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Korean History Studies in Japan
The 2003 Shigaku Zasshi Historiography Review: Korean Ancient History
Fukatsu Yukinori
In the field of ancient Korean history in 2003 we gained participation from the study of wooden strips and the study of Japanese and Korean languages, and more so than in past years there occurred active debate.
First, Yoshii Hideo, from the two indices of, first, tomb mounds and the construction order of burial installations and of, second, the structure and function of coffins, pointed to the continuity of the geographic area of various groups that appear in written documents, and of groups that do not match others and that were constricted primarily by geographical conditions. Further, the phenomenon of the spread in the second half of the sixth century of horizontal shaft stone chamber tombs and the disappearance of the regional nature of the previous burial system is seen as the reflection of a new group integration consciousness in the Korean peninsula. (1)
Next, regarding Silla history, Hirakawa Minami indicated that the great majority of the wooden strips at the Sŏngsan mountain fortress were tags for tribute goods and inferred that this showed the adjustment of a burden system based upon registers in mid-sixth century Silla. (2) In the future, in studying wooden strips excavated in the Korean peninsula, Hirakawa's research methodology of taking note of the shape of the wooden strips and the style of the inscription, and comparing them to similar sources in ancient East Asia should be continued.
Takeda Yukio organized and examined the various views of the Pongp'yŏngbi stele. He considers the Pongp'yŏngbi to be a “ kyosa stele” that the “group of fourteen men,” who were of the central section of the Silla ruling class , based upon two earlier “ kyosa stelae” and that delivered the order to carry out the “ noin law” in “Nammiji-ch'on,” which belonged to “Kŏbŏlmora,” near today's Ulchin, where the stele was erected. Further, he forwards the possibility that “Kŏbŏlmora” was one of the fifty-two military bases of a specific characteristic and that it reiterated the interests and military actions of Silla in the area along the eastern seaboard of the Korean peninsula extending back to before the early sixth century. (3) This article, as evidenced by the author's unpublished papers listed in the endnotes that include the names of stelae, was written amid a larger plan to survey the “ Kyosa stelae” from the middle-ancient period in Silla. I look forward to these future publications.
Kimura Makoto again took up the interrelation of Silla's foreign crisis and the Pidam rebellion in the mid-seventh century. He suggests that the international opportunity that was the composite military and diplomatic crisis that began after 624 shifted to domestic politics with the appointment of Pidam, who sought the support of the young king, who held anti-Tang China views, to sangdaedŭng . On the other hand, this triggered the actions of Kim Ch'unch'u and Kim Yusin, who were constrained by the regard in Silla of King Chinp'yŏng's line, which was of hallowed-bone rank, as being sacred, this being an internal condition unique to Silla at that time. (4) Kimura's point is also important with regard to the widely debated features of the hallowed-bone rank.
Kobayashi Masanori showed that in the 105 extant lines of the P'anbi yangnon (held at Ōtani University), written by Wŏnhyo and speculated to have been brought to Japan by Shinjō, who studied in Silla, are Silla vocabulary and marks written into the text in twenty-three places. He noted the similarity between those handwritten notations and handwritten additions in Japanese manuscript sutras of the Nara period and the early Heian period, and that the method in Silla of reading aloud in the Silla language texts that were written in Chinese had great influence in Japan . (5) I look forward to clarification of features of Silla Hwaŏm studies that crossed the categories of the political communities called “Silla” and “ Japan ” and the influences that study brought to both political communities.
