An Outline of the History of Korea in The Primer for Children

In traditional Korea, The Primer for Children (Dongmong seonseup 童蒙先習) was a basic textbook studied in Confucian schools. It introduced students to the basics of Confucian ethics and to the main events of the history of China and Korea. The text is composed in literary Chinese and marked with Korean auxiliary verbs and affixes written in Chinese characters using the gugyeol method. The Korean Collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg) includes a xylographic edition of this textbook (C 64), which was printed in the year gyechuk 癸丑 (1793 or 1853) and entered the funds of the IOM, RAS, as part of the collection of Academician M.F. Brosset (1802–1880). The paper contains the first partial Russian translation of this textbook presenting the outline of the history of Korea from ancient times to the mid-16th century. The translation is accompanied with a commentary and a brief preface.