Sources and Corrections
Even the same classic can be expressed differently across editions and translations. We explain the roles of our sources so you can check passages that interest you directly.
Reading the Sources on a Work's Page
Original texts and the publications containing them establish where a story has been transmitted. Bibliographic information establishes details such as title, author, and the structure of a book. The modern retellings and commentary are newly written by MeKorean Classics on the basis of these materials. A single source does not support every interpretation on a page, so please consider what information each source actually substantiates.
The ITKC Database and Public Data
The Institute for the Translation of Korean Classics' Database is a reference resource for finding original classical texts, translations, and bibliographic information. This library presents stories of people from Park Ji-won's Yeonamjip and Heo Gyun's Seongso Bubugo. The Tale of Gwangmun also includes its appended Afterword to The Tale of Gwangmun. Each work gives the address of its material in the official database so that readers can identify the source.
Bibliographic details such as work titles, authors, volumes, and source addresses draw on the ITKC Database's public search records. We distinguish that information from the Classical Chinese original and the modern retelling newly written for this site. We do not provide the institution's modern translations as our reading texts.
Conditions of Use for the Original Texts in This Collection
The detailed records for the individual Collected Works of Korean Writers datasets for Yeonamjip (燕巖集) and Seongso Bubugo (惺所覆瓿藁), linked from the Public Data Portal's Collected Works of Korean Writers dataset, confirm that they are free of charge and have unrestricted permission for use. The XML datasets were registered on April 8, 2020 and March 31, 2020 respectively. Their conditions of use were checked again on November 7, 2026.
This verification concerns the public original-text materials for those two collections. Translations, annotations, and images in other materials may carry separate conditions of use. Being able to view search results does not, by itself, establish permission to republish those materials. Both the institution's Copyright Policy and the license conditions of the individual dataset must be checked. We display source institutions' names to identify their materials.
Rights in the Original and in Individual Materials
Economic rights in an old original work must be distinguished from rights in modern translations, commentary, and edited materials. Please check the materials used and the rights information for each work. Naming a source does not make material that requires separate permission freely reproducible.
When quoting MeKorean's newly written retellings and commentary, identify their nature and source so they are not mistaken for sentences from the original work. Further guidance on use is set out in the Terms of Use.
Report an Error or Rights Concern
You can contact us at hello@mekorean.com. Including the following will help us locate the issue more precisely.
- The work's title and the address of the page containing the issue
- The sentence, source link, or rights notice that needs checking
- Why you believe a correction is needed, with material that can be compared
For rights-related inquiries, specify the material and what you are requesting. Do not send sensitive information such as identification documents, entire contracts, or passwords in your initial message. We do not guarantee an individual reply or a particular response time. We may revise the text, sources, or rights information in light of what is verified.