This essay studied how the historiography, Samguk-yusa of the 13th century perceived the Later Goguryeo. The discussion proceeded with three major stages. First, the study compared records of the Later Goguryeo in the article of ‘Hugoryeo-gungye’,...
This essay studied how the historiography, Samguk-yusa of the 13th century perceived the Later Goguryeo. The discussion proceeded with three major stages. First, the study compared records of the Later Goguryeo in the article of ‘Hugoryeo-gungye’, Wangryok with those in other history books, and then explored what kind of materials had been used for the article. Next, as the use of the term ‘Hugoryeo Wang’ can be found in stories related to Silla’s Sambo in ‘Cheonsaokdae’ from Kiyi and ‘Hwangryongsa-gucheungtop’ from Topsang records, it was able to check which period of history was reflected in those chapters. Based on the result, it was possible to understand how the compilers of Samguk-yusa perceived the Later Goguryeo.
Through the review on the Article of ‘Hugoryeo-gungye’, it was proved that Samguk-sagi was little contributed to drawing up the article as a source, which means that the compilers of Samguk-yusa were not likely to follow the perception of the Later Goguryeo or Gung-ye shown in Samguk-sagi. Especially, the study paid attention to a few descriptions such as Gung-ye established ‘Goryeo’ in 901, the capital change of the Later Goguryeo was set from Cheol-won to Song-ak and Cheol-won again, and few descriptions of the name of Gung-ye reign and its era name. While, Samguk-yusa described ‘Goryeo’ as Former-Later Goryeo. Based on the reference, it would be right to see ‘Hugoryeowang’ shown in the Article of ‘Cheonsaokdae’ and ‘Hwangryongsa-gucheungtop’ as Gung-ye. Thus, the passage that Gung-ye suspended his invasion plot just because of the existence of Sambo which is Buddhistic objects implied an extremely Silla-centered view.
The records related to Gung-ye in Samguk-sagi were mainly based on Kim Bu-sik’s consideration of, so called, ‘Taejo Legitimacy’. Thus, the reason that the records were not selected for the Article of ‘Hugoryeo- gungye’ in Wangryok means that the compilers of Samguk- yusa had nothing to do with the ‘Taejo Legitimacy’. But, it would be intentional not to record the country name, Taebong because they judged Taebong as the period of Gung-ye’s government negative. That can be understood through the fact they contained the story related to Sambo in the Article of ‘Cheonsaokdae’ and ‘Hwangryongsa-gucheungtop’.
Especially, the compiler who drew up the Article of ‘Hwangryongsa- gucheungtop’ compared Silla’s Sambo to Chinese Gujeong. According to the tale of Gujeong, King Zhuang of Cho tried to invade Ju Dynasty, but returned back home to see that Ju Dynasty had Gujeong. The tale is quite similar to the story that Gung-ye, King of the Later Goguryeo tried to invade Silla, but finally gave it up to see there was Sambo in Silla as described in Samguk-yusa. Of course, the original purpose of these tales is to emphasize the patriotic aspect of Gujeong of Sambo, but on the other hand, it reveals King Zhuang and Gung-ye’s ambition to conquer Ju and Silla respectively. Through this, it can be demonstrated that the authors of Samguk-yusa did not see the Later Goguryeo and Gung-ye in an amicable way.
As is known, Il-yeon spent most of his life in Gyeonsang-do region. This is the reason why Samguk-yusa has Silla-centered records, and generally Silla-biased descriptions were made. Especially, if the fact that Topsang chapter was written with the purpose of emphasizing the rich history of Buddhism in Silla is taken into consideration, it tells us that the authors of Samguk-yusa wanted to say Buddhism from Silla was succeeded by Goryeo.
Goryeo in the 13th century when Samguk-yusa was drawn up was suffered from invasions from foreign dynasties. Il-yeon looked around a lot of districts and witnessed devastation caused by foreign invasions, and often left the fact in Samguk-yusa. Il-yeon might feel a strong hostility toward the fact that the long Buddhist tradition of Silla which he tried to emphasize was disconnected by the Mongolian army’s invasion. Thus, the compilers of Samguk-yusa were in with a shout of identifying Mongolia that tried invading Goryeo with the Later Goguryeo that tried invading Silla. That is, they perceived Gung-ye as a hostile force that tried destroying the miraculous Buddhist objects.
In short, the authors of Samguk-yusa identified the Later Goguryeo as strongly negative. That was originated from their perception of historical status of Silla and their realistic situation, not from, so called, ‘Taejo legitimacy’.