Translation Project: Dasan's Analects by Dr. Hongkyung Kim 

A major research and translation project on Dasan Jeong Yak-yong's extensive writing on the Analects was launched in 2013 with the support from  the Academy of Korean Studies in Korea. The project plans to publish Dasan's extensive work on the Analects in six volumes. Volumes I, II and III have come out until 2018 through the Oxford University Press and the rest three volumes plan to be published by 2022.  

The object of extensive research and creative interpretations, Dasan’s Old and New Commentaries of the Analects (Noneo gogeumju: 論語古今註) has been regarded, by Korean Studies scholars, as a crystallization of his studies on the Confucian classics. Dasan (Jeong Yakyong: 1762-1836) attempted through this book to synthesize and advance the long scholarly tradition of classical studies on the Analects. His work not only represents one of the greatest achievements of Korean Confucianism, but proves also to be one of the most groundbreaking works among all Confucian legacies in East Asia, as it opened the way for progress in Confucian philosophy. Originally consisting of forty volumes, the Old and New Commentaries of the Analects contains one hundred and seventy-five new interpretations of the Analects, hundreds of “questions” about the neo-Confucian commentaries, hundreds of references to scholarly works on the Analects, thousands of quotations from various East Asian classics to support the author’s arguments, and hundreds of philological discussions. Another intriguing aspect of the Old and New Commentaries of the Analects is that, during his exile, Dasan delved into then contemporary studies on the Analects, both those of the Philological Studies in Qing China and the School of Ancient Learning in Tokugawa Japan. This project of translating the Old and New Commentaries of the Analects in its entirety into English—in six books, approximately three hundred fifty pages each, tentatively titled The Analects of Dasan – A Korean Synthetic Reading of the Analects—will undoubtedly contribute to the promotion of Korean Studies by revealing Dasan’s scholarship to the larger academic world and will provide the opportunity to publish the most substantial volume of the Analects in English ever. 

 

- Book review 1

- Book review 2

- Book review 3

- Book review 4

In 1997, the Korean Studies Program entered into a partnership with Dongguk University in Korea to create a complete scholarly translation of the works of the 7th Century Korean Buddhist thinker Wonhyo. Wonhyo is considered the most important figure in the history of Korean Buddhism, and a significant influence on East Asian Buddhism in general, yet his work is little known among Western Buddhologists, in large part because there is almost no scholarship on him available in English, and no complete, scholarly translation of his works. The translations of his 24 extant works will have the field to themselves. The critical introductions and annotations in each of the five volumes will in many cases be the only scholarship available in English. We are also planning an introductory volume on Wonhyo's philosophical system and an anthology volume suitable for the general reader and for use in undergraduate classes.

A group of two dozen translators in four countries, all of them distinguished Buddhologists, has put together for the project, and the University of Hawaii Press has agreed to publish the series. The Second Volume of the series was first published in 2007 under the title Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wonhyo's Exposition Of The Vajrasamadhi-sutra (kumgang Sammaegyong Non) and the remaining volumes are up to the process of publication currently.

 

         1. Wonhyo's Philosophy of Mind, Edited by A. Charles Muller and Cuong T. Nguyen (2012)
         2. Cultivating Original Enlightenment: Wonhyo's Exposition of the Vajrasamadhi-Sutra, Translated with an introduction by Robert E. Buswell Jr. (2007)

For the information on the published volume, click here.

The Korean Studies Book Series at the State University of New York Press is one of the few academic series wholly devoted to Korean Studies, and it may well be the most active. The following is a list of the 14 titles in the SUNY Press Korean Studies Series:

1. Buddhist Faith and Sudden Enlightenment, Sung Bae Park (1993)
2. The Four-Seven Debate: An Annotated Translation of the Most Famous Controversy in Korean Neo-Confucian Thought, Michael C. Kalton, et. al. (1994)
3. The Korean Neo-Confucianism of Yi Yulgok, Young-chan Ro (1995)
4. The Korean Neo-Confucianism of Yi T'oegye and Yi Yukgok, Edward Y. J. Chung (1995)
5. Tao-sheng's Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, Young-ho Kim (1996)
6. The Korean Economy: A Visions for the 21st Century, Hyung-Koo Lee (1996)
7. Chong Yagyong: Korea's Challenge to Orthodox Neo-Confucianism, Mark Setton (1997)
8. Christ and Ceasar in Modern Korea, Wijo Kang (1997)
9. Kim Songsu: Korean Nationalist Entrepreneur, Choong Soon Kim (1998)
10. Modern Korean History, edited by Wayne Patterson and Yur-bok Lee (1998)
11. The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment with Commentary by the Son Monk Kihwa, Charles 
    
    Muller (1999)
12. The Korean Language, edited by Ik Sop Lee and S. Robert Ramsey (2000)
13. Understanding Korean Politics, edited by Chung-in Moon (2001)
14. Syncretism: The Religious Context of Christian Beginnings in Korea, David Chung (2001)
15. The Dharma Master Chongsan of Won Buddhism, Chongsan (2012)
16. One Korean's Approach to Buddhism, Sung Bae Park (2009) 

Six other titles are currently under consideration for inclusion to the series

In 1994, the Korean Studies Program entered into a partnership with Seoul National University in Korea to create a series of 11 original textbooks in various areas of Korean Studies. Scholars at SNU were to write and edit the volumes in Korean, and we were to oversee the translation and the publication. All costs were borne by SNU and the Korea Foundation, with additional funding from the Daesan foundation in Korea. Two books have been published in the SUNY Press Korean Studies Series: The Korean Language, edited by Ik Sop Lee and S. Robert Ramsey (2000), and Understanding Korean Politics, edited by Chung-in Moon (2001). Two more are presently under consideration by SUNY Press.

The newest of our projects following the Wonhyo Translation Project, the Korean Classics Series is dedicated to publication of high-quality scholarly translations of key texts in Korean thoughts and philosophy. The series is in the planning stages.