Hwandangogi Controversy: Forgery or Authentic Korean History?

◆Korea stands at the center of the historical war

In addition to being pressured to choose between the US and China, Korea is also faced with another national and ethnic challenge that stands in its way. The point is that we are standing in the middle of a historical war.

The Chinese Communist Party has made explicit its ambition to attribute Korean history to Chinese history in the name of the Northeast Project. Xi Jinping took the lead in spreading the Northeast Project theory globally by making an outrageous remark when meeting the U.S. President, saying, “Korea was historically a part of China,” and recently, he has not hesitated to do the shameless thing of teaching Goguryeo history as Chinese history in university textbooks.

What do they ultimately want to achieve through the Northeast Project? In Mao Zedong’s memorial service to the founder of China’s Han people, Emperor Zedong, he expresses his regret over not being able to unify the three Han Chinese. Isn’t Korea’s return to China the ultimate goal of the Chinese Communist Party?

In addition, Japan’s ambition for Dokdo and the extreme right’s distortion of history textbooks are also serious. China in the north and Japan in the south are waging a silent historical war aimed at the invasion of Korea.

But what is Korea’s response? Rather than properly responding to China’s Northeast Project and Japan’s Dokdo ambitions, it is in fact supporting them. It’s so pathetic. Why does this ridiculous thing happen? The most fundamental factor is that after liberation, Bando History, which inherited the colonial legacy, took over the institutional power and continued for 80 years without properly clearing up the remnants of Japanese colonial rule.

◆The 『Hwandangogi』 controversy sparked by President Lee

The Northeast Asian History Foundation is a national organization launched with the purpose of systematically responding to China’s Northeast Project and Japan’s distortion of history. However, there has been public criticism that colonial peninsula history has become the main body of the foundation’s research staff, failing to remain faithful to the purpose of its establishment and wasting taxpayers’ money. In addition, under the Yoon Seok-yeol government, a New Right major in British history was appointed as chairman of the board, which drew criticism from public opinion.

Recently, President Lee Jae-myung suddenly brought up the story of 『Hwandan Gogi』 during a briefing on the work of the Northeast Asian History Foundation, and the debate over the authenticity of 『Hwandan Gogi』 became a major social issue.

How can we explain this phenomenon, where people who kept silent even when Chinese President Xi Jinping made an outrageous remark that “Korea was historically a part of China” and taught Goguryeo history as Chinese history in Chinese university textbooks, stood up like a swarm of bees and poured out a barrage of criticism when the Korean president mentioned 『Hwandangogi』, which recorded our people as the main characters of the continent, not as clones of the Chinese Han people?

Looking at the 『Hwandangogi』 controversy from another perspective, it is also an aspect that clearly shows the reality of Korean society, where national marriage has fallen to the ground and self-destructive views of history are prevalent.

◆President Lee’s hidden intention in mentioning 『Hwandangogi』

It was unexpected to anyone that President Lee brought up the story of 『Hwandan Gogi』 while receiving a business report from the Northeast Asian History Foundation. This is the first time that a Korean president has mentioned the controversial 『Hwandangogi』 in an official setting.

President Lee mentioned the Hwanpa controversy to Chairman Park Ji-hyang and asked, “Isn’t 『Hwandangogi』 a literature?” There is no way the president did not know that 『Hwandan Gogi』 was a controversial book. But why did you ask such a question when you knew so clearly?

I believe that this was a statement that conveyed the belief that the Northeast Asia Foundation, which has a huge responsibility in responding to China’s Northeast Project and Japan’s historical distortions, should not go only in the direction of pro-Japanese lecture history when it comes to historical research, but should also study a wide range of materials from national history and non-Japanese history with an open attitude.

The fact that Chairman Park is a New Right scholar and a British history major with no knowledge of Chinese history may have been the background for President Lee to ask this question.

