The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty are historical documents not compiled for daily reference to state affairs, but for subsequent generations to utilize as reference forever. Even the Kings could not access The Annals ; only the officers who had been authorized by the King could read them. Because of this rule that even the king could not read The Annals and the manuscripts, the truth and credibility of The Annals are recognized.
The Annals were evacuated by all means throughout the Japanese invasion, so at least one copy could be preserved. After the Japanese invasion it was regarded that keeping only one copy would not be safe, so The Annals were republished, so that five sets of copies were kept intact until the end of Joseon Dynasty in the early 20th century. However, the country lost her sovereignty to Japan in 1910, and the veritable records of the Joseon Dynasty were once again put into a great peril.
The Korean Civil War in 1950 again put this preservation effort into danger. The Annals were evacuated to Busan in 1950 during the Korean War. After the war, when Korea recovered from the ruins of the war, The Annals were designated as the 151st National Treasure of Korea in 1973. And in 1997 it was listed in UNESCO’s Memory of the World registry.
On December 20, 2016, The Yonhap News Agency reported that 60 books of The Annals were omitted from the National Treasure of Korea. An investigation team, formed by the Department of Cultural Heritage, investigated this 9 times and added these omitted books to the National Treasure in 2019. Therefore, all together 2,219 books were designated as National Treasures, which include 1,187 books of Jeongjok Mountain, 75 books of Odae Mountain, 4 books of Jeoksang Mountain, 6 books of Bongmodang, 99 books of odd volumes and unaligned leaves.
In this study, I reviewed the circumstances of how the omitted The Annals were added as National Treasures after 9 investigations, the number of the volumes and books, and their current state. In addition I also looked at the latest measures to restore the degraded booklets, which have deteriorated due to the leak of rainwater.
Although The Annals were listed as UNESCO’s Memory of the World, the whole affair of The Annals stored at Jeoksang Mountain is still unknown. Jigji in France was also listed as a World Record Heritage jointly with Korea and France. In the same vein, it seems necessary that The second edition of the books of Jeoksang Mountain kept in Pyongyang should be examined in full and be included in the UNESCO World Record Heritage. We need to understand the state of The Annals in full detail, preserve them and pass them on to the future generations.