 특징 - 양적 분석과 키워드를 중심으로 -

The purpose of this article is to understand the research trends of the Goryeo Dynasty by examining academic papers published in 2019 and 2020.<BR> For this purpose, 428 papers are collected through 〈Korean History Research Compendium〉 and their analysis are focused on keywords.<BR> The analysis results can be roughly divided into the following four trends. First, there are many studies on national rituals. Second, studies on Buddhism, including the Tripitaka Koreana, have been conducted in various aspects. Third, many studies have been produced on the relationship between Goryeo and Mongol empire. In addition, various discussions were held in detail, such as the Goryeo-Mongol War, diplomatic relations between the two countries, and efforts to secure king’s power under the influence of the Mongol empire. Fourth, a lot of research has been done on the space of the palace and the capital, Gaegyeong.

1970년대 法頂의 사회민주화 운동 考察: &lt;씨알의 소리&gt;에 投稿한 原稿를 中心으로

This study is to investigate the social democratization movement of the 1970s of Buddhist Ven. Beop-jeong (1932-2010) who lived together in our era. He was born on the beach in Haenam, Jeollanam-do Province, studied in Mokpo since the days of middle school, attended College of Commerce, Chonnam National University and became a Buddhist monk. Serving as a teacher Ven. Hyobong who was a former judge and high priest of the time and who became a monk in Miraesa Temple located in Tongyoung, Beop-jeong extensively read the Tripitaka Koreana at Haeinsa Temple in Hapcheon, Gyeongsangnam-do Province through Ssanggyesa Temple and Seonunsa Temple. At Haeinsa Temple, he greatly realized that a female believer saw the Tripitaka Koreana as a “laundry board” and pledged to translate numerous Chinese Buddhist scriptures into Hangeul. He who studied numerous Buddhist scriptures at Haeinsa Temple took a keen interest in social democratization by listening to the teachings of democratic figures such as professor Hwang San-Deok, Jang Joon-Ha, and minister Ham Seok-Heon. He, who launched into the Korean Buddhist dictionary compilation project, helped Ven. Un-heo to create “The Dictionary of Buddhism” at Tongdosa Temple. After that, he came to Seoul to become a translation member of Dongguk Buddhist Scripture Translation Institute established by Dongguk University and played a leading role in the Korean alphabetization process of Chinese Buddhist scriptures. In this process, he contributed his writings in the Buddhist Newspaper (Korean Buddhism at the time) and became an intellectual figure representing the Buddhist world. He, who worked on various writing and engaged in writing activities, contributed to “Voice of the People”, a magazine that led democratization as a progressive medium at the time in 1970. Starting with the first manuscript in 1972, he promoted Buddhism to people on the one hand and began to inform the world of the pain of the people suffering under the Yushin dictatorship by publishing various articles on social democratization on the other. It is noteworthy that it was his activity as a Buddhist monk, the figure of Buddhism, when the Buddhist circles seldom engaged in activities in the history of the social democratization movement in the 1970s. He published a total of 16 articles such as columns and discussion poems on “Voice of the People” to convey Buddhist teachings, and also insisted on how social democratization should be achieved based on Buddhist teachings. In particular, with the promulgation of the Yushin Constitution in October 1972, he published poems offering resistance to the dictatorial regime, causing repercussions. These activities were monitored and suppressed by the government, and he got a lot of activities restricted. Shocked to see that young people were sacrificed by the Second Inhyukdang Incident amid rising levels of oppression, he retired to Songgwangsa Buliam(Bulilam Hermitage in Songgwangsa Temple) in 1975 to return to the original truth before the practice. He also conveyed Buddhist teachings through various writing activities there as well on the one hand and engaged in the voices of social democratization. I hope that the research of these Beop-jeong’s activities will be actively conducted and the history of social democratization movements in the Buddhist community will be re-established.

