In this publication I will be presenting you with two short textual fragments in Classical Chinese from Kyoyang Hanmun (敎養漢文) from Sungkyunkwan University Press (2nd edition, 6th print, 2005) that deals with reading books or writings with their translations. The fragments are further truncated in smaller subfragments in Classical Chinese with their translations directly underneath: This way of rendering the texts may be something my dear readership have already gotten used to.

The first fragment has, according the aforementioned Kyoyang Hanmun, been taken from the collected works of the renowned Korean scholar and philosopher Yi I (李珥, 1536 - 1584, pen name Yulgok 栗谷), whilst the latter would be an excerpt from the work Sasojŏl 士小節, which was a work from late 18th Century Chosŏn Korea on basic proprieties and ways (aspiring) scholars were supposed to observe at all times.

The former is an exhortation that reading should also lead to action, whereby it is implied that this action should lead to the betterment of one's self and (by extension) society: This idea that picking up ideas from reading should lead to improvement of one's own thoughts and actions is hardly original, and certainly resonates with societies that are (at least officially) guided by strict religious or moral standards, which, so we may argue, was the case in Korea at that time.

The second fragment, on the other hand, contains a more interesting phrase as it reflects the material culture in Chosŏn Korea, which indicates that a certain prominent scholar could determine whether a book lent out by him had indeed been read while it was borrowed by "paper forming fur" (in Literary Chinese that would be 紙生毛), which, I believe, refers to a phenomenon called linting, or better, pilling, which is the forming of fuzzy blobs of fabric jutting out of the paper's surface. The word "linting" is, in the modern context, used especially to indicate such disintegration of paper when it is subjected to offset printing, whereas "pilling" is used very often to describe the same problem with paper used for watercolouring. If we may suppose the subject in the fragment of relevance was right by thinking that "proper reading" would lead to (further) pilling of the pages read, then it is telling of the way of reading that was considered appropriate at that time in that region (there was most probably a lot of paper rubbing involved!) as it is of one of the weaknesses of the papers used in scholastic writings that were in circulation: Modern paper can show similar signs of wear, but probably only after it has been subjected to much more pressure or friction than a Korean scholar could ever have applied on the pages, however intently he may have read and studied them. I found it furthermore remarkable that English dictionaries do not seem to commonly indicate the words used in the Korean explanation of the phrase 生毛 given in the learner for this text (보풀이 일어나다) to be possibly related to the pilling of paper (보풀, for instance, yields only entries like "swelling" etc., which can be associated with skin tissue or bubbles, etc. but it takes some power of imagination to establish a semantic link between such words and paper), whilst, for instance, the one of the entries in Naver's renowned Korean-Chinese dictionary of the word 보풀 clearly refers to paper. This might just be taken as a hint that this problem with paper is, or at least was, more prevalent and/or better recorded in the East Asian Kulturkreis, but I certainly would like to encourage people with experience in handling Korean or East Asian writings (certainly when printed in the 16th to 19th centuries) to share their thoughts on as well as their lived experience with such paper and its propensity for pilling.

Without further ado, here are the translations:

Fragment 1: From Yulgokchip 栗谷集

凡讀書, 必熟讀一冊盡曉義趣, 精通無疑然後, 乃改讀他書

In general, when one reads, one must have the habit of reading one book at a time, (thus) getting to fully understand its contents and purports. Only after one has no doubts one has fully understand (the text) then one is to start reading another book.

若口讀而心不體, 身不行, 則書自書我自我, 何益之有?

If one reads out loud but one's mind does not comprehend and oneself does not take action (in accordance with the purport of the text being read), then the book remains as it is and so does one's ego: What advantage does that have?

Fragment 2: From Sasojŏl 士小節

同春宋先生, 書籍借人, 人或還之, 而紙不生毛, 則必責其不讀, 更與之, 其人不得不讀之.

When Master Tongch'un Song1 lent out a book to someone, and that person returned it at some point while the pages did not show signs of (additional) pilling, then he would certainly reproach him for not having read the book and give it to him once again, (as) that person was in no position not to read it.