Book name written by Nantong native Zhang Jian. [Photo/Jianghai Evening News]

A set of rare Korean literary works published in China more than a century ago has been returned to Nantong where it was printed, after scholars from South Korea acquired it at auction and donated it to local archives.

The eight-volume collection was presented to the Nantong Municipal Archives in early July by a professor of Pusan National University, along with his three colleagues. The hand-bound volumes, printed on rice paper, remain in remarkably good condition despite their age.

The collection was originally published in 1917 by Nantong's Hanmolin Printing House, one of China's earliest modern printing presses. The title page bears a calligraphic inscription by Zhang Jian (1853-1926), the prominent industrialist and educator who founded the press in 1903.

The author of the works was a high-ranking official, literary scholar and historian of Korea's late Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897). He produced hundreds of poems and essays over a career spanning more than two decades. He died at 47, and his manuscripts could not be published in Korea at the time.

It was Kim Chang-gang who brought his late friend's manuscripts to Nantong in 1905. Kim had been invited by Zhang Jian, whom he first met in Seoul in 1882, to work as an editor at the Hanmolin Printing House.

The idea for the donation took root in July 2023, when the Pusan National University scholars visited Nantong for an international academic conference. Impressed by the archives' preservation of historical materials, they resolved to contribute to local historical research.

Archival experts in Nantong noted that while copies of the collection exist in libraries in China, South Korea and the United States, it is rare for a copy to have circulated in South Korea before making its way back to the city of its origin.