The Sinographic sphere, which employed Literary Sinitic as a shared linguistic medium, has left behind rich and diverse legacies shaped by local adaptations in each region. It is now crucial for researchers around the world to analyze the scale, mechanisms, and forms of these legacies with scholarly rigor and to collectively identify elements that bear significance for the development of future societies. This journal aspires to serve as a scholarly hub that enables such global discourse.

The Institute was founded in March 2005 as a specialized institution for the study of Sinographic literature, translation of East Asian classical texts, and education in Literary Sinitic. Since its inception, the Institute has contributed to the advancement of Korean studies by researching and translating Korea’s premodern Sinographic heritage. At the same time, it has collaborated with scholars worldwide to illuminate the broader linguistic and literary traditions of the Sinographic sphere. In particular, the Institute has regularly published the journal, East Asian Journal of Sinology (東亞漢學硏究), to introduce relevant research to both domestic and international academia, while also expanding its scholarly exchanges with related institutions around the globe.

In recent years, global academia has sought to reexamine area studies through the lens of Global Humanities. In response to this intellectual momentum, the Institute seeks to inaugurate this English-language journal to promote research that genuinely reflects the realities of the Sinographic sphere and to catalyze future scholarship in East Asian classical studies. To that end, we propose the following goals:

The regions comprising the Sinographic sphere shared a common scriptural system in Literary Sinitic, while also developing unique literary forms based on this shared system. Thus, the legacies of this sphere are characterized by the coexistence of elements common across the region and distinctive local traits, together forming a layered and multifaceted cultural matrix. Research on this heritage must therefore engage both with regional particularities and the broader structure of the Sinographic sphere. This journal seeks to promote the sharing and cultivation of balanced perspectives among global scholars on the Sinographic heritage.

In the Sinographic sphere, all strata of historical societies utilized both the shared literary-linguistic system of Literary Sinitic and their own localized forms of Sinitic writing for literary creation, the recording of intellectual inquiry, public and private writing practices, diplomacy, and cultural exchange. As a result, the legacies of the Sinographic sphere, shaped by the nature of premodern knowledge systems, encompasses the outputs of the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences alike. In this context, the journal invites scholars around the world to take Sinographic Literatures and Sinographic Philology as their objects of study and to collaboratively develop interdisciplinary approaches for exploring their legacies.

While research on the Sinographic cultural heritage takes premodern sources as its primary object, it must not fall into a “monumental” or “antiquarian” mode of history. The writing systems and literary forms of Literary Sinitic were adopted and actively utilized in response to the needs of their respective times, but their limitations in addressing new issues eventually led to their replacement by other forms. Recognizing this historical dynamism, research on Sinographic cultural heritage should develop into a form of East Asian classical studies grounded in a “critical history.” In this spirit, the journal invites scholars around the world to collectively engage in discourse that anticipates future horizons and to explore how such perspectives might be integrated into present research.

It is our sincere hope that Journal of Sinographic Philologies and Legacies will serve as a platform for widely sharing the latest achievements in Sinographic studies within the framework of Global Humanities, and that the discussions it fosters will contribute to the articulation of new visions for the future of Global Humanities.

Editor-in-Chief

Kyungho Sim

Professor Emeritus, Korea University

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