''Bak Tongsa'' () is a textbook of colloquial northern Chinese published by the
Bureau of Interpreters
The Bureau of Interpreters or Sayŏgwŏn was an agency of the Joseon government of Korea from 1393 to 1894 responsible for training and supplying official interpreters.
Textbooks for foreign languages produced by the bureau aimed to accurately de ...
in Korea in various editions between the 14th and 18th centuries. Like the contemporaneous ''
Nogeoldae
The ''Nogeoldae'' ('Old Cathayan') is a textbook of colloquial northern Chinese published in Korea in several editions from the 14th to 18th centuries. The book is an important source on both Late Middle Korean and the history of Mandarin Chinese ...
'' ('Old Cathayan'), it is an important source on both Late
Middle Korean and the history of
Mandarin Chinese. The ''Nogeoldae'' consists of dialogues and focuses on travelling merchants, but ''Bak Tongsa'' is a narrative text covering society and culture.
Editions
The original Chinese text was written in the mid-14th century, but it is no longer extant.
The ''Bak Tongsa'' and the ''Nogeoldae'' were very popular, and are mentioned in Korean records of 1426 as required texts for government translators.
In 1480, the royal instructor ordered revisions of both textbooks to match the very different
Middle Mandarin
Mandarin () was the common spoken language of administration of the Chinese empire during the Ming and Qing dynasties. It arose as a practical measure, to circumvent the mutual unintelligibility of the varieties of Chinese spoken in different par ...
of the
Ming dynasty. In 1517, the Korean scholar
Choe Sejin augmented this edition with Chinese pronunciations written in
Hangul and a Korean translation. This edition is now conventionally called the ''Beonyeok Bak Tongsa'' (飜譯朴通事 New Translation of Pak the Interpreter) to distinguish it from the original. This edition was believed to have been lost during the
Manchu invasions of Korea During the 17th century, there were two Manchu invasions of Korea:
*Later Jin invasion of Joseon (1627)
*Qing invasion of Joseon
The Qing invasion of Joseon (Korean: Byeongja Horan) occurred in the winter of 1636 when the newly-established Qin ...
, but one volume was rediscovered in the 1950s.
The Korean version is written in a colloquial style, giving unique insight into Late
Middle Korean.
The ''Bak Tongsa eonhae'' (朴通事諺解 Vernacular Exposition of Pak the Interpreter) was published in 1677. Prepared when the earlier ''Beonyeok Bak Tongsa'' was believed lost, this edition was based on Choe Se-jin's ''No-Bak Jimnam'' (老朴集覽 Glossary of the ''No
eoldae' and ''Bak
ongsa').. The Chinese text is identical with that of the ''Beonyeok Bak Tongsa'', but the pronunciations and the Korean translation were completely revised.
''Bak Tongsa Sinseok eonhae'' (朴通事新釋諺解 New Edition Vernacular Exposition of Pak the Interpreter), a further revision by Kim Chang-jo, was published in 1765.
References
Works cited
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Further reading
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External links
* {{commons category-inline, 朴通事新釋諺解, ''Bak Tongsa Sinseok eonhae''
* ''Bak Tongsa Sinseok eonhae'' at the
Internet Archivevol. 1vol. 2
Joseon dynasty texts
at the Academy of Korean Studies
Academy of Korean Studies (한국학중앙연구원, AKS) is a South Korean research and educational institute with the purpose of establishing profound research on Korean culture. It was established on June 22, 1978, by Ministry of Education & ...
, including ''Bak Tongsa eonhae'' and ''Bak Tongsa Sinseok eonhae''.
Chinese-language education
Korean language
Old Mandarin
14th-century books