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Classical Chinese (Hanmun) Primer

I recently took a day and traveled out to the Academia Sinica in Taiwan, heading to the Joint Library of Humanities and Social Sciences (人文社會科學聯合圖書館) in search for some primary sources related to my research area. While I was there, I happened across some Classical Chinese Primers (漢文讀本, 한문독본) that were compiled and edited by the Japanese to be used in the colonial schools in Korea. I thought I would share some snippets I took from these primers.

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I’m really curious how these texts were taught, especially seeing the way Hangul is mixed throughout the text, similar to the way Classical Chinese primers were compiled in Japan at the same time.

Unfortunately, I have yet to find a proper class schedule for the schools to know when and how often these books may have been used, or under what circumstances.

Still, it’s a very interesting part of the overall history of Classical Chinese education in Korea.

4 thoughts on “Classical Chinese (Hanmun) Primer”

  1. Wow. What a good find. I’m not sure whether the 漢文讀本 was compiled by the Japanese. A Korean source indicates that it was published in 1907 by a branch of the Korean government.

    1. Thanks!

      I’m very curious too about where it came from, because the 漢文讀本 used in Taiwan, for example, weer all compiled by the Government General in Taiwan. Anyway it gives me an interesting topic to research more into 🙂

      Thanks for your comment!

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