白頭山考 = Study of Mt. Paek-du

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Mt. Paek-du is a greatly revered mountain of Korea and has always been regarded by the people of Korea as a sacred area of their territory. The Koreans have lived and developed around this mountain for a long time since the beginning of their history, and therefore a way should be kept open for long for them continuously to live in the vast area around this mountain, which is one of their inherited possessions. The name Paek-du-san (literally, white-headed mountain) begins to appear in literature with Koryo-sa(高麗史-History of Koryo Kingdom), and it is by no means merely for the appearance of the mountain, as some people maintain, that the name Paek-dut(white-headed) came about, though truly, the top of the mountain is covered with white-coloured stone, or with snows for the greater part of a year as if to have a huge white urn set upside down on top of it. Mt. Paek-du is recorded in ancient Chinese literature by such names as Pulham(不咸), Taepaek(太白), and Kai-ma(蓋馬), these names all being mere transcriptions of the Korean words “barg-eum”(밝음), “keun-barg-eum”(큰밝음), and “geom”(검), which respectively mean light(光明), greater light(大光明), and god(神明). This is readily to be understood when one pays heed to such names of many other revered and sanctified mountains in the neighbourhood of ancient capitals and other population centres on the Peninsula as Tae-paek-san(太白山), Paek-san(白山), Ham-Pag-dal(含朴達), etc. The name Paek-du-san, too, should be regarded as another of such transcriptions of names of mountains held in great respect and awe of our ancestors. The Mt. ‘Tae-paek’ where, according to the folk legend on the founding of the Korean nation, the national founding father Tangun descended from heaven is also this White-headed Mountain, and such other great kingdoms that rose in succession in the east as Liao(遼), Chin(金), Ch’ing(淸)also believed this mountain to be a godly mountain and sacred area. Moreover, the people of Ch’ing Empire maintained that their royal ancestor had been born of a heavenly lady that descended from heaven on this mountain, the story having something in common with the Korean folk legend that the heavenly king Hwan-ung(桓雄), the son of the Emperor of Heaven Hwan-in(桓仁), descended from heaven on this mountain to beget Tan-gun(檀君), the founder of the Old Chosun nation(古朝鮮). A subject of deep interest, there has been handed down to us a theory that, apart from the worship of this mountain, Mt. Paek-du is the chief of all the great mountains in the east. In the Ch’ing dynasty, Emperor K’ang-hsi(康熙帝), Chao Chen-chen(趙愼畛), and others held an opinion that even Mt. T’ai (T’ai-san), the principal of all the five great mountains of China, not to say of all the other mountains in Manchuria and on the Korean Peninsula, was a branch of Mt. Paek-du range. Nam Sa-go(南師古), Kim Se-ryeom (金世濂), Ch？ng Yak-yong(丁若鏞), and many other Korean scholars, too, expressed their views that, needless to say of Mt. Paek-du not being a branch of Mt. Kun-lun(崑崙), all the mountains on the Continent, in Korea, and in Japan beyond the seas, were all branches of this White-headed Mountain. After the ancient nation (Old Chosun) that once prospered in the area around Mt. Paek-du, there came such other states as Suksin(肅愼), Ye(濊), Okjeo(沃沮), Puyo(扶餘), Malgal(靺鞨), Yeojin(女眞 Jurchen) and others, but those that occupied the whole area north and south of this mountain at once, building up a powerful kingdom each, were Koguryo and Palhae (Pohai) only. Since the area around Mt. Paekdu was within the territory of the Korean people for a very extended period of time since the beginning of history, there had been no definite demarcation lines in the area between Korea and Manchuria even after the Korean people, later, confined their sphere of activity mainly within the Peninsula.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Ⅰ. 序言
• Ⅱ. 山名의 由來
• Ⅲ. 周圍의 歷史
• Ⅳ. 「太白聖地」와 地理諸說
• Ⅴ. 國境問題의 經緯
• Ⅵ. 餘言