◆Chairman Park’s incorrect answer

Korean historical academia is divided into lecture history and national history. Gangdan Sahak is represented by Lee Byeong-do and Shin Seok-ho, and is succeeded by Lee Ki-baek, Lee Ki-dong, Noh Tae-don, and Song Ho-jeong. The study of national history is represented by Shin Chae-ho and Jeong In-bo, and continues with Yoon Nae-hyeon, Lee Deok-il, Bok Gidae, and Sim Baek-gang.

They are both professional researchers in lecture history and national history. People’s history is devalued and referred to as “out-of-the-box history”, but in fact, these people’s history majors major in history at universities, receive doctoral degrees, publish research papers, and teach students. The only difference from peninsular history is that the category of Korean history is not limited to the Korean peninsula but includes the continent.

Regarding 『Hwandangogi』, Kangdan Sahak branded it as a forgery and was not worthy of review and denied it, while Minjok Sahak never rejected it as a forgery. I recognize the historical value of 『Hwandangogi』.

However, in response to President Lee’s question about 『Hwandangogi』, Chairman Park responded, “I think it is a story from outside historians, but the arguments of professional researchers are more persuasive than those of them, so I accept their arguments.” He also said, “Not all historical books record the facts,” and took a position sympathizing with the argument of Kangdan Sahak that 『Hwandangogi』 was a forgery.

While Chairman Park said that he accepted the opinions of professional researchers, he unilaterally followed only the claims of professional researchers in Kangdan history and did not consider the position of professional researchers in ethnic history at all.

Chairman Park stated that the foundation will not consider 『Hwandangogi』 as a forgery because it has already been determined to be a forgery by professional researchers, but since professional researchers in ethnic history have never judged 『Hwandangogi』 to be a forgery, this is clear perjury.

◆Is 『Hwandan Gogi』a forgery or a true book?

『Hwandangogi』 is a book that compiles the five volumes of the first and second volumes of Samseonggi, Dangunsegi, Bubugigi, and Taebaek Ilsa into one volume. It was first introduced to the world in 1979 through Lee Yu-rip. 『Hwandan Gogi』, which deals with the activities of our people as protagonists of the continent beyond the Korean Peninsula, gave a refreshing shock to Korean society upon its appearance and had a huge impact on the private sector.

Is 『Hwandangogi』a forgery? Is it Jinseo? In some of the cited materials and content, it is apparent that the later person’s editing or manipulation was discovered. Therefore, it is difficult to quickly conclude that it is a true book. However, if the entire contents are empty and fake, that is not the case.

Currently, I believe that the Hwanpas who blindly believe in 『Hwandangogi』 are not right, and the Shikpas who criticize it as a forged book without any consideration are also not right. 『Hwandan Gogi』, written by citing various ancient historical sources, is a book that has historical value but requires verification.

『Sangojeonseo』 is a treasure trove of materials (80,000 volumes) that compiled oriental historical materials during the reign of Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty. It contains a wealth of valuable materials related to ancient Korean history that are not found in 『Samguk Sagi』 and 『Samguk Yusa』. The Northeast Asian History Foundation’s job is to determine the authenticity of 『Hwandangogi』 through cross-verification of the contents based on objective historical materials such as the world-recognized 『Sagojeon-seo』.

The Northeast Asian History Foundation was created with taxpayers’ money to do this, but it is criticized by the public because it does not do its job and only wastes taxpayers’ money while obediently obeying its boss.

◆Half of the ancient history books are forgeries.

Ho Eung-lin, a Ming dynasty person, wrote in his Four Parts Jeongwa (四部正訛) in 『Sosilsanbangpilchong (少室山房筆叢)』 (1589), “While I was reading old books from the Jin and Han Dynasties, I took a closer look and found that almost 7 out of 10 of them were It is done. (余讀Qin漢漢書核其僞幾十七矣)” Zhang Ji-dong (張之洞) from the Qing Dynasty also said: “If we decide to distinguish between true and false books, half of the old books must be thrown away.”

