Making and Remaking Silla Origins.

AuthorMcbride, Richard D., II
PositionAncient Korean state - Report

On November 22, 2008, the Korean Broadcasting System (KBS) aired the first half of a two-part documentary titled "Secrets of King Munmu's Stele." The subtitle of the episode gets to the heart of the assertion examined by the biopic: "Does the royal Kim family descend from the Xiongnu?" (1) This is because the damaged part of Munmu's [phrase omitted] (r. 661-681) funerary stele says that members of the Silla royal family are "the descendants of Du-hou [phrase omitted] (Kor. T'uhu) that sacrificed to Heaven" [phrase omitted], or Marquis Du, the historical figure Jin Ridi [phrase omitted] (Kor. Kim Ilche, 134-86 BCE), a Xiongnu [phrase omitted] prince. Another part of the stele, however, refers to a certain Songhan [phrase omitted] as the founding ancestor of Silla [phrase omitted] (trad. 57 BCE-935 CE). Songhan is the name given to the Silla founder in a few funerary steles from the late seventh through mid-tenth centuries.

This being the case, what are we to make of the narratives in the twelfth-century Samguk sagi [phrase omitted] (History of the Three Kingdoms) of Pak Hyokkose [phrase omitted] (trad. r. 57 BCE-4 CE), reported to have been the founder and first sovereign of Silla, Sok T'arhae [phrase omitted] [phrase omitted] (trad. r. 57-80), who is recorded as having been the first member of the Sok descent group to rule Silla, and Kim Alchi [phrase omitted] (trad. fl. late first century CE), reported to have been the progenitor of the long-reigning Kim family? How are we to understand other Silla notables, such as Mich'u [phrase omitted] (trad. r. 262-284), who is recorded to have been the first member of the Kim descent group to occupy the Silla throne, and Naemul [phrase omitted] (trad. r. 356-402), who is recorded to have been the second ruler surnamed Kim to rule Silla and was then succeeded by an unbroken line of Kim sovereigns for half a millennium? (2) Does Songhan refer to one of these figures? My hypothesis--and the uncomfortable truth--is that the Silla origin myths of Pak Hyokkose, Sok Tarhae, Kim Alchi, and even Naemul probably date no earlier than the late Silla period (780-935), and were most likely systematized during the reigns of Koryo kings Injong [phrase omitted] (1122-1146) and Uijong [phrase omitted] (1146-1170), because they are not attested in Silla epigraphy and are not supported by Chinese historiography. A systematic comparison and diachronic study of the legends suggest an evolution in Silla people's imagination of their early history--an evolution that continued well into the Koryo [phrase omitted] period (918-1392). Songhan, the name of the Silla founder first mentioned in epigraphy, was gradually replaced by putative ancestral rulers of even more remote antiquity--fictions though they may be, their legends tell us a great deal about a late Silla and early Koryo vision of early Silla.

The study of Korean origins and state formation is a thorny and volatile topic with roots in the Japanese colonial period (1910-1945). The conventional, present-day understanding, within Korea, of the genesis of the Korean people reflects, as Hyung II Pai noted, "the continuing legacy of anticolonial resistance to Japanese scholarship that had denied Koreans' racial creativity and indigenous origins." (3) Nonetheless, in the process of reconstructing the earliest strata of Silla origin myths using epigraphy and Chinese historiographical materials, we will be compelled to problematize the king lists presented in the twelfth-century Samguk sagi and the thirteenth-century Samguk yusa [phrase omitted] (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms). (4) Although we cannot ascertain with certainty the conditions attending the foundation of Silla as a royal state, careful consideration of the broadest range of relevant primary evidence indicates that Silla historiographers and their Koryo-period successors continually reinvented Silla's origins to suit changing, largely political needs.

Criticism of the Samguk sagi narrative on the origins of Silla traces back to the beginnings of Korean studies in Japan during the colonial period. In 1925, Maema Kyosaku published a paper that cast doubt on the veracity of all Silla kings prior to Naemul. (5) In 1941, Ikeuchi Hiroshi published a paper in which one of his assertions was that the narrative on the origins of the Pak dynasty in ancient Silla was compiled in the late Silla period (780-935). (6) In the 1950s, Suematsu Yasukazu established the mainstream position held by Japanese scholars that Silla kings prior to Naemul were crafted in the late Silla period on the basis of the "Account of the Han States" (Han zhuan [phrase omitted]) in the Sanguo zhi [phrase omitted] (History of the Three Kingdoms). (7) In contrast, some nationalistic Korean scholars, basing themselves on their particular interpretations of archeological finds, affirm the Samguk sagi's representation of early Silla history. (8) Other more empirical Korean scholars have sought to accommodate both sides, recognizing that the accounts of Silla kings prior to Naemul have been substantially revised while simultaneously believing the general structure of the narrative as it concerns the sequential rule of the Pak, Sok, and Kim descent groups. (9) One important exception is research by Mun Kyonghyon, first published in 1979, which challenges the validity of the king lists found in the Samguk sagi and Samguk yusa through a careful analysis of Silla and Koryo epigraphy. (10) Mun's work has greatly influenced my own understanding of the material, but we do not in all instances share the same conclusions.

