The Philhistorias Institute

The Project

The Sexagenary Annals Manuscript (SAM) Reader exists to make historical works composed in Classical Chinese available in English, in parallel text, at no charge, at a rate of approximately one month of the tenth century per calendar month of the twenty-first.

Its present undertaking is the Goryeosa Jeolyo (高麗史節要), the abridged chronicle of the Goryeo dynasty compiled in 1452, in thirty-five volumes, of which no complete English translation exists. The Institute proposes to remedy this.

Editorial Method

1. The text is translated from the Chinese and not from the modern Korean. Where a modern translation has silently resolved an ambiguity, the ambiguity is restored.
2. Romanization follows Revised Romanization, except where it does not.
3. Chinese figures and allusions take Chinese readings; Korean figures take Korean readings. Figures who are arguably both are handled case by case, and inconsistently.
4. Personal names for which no surname is recorded are set solid. This occasionally produces a name a reader will syllabify incorrectly. The parallel column is expected to sort it out.
5. Notes explain what a reader cannot reconstruct. Notes do not explain what a reader can look up.
6. Where the compilers declined to explain something, the Institute declines as well, and says so.

Report of the Director

Volumes in the work

35

Volumes complete

0

Months of the tenth century rendered into English

1

Months outstanding

5,687

Completion

0.018%

Projected completion at current rate

2500 CE

Visits recorded

6,570

Visits by automated systems (est.)

6,568

Visits by human beings (est.)

2

Peer reviewers

None

Officers of the Institute

Director

E. R. Thackwell

Chief Translator

E. R. Thackwell

Chair, Committee on Romanization

Dr. E. R. Thackwell

Sole Member, Committee on Romanization

E. Thackwell

Editor of the Apparatus

Thackwell, E. R.

Systems Administrator

E. R. T.

Custodian

Thackwell

Errors

Errors are the Director's own, with the following exceptions, which remain the responsibility of Kim Jong-seo and the compilation committee of 1452:

1. The replacement of Kim Haengdo as Sijung within a month of his appointment, for which no reason is given.
2. The omission of the 高麗世系, and with it every dragon the reader might otherwise have accounted for.
3. The failure to explain why the Eastern Palace had granaries at all, let alone grain in them going bad.

Correspondence

Corrections, objections to romanization, and disputes over the reading of individual graphs may be addressed to suggestions@sam-reader.com. Emendations to the translation are received gratefully and adopted silently.

All correspondence is read by the Director. Some of it is answered by the Director. Enquiries regarding the projected completion date are noted and filed.