There is a reason that we founded the Society for the Study of Early Korean History, publishing our academic journal. Following the methodology of national school historians (Gwanhakpa) in the Japanese Colonial period, the post-colonization historians...
There is a reason that we founded the Society for the Study of Early Korean History, publishing our academic journal. Following the methodology of national school historians (Gwanhakpa) in the Japanese Colonial period, the post-colonization historians invented "the national history" arguing for the legitimacy of Tan-gun, based on nationalism and positivism, since the Liberation of 1945. Furthermore, they completely denied the initial records of Samguksagi, the Chronicles of the Three States, erasing the substantial portion of Korean history. In particular, Son Jin-tae, who describes Tan-gun Chosun as the beginning of the national history, praised the history of Goguryo with the glory of the national history, denouncing the history of Shilla which unified the Korean peninsula in alliance with T'ang as the disgrace of the national history. This kind of historiography based on Korean nationalism has long been continued without any criticism, and even the Korean official textbook has followed this tendency.
The 'national history' fabricated by the post-colonization historians in the name of positivism, however, is totally different from Korean history. In Gwanhakpa's explanation, 'Minjok' does not mean a nation, but rather a 'race' - they fell into an error to categorize all races which have existed in Korean history as 'Korean nation.' If a Korean wants to trace his/her origin, he/she should chase the history of countries which have left the largest number of Korean family names and cultural heritages to the Korean society. In this context, we can find the beginning of Korean history from the Shilla at the period of Three Kingdoms.
We should trace the origin of Korea and Korean people, therefore, in the history of Shilla ascending to the reign of King Naemul, which has been forced to remain silent by the national history, not in the history of the Kochosun - Goguryo separated from the Korean history. Now we propose a brand new research model, "Model 3": we aim to reconstruct the early part of Samguksagi arguing for its authenticity, beyond the scope of the national history.