The Annals of Silla of the Samguk Sagi

Transcription

1 Book Reviews 139 The Annals of Silla of the Samguk Sagi, translated by Edward J. Shultz and Hugh H. W. Kang with Daniel C. Kane. Seongnam: The Academy of Korean Studies Press, pp., KRW 35,000, US$ 32.00, ISBN: (hardcover) The publication of The Annals of Silla of the Samguk Sagi should be a cause for great rejoicing among the growing cadre of students and scholars of early Korea because translations of the basic annals (pon gi) of each of the three early kingdoms of Koguryŏ, Paekche, and Silla are now available in English. Once again Ned Shultz and Hugh Kang, this time with the assistance of Daniel Kane, have provided an important and seminal service to the field. The book is comprised of a preface (pp. 5-9), a brief introduction (pp ), the translation of the twelve books of the Silla Annals (pp ), a glossary of titles and offices (pp ), a list of weights and measures (pp ), a selected bibliography (pp ), and an index (pp ). The translation and light annotation follow the same style found in Shultz and Kang s translation of The Annals of Koguryŏ of the Samguk Sagi (Seongnam: The Academy of Korean Studies Press, 2011). In other words, because this translation does not provide Sino-Korean logographs or exhaustive annotation, it is intended to a reach a broad range of individuals interested in Korea s early history, including both students and professional academics. Also, instead of using one of the modern, corrected editions of the Samguk sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms), along with a modern Korean or Japanese translation, such as those by Yi Pyŏngdo (1977), Kim Sayŏp (1980), Inoue Hideo ( ), or Yi Chaeho (1989), which are accessible and commonly used by scholars, as their base text, Shultz and Kang purposely went back to and struggled with the woodblock edition. 1 Several of the foregoing modern annotated translations were consulted, of course, particularly the translation sponsored by the Academy of Korean Studies, which is becoming the critical edition and translation preferred by scholars of early Korea both inside and outside Korea Samguk sagi [History of the Three Kingdoms], 50 rolls, by Kim Pusik ( ), completed between , photolithic reprint, Han guk kojŏn ch ongsŏ [Korean classical literature series], vol. 2 (Seoul: Minjok Munhwa Ch ujinhoe, 1973). 2. Samguk sagi, critical apparatus by Chŏng Kubok, No Chungguk, Sin Tongha, Kim T aesik, and Kwŏn Tŏgyŏng, 5 vols., Kuksa ch ongsŏ [National history series] (Seoul: Han guk Chŏngsin

2 140 The Review of Korean Studies Shultz and Kang s translation adheres closely to Kim Pusik s ( ) original text (wŏnmun) in literary Sino-Korean (hanmun) and is clear and straightforward. It should be very accessible to a general audience, including students in undergraduate courses on Korean history. Graduate students in East Asian history will probably find it a very helpful crib when searching for comparisons and comparative material between early and medieval China, Korea, and Japan. The translation of the annals of Silla king Munmu, books six and seven (pp ), benefited greatly from John Jamieson s previous translation and annotation of this material. 3 Because The Silla Annals of the Samguk Sagi covers the entirety of Silla s thousand-year history (traditional dates 57 BCE-935 CE), I can see a number of uses for this text in classrooms and courses to encourage students to explore aspects of early Korean history. For instance, students will be able to muse over the genealogical relationships between the royalty and nobility, and they will be able to explore the functions and evolution of dynastic ritual sites, such as the Dynastic Founder s Shrine and the Sin gung (Shrine), and state-sponsored Buddhist monasteries. Students can probe the development of Silla s foreign relations with early Japan and the various states and dynasties of China, the most important being Sui ( ) and Tang ( ). They can also problematize the account of the formation of Silla s highly-stratified capital rank system (pp ) in conjunction with translations of Chinese materials found in the Sourcebook of Korean Civilization and Sources of Korean Tradition. Students of literature and history can investigate the way Kim Pusik recreates dialog following the received tradition of Chinese historiography and Confucian tradition and crafts his narrative explaining the primal position and seminal place of Silla in early Korean history. Also, students can determine for themselves the validity of accusations by critics of the text, such as the Koryŏ scholar-official Yi Kyubo ( ) who lamented the limited recording of marvels, and modern nationalists, such as Sin Ch aeho ( ) who labeled Kim a sycophantic Sinophile and blamed him for Korea s gradual emasculation because of its adoption of Chinese culture (see p. 15). For some modern Korean Munhwa Yŏn guwŏn, 1996). 3. See John Charles Jamieson, The Samguk Sagi and the Unification Wars (PhD diss., University of California, Berkeley, 1969).

