The Sagae Songdo Chibubeob for Practical Use and Self-Study

About the Book

This book is about Kaeseong Bugi, a double-entry method invented independently in Korea. Although invented about two hundred years earlier than Western double-entry accounting, it is remarkably similar in fundamentals to Western accounting; it recognizes the duality of individual transactions and ensures the balancing feature of debit and credit not only for individual transactions but also for their aggregations. It does so using the so-called Sagae, a four-way classification scheme (asset, liability, revenue, and expense). Despite this, it has received little attention among scholars. The oldest yet most complete book on Kaeseong Bugi is Sagae Songdo Chibubeob by Hyeon Byeong-ju, which illustrates in detail how Kaeseong Bugi works. It is written in Chinese and old-style Korean characters, thus not easy to read—a main reason why this English version is published. The book can be a valuable resource for those who have an interest in accounting history.

About the Author

Byung T. Ro is an Emeritus Professor of Purdue University. He received his MBA from the University of California at Berkeley (1971) and Ph. D. in accounting from Michigan State University (1976). As a Visiting Professor, he taught at UC Berkeley, Claremont McKenna College, GISMA School (Hanover, Germany), and several universities in Korea. He published about 30 peer-reviewed research articles in accounting journals including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, and Journal of Accounting Research. He served on the Editorial Board of The Accounting Review and Committees of the American Accounting Association. He is listed in Who’s Who in America, Marquis, and also a recipient of the A. Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award (2018). Seong-ho Jun is a Professor of the Academy of Korean Studies, Korea. He received Ph.D (1999) in economics from the University of SungKyunKwan. He was a Postdoc at University of Oxford (UK) and a Visiting Fellow at the International Institute of Social History (Netherlands). He taught at Goethe University (Germany). He has published 12 peer-reviewed articles in The Journal of Economic History, Financial History Review, and other journals. He co-edited two books on Kaesŏng Double Entry Bookkeeping (KDEB). Key-sook Jung is an Emeritus Professor of Keimyung University, Korea. He received his MA (1964) and Ph.D (1980) in accounting from Yeungnam University. At Keimyung, he once served as Dean of College of Management. He visited Purdue University and Osaka City University. He was Vice President of the Korean Accounting Association (1985) and President of the Korean Association of Industrial Management (1990). He published about 35 articles in academic journals (accounting and management). He is the Korean translator of A Statement of Basic Accounting Theory (AAA, 1966).