Regarding Paekche history, Yi Mungi outlined changes in the Paekche inner court system in the process of separating the Paekche king's power from aristocratic power. That is, he considers the origin of that growth of aristocratic power to have been in the Paekche ruler's appointment of inner court officials based upon the investiture from China during King Chŏnji's reign. During the reign of King Tongsŏng, the inner court system was newly composed centered on the Chŏn Naebu system which made the Naedu the highest official. During King Sŏng's reign this inner court system was completed as a twelve-department system. During King Mu's reign, together with the policy of strengthening royal power the Nae Chwap'yŏng official came to command the Chŏn Naebu and below in the inner court. (6)
Pak Sunbal, a leader in the South Korean archaeology world, has expanded his doctoral dissertation. Concerning the founding of the Paekche state, he forwards the three indices of the establishment and distribution of specific pottery styles, large tomb mound graves, and fortresses as archaeological sources reflecting state foundation. He considers that period to have been from the mid-third century to sometime in the second half of the third century because of the matching of the formation of the Mongch'on form of pottery styles that are representative of black-colored grinding tools, the disappearance from the Han River area of stepped-pyramid type stone-piled tombs and earth-pit tombs with surrounding trenches, the appearance in Seoul of large-scale wood coffin earth-mounded tombs such as the earthen tomb clusters in Sŏkch'on-dong and Kanak-dong, and the emergence of the Mongch'on earthen fortress and the P'ungnap earthen fortress, which bore state functions, as royal fortresses. (7)
Chŏng Chaeyŏng suggests that among the Paekche non-standard Chinese characters are many that resemble Koguryŏ non-standard Chinese characters and that the sentence-ending final particles “ ŭi ” and “ kwi ” also were used in Koguryŏ and Silla. He urges caution toward idu sentences from the early Paekche period. Also, regarding some of the artifacts produced from gold that heretofore have been categorized as iron arrowheads, he offers the possibility that those are iron brushes. (8) Kim Yŏnguk recognized a Chinese character in the last line of the epitaph for King Muryŏng, one which had not yet been identified, as “ in .” Also, combined with the “ kayo wooden strip” excavated at Nŭngsan-ni, he abstracts from these two texts the Buddhist-style reincarnation thought in Paekche from the early sixth century on. (9)
In Parhae history, Furuhata Tōru reviews scholarship in Japan on Parhae history, which has attempted to free ancient history from the “nation-state” frame while conscious of Parhae history research as a distinctive modern topic. (10) In another publication, Furuhata, in discussing the actual image of Parhae's leader, reiterates the importance of clarifying the characteristics of each document. In addition, he shows that the Japanese court placed the leaders of the Parhae embassies at the same court rank and in the same class and presented them with return gifts, and indicates the direction of interpretations of the Parhae entry in the Ruijū kokushi . (11) Akabame Masayoshi has shown that the drafting and the issuance of the imperial letter that is the topic of his article occurred in the second month of 843. In addition, from text within the imperial letter, he considers the power center in Parhae to have been composed of the king's closest relatives, and the ministers [K. changsa ] (the top official in each of the three ministries) and the lower-ranking bureaucrats [K. p'yŏngjangsa ] (lower-ranking officials in ministries other than the Chŏngdangsŏng), that is, the chaesang class of officials, and he identifies Tae Kŏnhwang as one of the ministers. (12) If one were to borrow the words of Furuhata, clarifying the characteristics of the “Yu Bohai-wang Da Yizhen [Tae Ijin] shu” imperial letter is an urgent topic.
Li Miza, without consulting the Xin Tang shu , believes that the Funie, Yuexi, Tieli, and other groups among the Malgals were placed after the fall of Koguryŏ under the jurisdiction of the Tang government's Andong Protectorate. She then dates the origins of Parhae's possession of the Liaodong area to the period from 713 to 742, when Parhae integrated those Malgal groups, and suggests that Parhae lost control before 924 due to a Khitan attack. (13)
Regarding earthen fortresses, Yamada Takafumi believes that the construction of Silla's Kŭmgyŏng secondary capital, which was based upon a square plan of nine bō east-west by eight bō south-north with the estimated approximately thirty meters of the south-north great road between Anapchi and the ruins of Hwangyongsa and Sŏbyŏnsa as the axis, was completed to some extent by 679, and that Kŭmgyŏng was enlarged twice, in the first half of the 690s and at the beginning of the eighth century.
