Under the Joseon Dynasty, Manchu language specialists were educated within the Joseon Court for the ceremonial necessity of making contact with the Manchu-Qing Dynasty. However, this tradition ended in the early 20th century. Kim Gugyeong was the first Korean scholar to be interested in the Manchu language and materials from the modern academic viewpoint. He was born in Seoul in 1900 and educated at Otani University in Kyoto between 1921 and 1927. Then, he established relationships with Japanese “Sinologists” including Naito Konan in Kyoto. After spending a short time working at the Keijo (Seoul) Imperial University Library on Naito’s recommendation, he moved to Beijing in 1927 and became an instructor in Japanese and Korean languages at Beijing University. In 1932, he moved to northeastern China and joined the Manchukuo National Library in Mukden as a librarian. In Beijing and Mukden in the 1930s, Kim reprinted several rare classical books related to Chinese Zen Buddhism. He is now remembered in today’s Korea as the first Korean to make contact with Chinese intellectuals such as Hu Shi, Lu Xun, and his brother, Zhou Zuoren, among others. In Beijing, Kim began to study the Manchu language and searched for old Manchu books. In Mukden, he published a revised and annotated version of the Hesei toktobuha Manjusai wecere metere kooli bithe / Qing ding man zhou ji shen ji tian dian li (edited in 1747) in 1935. After the Japanese defeat in 1945, Kim returned to Seoul and was appointed as a professor of Chinese literature at Seoul National University. However, during the Korean War, after he was captured by the North Korean Army, his whereabouts became unknown.