3 Book Reviews 141 nationalists the Samguk sagi, along with the Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms), amounts to something like Korea s scriptures and is believed to be the infallible truth, particularly regarding Kim Pusik s account of the origins of the six villages of Silla in 57 BCE and the development of the early tribal organizations of Mahan, Chinhan, and Pyŏnhan (pp ). Because any translation is also an interpretation especially when attempting to translate from literary Sino-Korean into a Western language a quibble some specialists might have is that Shultz and Kang favored the late Lee Ki-baik s (Yi Kibaek) interpretation of Silla government offices based on his empirical studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s. Lee s views, based on his close reading of the Silla Annals, became the conventional interpretation of Silla s political development and bureaucratic organization prior to the discovery of the Naengsu Stele (Yŏngil Naengsu pi) and the Pongp yŏng Stele (Uljin Pongp yŏng pi) in the late 1980s. During the 1990s, however, Korean scholars challenged a number of Lee s positions because the discovery of these two steles provided information that both contested and provided nuance to the Samguk sagi narrative, stimulating scholars to analyze Silla s nobility, royalty, and government structure in more critical ways. For instance, based solely on the Silla Annals, Lee theorized that a kalmunwang was a sacral king without the right of succession to the king. Noblemen were invested with this title according to their familial relationship to the king. Kalmunwang was primarily an honorific title for men who were uncles or fathers-in-law to the king, which in essence granted the king royal or possibly sacral or holy status on both his mother and father s sides (pp. 35, 35n47, passim). In essence, because a Silla king had to demonstrate hereditary charisma in both his paternal and maternal lines, Lee concluded that this system demonstrates that political power resided among the nobility rather than with the king. 4 The Naengsu Stele is a legal document from 503 preserving a record of how a meeting convened by Silla nobles settled a dispute over property and protected the rights of a commoner in what is now Yŏngil County in North Kyŏngsang Province. The inscription lists the kalmunwang Chidoro as the head 4. See Lee Ki-baik (Yi Kibaek), Silla sidae ŭi kalmunwang [The kalmunwang of the Silla period], Yŏksa hakpo 58 (June 1973); rpt. in Silla chŏngch i sahoesa yŏn gu [Studies in the socio-political history of Silla] (Seoul: Ilchisa, 1974; rpt., 1984), 2-33.

4 142 The Review of Korean Studies of the council; but Chidoro is none other than Silla king Chijŭng (r ). Although Lee held that a kalmunwang could not become the king of state (kugwang), in this crucial case he did. The evidence from the stele inscription has led scholars to amend Lee s interpretation to suggest that a kalmunwang was essentially a back-up king from Sahwe, the second most influential region in the Silla capital. The kalmunwang also appears to have represented the collective nobility, but once he became king, Chijŭng instituted changes that enabled future Silla kings to make important strides toward achieving more transcendent status. 5 I do not mention the foregoing out of censure because I have the highest respect for Lee s scholarship and the work of Shultz and Kang. Rather, I do it to help readers to place the translation in context so they can understand that there are many exciting issues about the nature of Silla government and society that are still under debate. Furthermore, as more examples of epigraphy (kŭmsŏngmun) are hopefully discovered or unearthed in archeological excavations, our understanding of Silla s government structure will continue to improve. Nevertheless, we must bear in mind that in his memorial to Koryŏ king Injong (r ) upon the completion of the Samguk sagi, Kim Pusik lamented the poor condition of the remaining documents and, in his biography of Kim Yusin ( ), he claimed that if it were not for Chinese literary materials he could not have completed the work. 6 The extreme lack of detail about such seminal events in Silla history as Pidam s revolt in 647 (p. 156), the Kim Hŭmdol rebellion in 681 (p. 249), King Sinmun s (r ) failed attempt to move the capital to Talgubŏl (Taegu) in 689 (p. 259), the Kim Chijŏng rebellion of 780 that brought about the regicide of King Hyegong (r ) (pp ), and the Kim Hŏnch ang rebellion of 822 (pp ), make Kim Pusik s lament painfully obvious. Kim Pusik, nevertheless, definitely has an agenda in his organization of the Silla materials, and now that 5. See Ju Bo-don, 6 segi ch o Silla wangkwŏn ŭi wisang kwa kwandŭngje ŭi sŏngnip [The topology of royal authority in Silla at the beginning of the sixth century and the establishment of the official rank system], Yŏksa kyoyuk nonjip (February 1990): Tongmunsŏn 44:12b7-13b6; For an English translation of Kim Pusik s memorial, see Peter H. Lee and Wm. Theodore de Bary, eds., Sources of Korean Tradition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), 1:257. For Pusik s statement about Chinese materials, see Samguk sagi 43:8b1-2.

5 Book Reviews 143 more students and scholars will have access to the Silla Annals I look forward to new and fresh insights coming from new generations of scholars. One slight shortcoming is the unfortunate survival of Romanization errors, such as Daizong (pp. 143, 143n135, 144), which should be Taizong (see pp. 147, 151, 154, etc.); Tezong (pp. 319, 462), which should be Dezong (see pp. 312, 326, etc.); Wi Dan (pp. 327, 464), which should be Wi Tan (see p. 331). Thus the index cannot be trusted completely because it reproduces the Romanization mistakes. Nevertheless, many important historical terms can be found in the index under their English translations, such as Dynastic Founder s Shrine for sijomyo (pp. 436, 456), extraordinary rank one for sangdaedŭng (pp. 436, 455), and Singung (Shrine) for sin gung (p. 457). Despite this problem, the index will be a good way for students to investigate several topics in the Silla Annals. All in all, Shultz and Kang s translation of The Silla Annals of the Samguk Sagi will quickly become an indispensable addition to the library of all scholars of early Korea working in the West, joining such seminal works as Lee Ki-baik s A New History of Korea (1984), the Sourcebook of Korean Civilization, Vol. 1 (1993) and Sources of Korean Tradition, Vol. 1 (1996), Jonathan Best s A History of the Early Korean Kingdom of Paekche (2006), and Shultz and Kang s The Koguryŏ Annals of the Samguk Sagi (2011). Richard McBride II Brigham Young University-Hawaii