• Oda Fujio places Japanese ancient cities into the two genealogies of Chinese-
line earthen fortresses and Paekche-line earthen fortresses depending upon whether there was or there was not a system for measuring units of space in a grid. (15)
Gotō Kazutami, Hattori Keishi, Gotō Yoshio, and Miyatsuka Yoshito reported that they had produced, using GPS and satellite images, a survey of Koguryŏ mountain fortresses that had a horizontal margin of error of four-five meters and a vertical margin of error of one meter. Almost all of the Chinese and Korean written documents have been digitalized. (16) In addition to these, new and valuable sources based upon the primary digital sources and their production methods have been demonstrated.
Notes:
(1) 吉井秀夫「 朝鮮三国時代における墓制の地域性と被葬者集団 」『考古学研究』弟４９巻弟３号、２００２年１２月、３７－５１頁。
(2) 平川南「韓国・城山山城跡木簡」『古代地方木簡の研究』内、吉川弘文館、２００３年。
(3) 武田幸男「 新羅・蔚珍鳳坪碑の「教事」主体と奴人法 」『朝鮮学報』弟１８７輯、２００３年４月、１－３８頁。
(4) 木村誠「 朝鮮古代史における国際的契機 － 新羅・毘曇の乱の再評価 」『歴史学研究』弟７８２号、２００３年１１月、４７－５２頁。
(5) 小林芳則「八世紀の日本における角筆加点とその源流」富山大学日韓漢字・漢文受容研究会編『日本漢字・漢文受容に関する国際学術会議』２００２年。
(6) 李文基「百済内朝制度史論」『（学習院大学史学会）学習院史学』弟４１号、２００３年３月、１６－３４頁。
(7) 朴淳発『百済国家形成過程の研究 － 漢城百済の考古学』六一書房、２００３年。
(8) 鄭在永「百済の文字生活」富山大学日韓漢字・漢文受容研究会編『日本漢字・漢文受容に関する国際学術会議』２００２年。
(9) 金永 旭「百済の吏読について」 富山大学日韓漢字・漢文受容研究会編『日本漢字・漢文受容に関する国際学術会議』２００２年。
(10) 古畑徹「 戦後日本における渤海史の歴史枠組みに関する史学史的考察 」『（東北大学東洋史論集編集委員会）東北大学東洋史論集』弟９号、２００３年１月、２１５－２４５頁。
(11) 古畑徹「 渤海の首領の方法をめぐって 」佐藤信編『日本と渤海の古代史』山川出版社、２００３年。
(12) 赤羽目匡由「 封敖作「與渤海王大彝震書」について － その起草・発給年時と渤海後期の権力構成 」『東洋学報』弟８５巻弟３号、２００３年１２月、３０３－３２９頁。
(13) 李美子「 渤海の遼東地域の領有問題をめぐって － 拂涅・越喜・鉄利等靺鞨の故地と関連して 」『（九州大学大学院人文科学研究院）史淵』弟１４０輯、２００３年３月、１０１－１６５頁。
(14) 山田隆文「 新羅金京復原試論 」『古代学研究』弟１５９号、２００２年１２月、１２－２７頁。
(15) 小田富士雄「 百済熊津・泗沘時代の都城制と倭 － 特に倭京～大宰府との関係について 」『古文化談叢』弟４９号、２００３年２月、１７７－２２２頁。
(16) 後藤和民・服部敬史・後藤 祥夫・宮塚義人「 高句麗山城の基礎的研究 － 衛星画像を利用した高句麗山城の測量調査 」『 青丘学術論集 』弟２２号、２００３年３月、１２５－１６０頁、 図別１枚。
Translated by Kenneth R. Robinson
( Shigaku zasshi vol. 113 no. 5 (2004:5), 262-264. Translated and uploaded with the permission of the Shigakkai.)