  1. SILLA EPIGRAPHY AND THE KING MUNMU FUNERARY STELE

    Although the earliest extant Silla inscription dates to about 501, the first to mention a founding ancestor are the Silla steles commemorating King Chinhung's [phrase omitted] (r. 540-576) inspection tour at Hwangch'o Pass (Hwangch' oryong Silla Chinhungwang sunsupi [phrase omitted]) and Maun Pass (Maullyong Silla Chinhungwang sunsu pi [phrase omitted]), which both date to 568. Both inscriptions have short passages referring to "continuing the foundation of the Grand Ancestor" [phrase omitted]. (11) Most Korean scholars have tried to identify this "Grand Ancestor" on the basis of the "Basic Annals of Silla" in the Samguk sagi or the "Royal Chronology" and accounts of early Silla in the Samguk yusa. (12)

    Let us set aside the identity of this "Grand Ancestor" at present, however, and return to an analysis of the funerary stele of King Munmu mentioned at the beginning of the paper. As mentioned before, this stele, believed to have been carved in 681, asserts that the Silla royal family are "descendants of Du-hou" in the highly damaged part of the inscription, and then in another place it recognizes King Munmu as descending from "the fifteenth-generation ancestor King Songhan" [phrase omitted]. The funerary stele of King Munmu's younger brother Kim Inmun [phrase omitted] (629-694) (Kim Inmun myo pi [phrase omitted]), who served as Silla's resident envoy or hostage in Tang until his death in 694, was erected in 701. The inscription refers to the "Grand Ancestor King Han" [phrase omitted]. (13) It seems likely that King Han and Songhan refer to the same ancestor. This position is stated specifically and unambiguously for the first time in a fragment from King Hungdok's [phrase omitted] (r. 826-836) funerary stele (Hungdok wangnung pi p'yon [phrase omitted]), erected in 836, which refers to the "Grand Ancestor Songhan" [phrase omitted]. (14) These are the only extant Silla steles that mention the founder of the state. Although in surviving sixth-century inscriptions, Silla's founding king is not referred to by name, in extant epigraphs dating to the late seventh century through the mid-ninth century, Silla's founder is a figure called Songhan.

    Returning to the putative Xiongnu connection, the declaration that Silla royals are "the descendants of Du-hou" is only found in the damaged funerary stele inscription of Silla king Munmu. I agree with the explanation of more moderate scholars who see the fragmentary allegation as fulfilling a critical political purpose in the late seventh century when relations with Tang China were tenuous at best. Silla had miraculously expelled Tang forces from the conquered Paekche [phrase omitted] (trad. 18 BCE-660 CE) territory in the southwest of the peninsula and the southern part of the subjugated Koguryo [phrase omitted] (trad. 37 BCE-668 CE) domain by 676--perhaps due to Tang's supply lines being destroyed by a storm or the Tang military's withdrawal because of a greater military threat on its western flank from proto-Tibetans. In 674, Tang emperor Gaozong [phrase omitted] (r. 649-683) threatened to replace King Munmu with his brother Kim Inmun. All in all, Silla was in the midst of playing a dangerous game of balancing outward assertions of loyalty to Tang while consolidating Silla rule over land conquered jointly by Tang and Silla forces in the peninsular unification wars (660-668). Indeed, it was not until the early eighth-century reign of King Songdok [phrase omitted] (r. 702-737) that Silla firmly achieved detente with Tang and resumed frequent and regular tribute/diplomatic relations with the Chinese court. If Silla royal descent from Du-hou (the Marquis Du; Kor. Kim Ilche), the Xiongnu prince who flourished in the early second century BCE, was actually an important historical memory, it would probably be recorded in more than one place. Because it is not mentioned on any other royal stele inscription, however, I am skeptical of its historicity.

    Du-hou, the one-time heir apparent of the Xiongnu king, Xiutu [phrase omitted], became a prisoner of war when the Huofabing Xiongnu [phrase omitted] submitted to the Han during Han emperor Wu's [phrase omitted] (r. 141-87 BCE) great war against the Xiongnu (133-89 BCE). He later served in several positions in the Han bureaucracy and earned his marquisate for meritorious...

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