조선초기 단군 인식과 『삼국유사』 간행

Abstract

Recently, a new edition of Samguk Yusa, which is believed to have been printed and published during the early days of the Joseon dynasty period, was presented to the academic community. This article examines why a Confucian state like Joseon bothered to publish Samguk Yusa, a history book which was written from a Buddhist perspective. In the latter half of the Goryeo period, Mongol forces invaded the Korean peninsula and the following dynastic crises prompted the Goryeo people to a new interest in historical entities such as Dan’gun (perceived as the one and only founder of the people of the peninsula) which is reflected in the publication of history books like Samguk Yusa and Je’wang Wun’gi. The people’s new appreciation of certain historical figures eventually led to a formation of a national pride. Goryeo, which was being forced to establish a new kind of relationship with the Mongol Yuan Empire, a relationship which was quite different from its former relationships with the Chinese dynasties, and the Goryeo dynasty and its people were in need of a new identity, and also a new historical perspective from which to view their relationship with the Mongol Empire. Samguk Yusa and Je’wang Wun’gi describe the history of Gojoseon and establish Dan’gun as the person who literally began the history of the Korean peninsula. Samguk Yusa explains that Korean history began with Gojoseon, which was followed by “Sam Han” (‘the Three Hans’), the Three Dynasties, and finally Goryeo. Previously, Dan’gun was believed in folklore to have been just a kind of regional deity from the Pyeong’yang area and the Mt. Guweon-san area of what is now Hwang’hae-do province, but he later came to be worshipped as the ‘founder of the state,’ and the originator of the historical community in which the Goryeo people lived. Even in the latter half of the Goryeo period, when Dan’gun gained this new status as the founder of the Goryeo people, Confucian scholars, who believed in reasoning and did not embrace folklore-based stories with mythical properties, hesitated to accept Dan’gun as a historical figure and as a person who really existed. Based upon their understanding of Dan’gun, the people of the Confucian state of Joseon recorded the history from Dan’gun to Joseon, and in doing so tried to validate and justify the relatively young dynasty’s foundation. Using Confucian-based studies and analysis, they tried to discover the true nature of Dan’gun as a real person, and as part of this effort, Joseon writers completed Dong’guk Sa’ryak and Sam’guk-sa Jeol’yo. Samguk Yusa was needed, as it was vital to secure basic primary data for historical compilation. It is presumed that Samguk Yusa was published in the Gyeongju area around 1394, in the third year of King Taejo’s reign, along with Kim Bu-shik’s Samguk Sagi. In other words, the people of Joseon imagined a Korean history that began with the time of Dan’gun and continued through to the time of Joseon, and published Samguk Yusa as part of the effort to prove this. The establishment of Dang’un as the founder of the Korean people was only possible because of the people’s already widened understanding of Dan’gun and the ancient history of the Korean peninsula.