Biological distribution and environmental monitoring for the conservation of Janggyeong panjeon Depositories and Daejanggyeongpan (Printing Woodblocks of the Tripitaka Koreana) of Haeinsa Temple in Korea

Biological damage due to material characteristics and climatic change poses serious threats to wooden cultural heritage objects in Korea. This study is a preliminary survey for the preparation of a conservation/management plan for Janggyeongpanjeon (depositories of the Tripitaka Koreana Woodblocks), which is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, and Daejanggyeongpan (Printing woodblcoks of the Tripitaka Koreana), which is part of UNESCO's Memory of the World Programme. Over a period of two years, we monitored the distribution of insect and microbial species and the environmental condition in and around the Janggyeongpanjeon, including wood moisture content, and conducted relevant comparison and analysis. As a result, we compiled a list of species of wood-damaging organisms for the long-term conservation and management of the Janggyeongpanjeon (depository halls) and Daejanggyeongpan (woodblocks) and identified high-risk periods of biological damage for these wooden cultural heritage objects. The results of comprehensive analysis of the biological distribution and environmental condition demonstrated that conservation of the original form of the Janggyeongpanjeon and Daejanggyeongpan is based on a complex interplay of the material characteristics of the wood used, architectural features of the Janggyeongpanjeon enabling ventilation, and Daejanggyeongpan manufacturing technique.

佛敎文獻 中 接頭語 ‘打’ 語彙 考察

This study extracted the words including prefix ‘打’ from Tripitaka Koreana and the Korean Buddhist literature and analyzed them according to the classification of Lei Han Qing(雷漢卿) baseded on the vocabulary composition. Then, I looked at the historical aspects of the vocabulary by comparing them with modern Chinese.<BR> In this study, I was able to examine vocabulary words that were not included in the Dictionary of Dialect and Informal Terms(方俗語詞典). For example 打入/ 打野/ 打散/ 打就/ 打到/ 打眠/ 打瞎眼/打領/ 打徹/ 打橛/ 打擲/ 打刀/ 打龍/ 打雀/ 打話/ 打徹/ 打盞/ 打貼/ 打千般令/ 打耬/ 打鏁/ 打正/ 打良久/ 打个丿乀/ 打折合/ 打一歡.<BR> These words were enriched and the traces of the words including prefix ‘打’ were examined.

해인사 대장경판 중복판 금속부의 손상양상 및 보존방안

In this study, based on the observation of preservation conditions, we attempted to discover wear mechanisms and deterioration characteristics for the jangseok and iron nails of duplicated woodblocks of Tripitaka Koreana in the Haeinsa Temple. We also conducted artificial corrosion experiments to examine the deterioration characteristics of jangseok and iron nails after the fabrication of samples. According to the observation of the preservation conditions and the results of the artificial corrosion experiment on duplicated woodblocks of Tripitaka Koreana in the Haeinsa Temple, the iron nails used for fixation were observed to cause physical damage to the woodblocks. Furthermore, the corrosion of iron nails was accelerated due to the difference in redox potential between the nails and jangseok on copper and brass plates.BR We evaluated brass nails as an alternative application material to prevent any physical and chemical damages caused to woodblocks by the iron nails and to derive long-term preservation methods for the woodblocks. Brass nails were confirmed to provide a higher stability than that imparted by iron nails for fixing jangseok on copper and brass plates. In the future, optimal preservation treatment methods should be derived via long-term experiments that elucidate the effects and correlations of jangseok and fixation nails on the damages endured by duplicated woodblocks.

해인사 대장경 중복판의 인경본 조사와 시기분석

해인사 대장경 중복판의 인경본 조사와 시기분석

Precise detection of Chinese characters in historical documents with deep reinforcement learning

The decision-making ability of deep reinforcement learning has been proved successfully in a variety of fields. Here, we use this method for precise character detection by making tight bounding boxes around the Chinese characters in historical documents. An agent is trained to learn the control policy of fine-tuning a bounding box step-by-step through a Markov Decision Process. We introduce a novel fully convolutional network with position-sensitive Region-of-Interest (RoI) pooling (FCPN). The network receives character patches as input without fixed size, and it can fuse position information into the features of actions. Besides, we propose a dense reward function (DRF) that provides excellent rewards according to different actions and environment states, improving the decision-making ability of the agent. Our approach is designed as a universal method that can be applied to the output of all character-level or word-level text detectors to obtain more precise detection results. Application to the Tripitaka Koreana in Han (TKH) and Multiple Tripitaka in Han (MTH) datasets confirm the very promising performance of this method. In particular, our approach yields a significant improvement under a large Intersection over Union (IoU) of 0.8. The robustness and generality are also proved by experiments on the scene text datasets ICDAR2013 and ICDAR2015.