Records of Wei script appear in Sima Qian’s 『Siji』 and Wang Chong’s 『Nonhyeong』. This shows that counterfeit writing has been around for 2,000 years, not only in Korea but also in China.

Why do ‘false books’ occupy so much of the ancient books that they account for half of them? I think there are two main factors. First, because the original was lost due to war or some political purpose.

For example, after Qin Xuhuang gathered all the world’s books and burned them, many forged books appeared in the process of restoring them. 『Western Classics』, one of the Four Books and Three Classics that has been handed down to us today, was memorized by Fu Sheng, a 90-year-old man, during the Han Dynasty and written down in the script of the time.

『Seokyeong』 is a book containing the records of Yao and Shun from 4,500 years ago, and it was memorized and passed down by a 90-year-old man 2,000 years ago. So no matter how excellent Fu Seung’s memory is, how could there be no errors in it? However, today no one dismisses 『Seokyeong』 as a forgery and throws it in the trash can.

The second is a case where the author entrusts a famous person’s book to hide his or her identity or to increase the popularity or value of the book. For example, 『Shennong Bencao Classic』 and 『Emperor’s Internal Classics』 belong to this type.

Shennong or the Emperor is a mythological figure from the Neolithic Age. There were no letters back then, so what kind of books could they have written themselves? Therefore, it is clear that 『Shennong Bencao Classic』 and 『Emperor’s Internal Classics』 are forgery written by later people pretending to have been written by Shennong and the emperor. However, these two books have been widely read as the scriptures of Oriental medicine for thousands of years.

What does this mean? This means that not only true books but also fake books have been recognized for their historical value as written. It can be seen that this is very different from the narrow-minded argument of Korean Kangdansahak, which denounces 『Hwandangogi』 as a forgery written by Lee Yu-rip and denies its entire contents as not worth reading.

◆The 『Hwandangogi』 controversy should become an opportunity for a revolution in historical studies

The President’s Office stated through Spokesperson Kim Nam-joon, “The President’s remarks regarding 『Hwandangogi』 are not an agreement with this claim or an order to study or review it.”

This appears to have taken a stance of taking a step back as controversy grew after President Lee’s ‘Hwandangogi’ remark. However, if the president steps back like this now, it will be as if the president has only scratched the surface and created crumbs rather than solving the difficult problems of history.

80 years have passed since liberation. In the meantime, there were several changes of government in the political world, from the ruling party to the ruling party and from the ruling party to the ruling party. The historical academy is the only place in Korea where conservatives have been in power for a long time and are dictatorial.

They have consistently adhered to the logic of colonial peninsular history advocated by the Japanese for 80 years and are pushing national history, which advocates a view of continental history, into a pseudo-historical theory. Although we are aware of the lack of historical materials in the study of ancient history, we only collect materials that were fabricated and distorted by Japan 100 years ago to prolong its colonial rule.

Even if Hongshan cultural relics are discovered outside the Great Wall of China, they say they don’t know and don’t even look at the records found in 『The Book of Disasters』 that the Joseon Dynasty and Joseon Province were located near Beijing.

They have formed a cartel to protect their vested rights and have built an impenetrable fortress, and have no interest in responding to the Northeast Project or stopping their Dokdo ambitions. This time, the controversy over 『Hwandangogi』 served as an opportunity to clearly show how strong their ironclad stance is.

In order to break their iron fist, end the long-term dictatorship, and establish correct history, it is impossible without a revolution in historical science. We achieved economic development and democratization by revolutionizing industry and politics. Now, the tasks of the times are to respond to the Northeast Project through a historical revolution, to liquidate the colonial view of history, and to establish correct history.

President Lee should end the 『Hwandangogi』 controversy rather than spark it. While I am being forced out this time, I hope to complete the historical revolution by establishing a special committee for the establishment of sound history at the Blue House, thereby establishing myself as the historical president of this country, following the economic president and the democratization president.

Doctor of History, Director of the National Culture Research Institute