- 著者
-
池 明観
- 雑誌
- 東京女子大學附屬比較文化研究所紀要
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.48, pp.135-160, 1987
Historiography in Korea was very much affected by Japanese colonial rule, 1905 to 1945. Some historians were inclined to describe the contemporary history of Korea using a kind of eye-witness report style. Others focussed on finding a glorious period of national history to maintain national pride. These historical writings could be regarded as nationalist histories. Shin Chai-ho and Choi Nam-sun devoted themselves mainly to Korean ancient history, tracing back to the mythological age of Dangun. Shin and Choi had in common the purpose of resisting the historiography of Japanese scholars writing about Korea who claimed that Korea had been under the sovereignty of China without having its own independence, and even that for some time in ancient times Korea had been ruled by Japan as well. Shin described Dangun as ancient kings who had also been priests. He said that the dynasty lasted about 1500 years and was followed by the Puyo dynasty, which ruled for another 1000 years. Geographically, these dynasties covered the north-eastern part of China and Korea. They kept their people in continuous struggle with the Chinese people. Shin declares that most of these historical facts were lost because the oldest history, the "Samkuk Sagi" was written in the 12th century by Kim Bu-shik, a Confucian and loyal to Chinese culture. Thus he eliminated and distorted many historical facts of ancient Korean times, according to Confucian principles. Shin attempted to document historical facts of ancient times, so as to maintain national pride, using fragmented records he found mostly in Chinese historical materials. In doing so, Shin interpreted Korean history in political terms. He hoped to strengthen the patriotism of the Korean people so that they might win their national independence. He was in exile from 1910 until 1936, when he died in a Japanese prison in Manchuria. On the other hand, Choi, who was ten years younger than Shin, inherited Shin's attitude towards Korean history, but he gradually tended to interpret Korean histor