爲堂 鄭寅普의 韓國 古代史 認識

Abstract

Chung-Inbo(1893~1950), born in the late Chosun period and active from the colonial period until the breakout of the Korean war, is a prominent Korean intellectual and Korean studies scholar, who has many publications on Korean history. One of his works, which later turned into Studies on Korean History[Chosunsa-yongoo], was published as a series on the Dong-A Daily under the title, The Five-Thousand-Years Spirit of Chosun. Unlike his original intention, the series came to an end while dealing with the Three Kingdom period. This study aims to generate a summary of his view on Korea's ancient history based on Studies on Korean History. Although he himself denied being a Korean historian, he started studying Korean history after realizing Imperial Japan's malicious attempts to describe Pyongyang as part of ancient China with publication of Illustrated Book of Korean Relics[Chosun-gojukdobo]. Following points could be made as the background reasons of his interest in Korean history. First, as offspring of influential family, he happened to inherit many books that he could later use as material for his study. Second, having Nan-Gok Yi-Geonbang a great scholar as his preceptor, he had quality linguistic training and was well read in a variety of Chinese classics. This enabled him to understand literatures on Korean history that were written mostly in premodern Chinese. Third, he was strongly influenced by nationalist historians such as Dan-Jae Shin-Chaeho, etc., which could explain why he is nowadays considered a representative successor of nationalist historians. What is clear in his view on the history of ancient Korea may be summarized as follows. First, he tried to reason that Dangun was the progenitor of the Korean nation through philology. It is remarkable that he shows special historical research toward record of Dangun in Heritage of Three Kingdoms[Samgook-yusa]. Second, he emphasized Korea's resistance against other nations, e. g., China as a way to critique Imperial Japan's tendency to describe Korea as a passive nation. In doing so, he used philological and archaeological methods to criticize the argument of historical colonialism that views some regions of the Korean peninsula as Chinese colonies. His studies on the ancient history of Korea reveals his excellence in bibliographical methods. It was possible due to his outstanding knowledge of ancient Chinese literature and ability to discover causation therefrom. Many of his works on historical evidence are based not only on literature, but also on archaeological relics. Among the relics that were unearthed near Pyongyang, there were 'sealed clay(bong-ni)' that were inscribed with 'the official seal of Nak-Rang county'(Nak-Rang gwan-in). The Colonialist historians of Imperial Japan refered to this fact as supporting evidence that the Pyongyang area was Nak-Rang County, one of ‘the Four Counties of the Han dynasty'(Han-sa-gun). However, Chung-Inbo refuted this with the following claim. Sealed clay was used to cover document boxes when sending secret documents. Sealed clay inscribed with the official seal would be broken by the recipient. Thus, the area where sealed clay fragments with the official seal were excavated, would indicate the recipient rather than the sender of the document. Therefore, Pyongyang, where clay fragments of the official seal of Nak-Rang County were unearthed, could not be Nak-Rang County but rather was the recipient of documents sent from Nak-Rang. Furthermore, Chung-Inbo's research on the monumental inscription of King Kwang-Gae-To the Great further illustrates his insight on Chinese literature and his extraordinary understanding of the situation of Northeastern Asia. Studies on Korean History, etc. shows the greatness of his scholarship. His intellectual training was based on premodern ways. Yet, his pedagogies were updated enough to teach at one of the most modern universities in Korea. Wi-Dang, being one of those who engaged in missions to confront the historical colonialism of Imperial Japan with counter-evidence, is an important scholar who successfully integrated traditional studies with modern scholarship.