다큐멘터리 전통재현에 나타난 치유의 서사 - KBS 다큐멘터리 [다르마]를 중심으로

Everyday life refers to a perspective that encompasses things that are meaningful but pass away. This study aims to examine the tradition represented in TV documentaries through conscience eyes on everyday life as a legitimate standpoint. As seen in the KBS documentary Dharma, the Tripitaka Koreana is reproduced, revived and reevaluated by modern people as an experience of ‘daily healing’. The production body discusses the tradition of Tripitaka Koreana as an act and the practice of the ‘present’ as opposed to the past. From this standpoint, tradition is no longer a past practice but a present practice applicable to reality. The narrative of the documentary is constructed through a ‘montage of daily space and repeated image’, breathing new life into the viewpoints of everyday life. In addition, the cross-editing technique used in the documentary helps to establish a pluralistic perception on values such as beliefs, religion and science, visualizing relativistic viewpoints. In terms of content, the documentary suggests ‘everyday life’ as a viewpoint that helps to reproduce tradition by extracting the concept of the ‘healing of the mind’ through the reinterpretation of Tripitaka Koreana as a tradition. Hence, the empirical elements of everyday life, not included thus far in the dominant discourse of tradition, now have important value. By examining this value, the ‘voice’ of the production body, attempting to build stories around the complete perception on tradition, can be found.

A study of character forms and uses in Chanmen niansong ji 禅门拈颂集

This study aims to examine the features of the characters in Chanmen niansong ji 禅门拈颂集, a central text, while paying special attention to the variant Chinese characters (different characters with a similar pronunciation or meaning) it contains. Since Chanmen niansong ji 禅门拈颂集 includes a variety of such characters, it is possible to trace a diversity of changes in character forms from Lishu 隶书 to Kaishu 楷书. For this purpose, this study will classify variant Chinese characters in Chanmen niansong ji 禅门拈颂集 using two different classification standards, namely the structure of these characters and the method of generating them. Both versions of Chanmen niansong ji 禅门拈颂集, the variant Chinese character version and the conventional version include wuzi 误字 (wrong character), yanzi 衍字 (meaninglessly added characters), and tongjiazi 通假字 (loan character). It was found that there were some differences in the form and structure of characters in the two versions of the text. It is expected that the results of this investigation will contribute to the hermeneutic reconstruction of Chanmen niansong ji 禅门拈颂集. It seems clear that Chanmen niansong ji 禅门拈颂集 was published during the Song 宋 Dynasty in China, that is, the early Gaoli 高丽 Dynasty, a period when Tripitaka Koreana was also engraved in Gaoli 高丽. Through a basic analysis, several differences between Chanmen niansong ji 禅门拈颂集, the conventional version, and the variant Chinese character version were found, in terms of the form of their variant Chinese characters. Future research will compare the forms of the variant characters in these two texts, focusing on the pattern of character forms in the Song 宋 Dynasty in China, which is the counterpart of the Gaoli 高丽 Dynasty in Korea. This will help produce more abundant data related to character form.

Non-destructive method for wood identification using conventional X-ray computed tomography data

Abstract We establish an efficient and reliable method of wood identification that combines a non-destructive and non-invasive laboratory-scale tool, X-ray computed tomography (CT), with machine learning for image recognition. We selected six hardwood species used to create the Tripitaka Koreana and obtained the X-ray CT data of its woodblocks. Image recognition systems using the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) or local binary patterns (LBP) were applied to the CT images and the prediction accuracies were evaluated. Because the gray level of the CT data is linearly related with the density, the CT images were preprocessed to calibrate the density. Although the resolution of the images is too low for the anatomical microstructures required for wood identification to be easily recognized visually, the predicted accuracies are quite high in both systems. However, the LBP system has slight advantages over the GLCM system. The results moreover show that the calibration of gray level to density improves the accuracies of the results. If the candidates for the wood species are selected properly and sufficient data for training is available, this technique will provide novel information about the properties of wooden historical objects.

Trends of Character Variations from the Lexical Entries of Tripitaka Koreana Annotated by Master Huilin

Trends of Character Variations from the Lexical Entries of Tripitaka Koreana Annotated by Master Huilin

한글 - 어떻게 제정되었나? -Ⅰ

This paper examines the creation process of Hangul from a new perspective. First, it is claimed that this new writing system, which King Sejong the Great himself invented and named Hunmin-jeongeum, is a set of phonetic symbols to represent the Sino-Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters. “Hunmin- jeongeum (訓民正音)” means the correct pronunciation of Chinese characters to be taught to the people. In other words, Hangul was made to represent the Sino-Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters based on Tongguk-jeongun (東國正韻), which is the book about the Sino-Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters that King Sejong had compiled by modifying the earlier Sino-Korean pronunciation of Chinese characters. Subsequently, King Sejong's second daughter, Princess Jeongui(貞懿), used Hunmin-jeongeum to indicate some phonological changes in the pronunciation of Chinese characters, and in the process, she realized that the new script could be used to represent Korean inflectional endings such as verbal inflectional suffixes, case markers, and particles. This recognition led her to use the new script to write the Korean language. During this period, the name of the new script was 'Eonmun (諺 文)', which literally means 'vulgar script,' and this name reflects the perception about Hangul viewed as a lower-level script compared to Chinese characters. During the period of Taehan Empire (大韓帝國), it was referred to as the 'national script (國文))' since Eonmun was considered a vulgar, depreciative term, but it was called Eonmun again during the period of Japanese colonial rule, and then the term Hangul was used in opposition to the use of the name. King Sejong initially invented only 27 letters to represent onset consonants, and they were used to transcribe Yùnhuì (韻會), the Chinese rhyme book. Then, a buddhist monk and scholar named Shinmi (信眉), a well-known authority on Buddhist scriptures of the period, participated in the creation of the new script, and letters for middle vocalic sounds of syllables, letters for vowels, were additionally invented. The characters of the writing system for Sanskrit, a language of ancient India, were divided into mātr (摩多) for vowels and vyanjana (体文) for consonants, and these letters were called 'half letter (半字),' and its education was called teaching alphabets or 'teaching half letter (半字敎)'. On the other hand, each letter of Siddham script represented a combination of a consonant and a vowel corresponding to a syllable, and this writing system was called 'full letter (滿字)'. The education of this script was called 'teaching full letter(滿字敎)', which refers to the education of Sanskrit characters or Siddham. Sanskrit characters are syllabic characters that represent combinations of consonants and vowels. Teaching of half and full characters (半滿二 敎) is an expression frequently appearing in Buddhist scriptures, and it refers to the education of Sanskrit characters. The renowned Buddhist monk, Shinmi, was well versed in Vyākaraṇa (毘伽羅論), the grammar of the ancient Indian inflectional language, and shèngmíng-jìlùn (聲明記 論), a phonological study of Vyākaraṇa, since he learned them through the Tripitaka Koreana of Buddhist scriptures. Thus, he contributed to the additional invention of 11 middle vocalic sound letters of Hunmin-jeongeum based on the mātr, vocalic letters of Sanskrit characters. Before that, 27 letters for consonants were created based on the onset consonant sounds of Chinese Phonology (聲韻學), and they were called 27 fănqìe (反切) letters. They are '27 Eonmun letters' mentioned in the letter of appeal that Choe. Manri (崔萬理) wrote against the creation of the new script.

The Content and Significance of Woodcut Prints in the Text ‘Eojebijangjeon’ from the Goryeo-Period First Edition of the Tripitaka Koreana

The Content and Significance of Woodcut Prints in the Text ‘Eojebijangjeon’ from the Goryeo-Period First Edition of the Tripitaka Koreana

외국인 관광객이 지각하는 지역축제 환경단서와 축제효과, 축제만족과의 관계: 2017대장경세계문화축전을 중심으로

외국인 관광객이 지각하는 지역축제 환경단서와 축제효과, 축제만족과의 관계: 2017대장경세계문화축전을 중심으로

Engraving of ‘Tripitaka Koreana(高麗大藏經)’ and Role of Jeongan’s(鄭晏)

Engraving of ‘Tripitaka Koreana(高麗大藏經)’ and Role of Jeongan’s(鄭晏)