뉴스레터

Herodotus (480-429 BCE), considered the "Father of History" in the West, was not Greek by birth. He was born in a Dorian colony in present-day Bodrum, Turkey. He traveled extensively until the age of thirty, gaining knowledge and insight. He visited Mesopotamia (Iraq), Phoenicia (Lebanon), Scythia (Ukraine), and Egypt. He settled down in Greece and began writing The Histories, which records what he had seen in person and heard from others during his travels.

He wrote about how before battle, Scythians would gather in a small tent and inhale hallucinogens—i.e., marijuana. He also recorded that all Argippaeans, who lived northern Scythia, were bald. Later archeological findings have verified Herodotus' accounts.

A gold artifact was found in the former Soviet Union. On the artifact is an image of two warriors, with their heads put together, drinking from a small horn chalice. It is quite clear that the two men depicted are under the influence of alcohol and/or hallucinogen. That is, the ancient artifact coincided with what was documented in The Histories. Similarly, on a piece of fabric discovered in the Altai Mountains are many shamans, all of whom are bald. Thus, what Herodotus had seen and heard as he traveled through Scythia were proven to be factual.

The bald-headed Argippaeans lived in present-day Pazyryk in the highlands of Altai Mountains. The last remnants of later Scythian culture discovered in Pazyryk date to the 3th century BCE. This was when Buddhism, which originated in India, was spreading throughout the world. That is why my conjecture is that the Argippaeans may have been a group of Buddhist monks. It is possible that Scythians had passed on the news of the Altai region to the nomads of the steppes, through whom the news spread farther to the Black Sea region where Herodotus lived.

Both Herodotus and Sima Qian were travelers

Sima Qian (145-85 BCE), the Father of Chinese History, traveled throughout China and the surrounding regions before he set upon writing and organizing historical records. His work, Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian; 史記), is a compilation of imperial records and biographies of diverse figures. It is still celebrated and referenced to this very day, some 2,000 years after its making.

Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms; 삼국사기), a very important reference material in the study of Korean history, was completed in the 12th century. Like Shiji, Samguk Sagi is written in the gijeonche style (annals-biography style; 紀傳體), organized according to the chronological order of the dynasties and kings. This demonstrates that Samguk Sagi had been modeled after Shiji.

From the left side Herodotus, Sima Qian, Kim Bu-sik

The compiler Kim Bu-sik was from the Gyeongju Kim clan. He passes the civil service examination when he is 21 years old. He holds various government positions, and then in 1096, at the age of 41, he visits China as an envoy to the Song court. He gains new knowledge and experiences during his 6-month stay. He returns to Song as an envoy 10 years later in 1126. He sees that there is acute conflict brewing between the Song Dynasty and the Jin dynasty. At that time, Goryeo considered itself a tributary of the Song dynasty, founded by the Han Chinese, rather than of the Jin, founded by the Jurchen people to the north. Given the international circumstances of the time, it is unlikely that Kim got to visit Manchuria or the Liaohe River region, which is where the Jurchen people were from. Even in the Samguk Sagi Jiriji (geography book), there is but a direct quote from the geography book of Hanshu (The History of the Former Han Dynasty; 漢書) stating that Goguryeo's Liadong commandery is located 3,600 li from Luoyang, China.

There are no mountains—just plains—between the Ukraine and Kazakhstan. Ukraine was the base of early Scythia, and Kazakhstan was where the Scythians later settled. Actually seeing the plains makes it evident that it would have been easy for the Scythians, an equestrian people, to migrate between the two regions. They are the plains through which Attila and the Huns rode like the wind all the way to Rome in the 5th century. The Scythian migration further east, however, was impeded by the Altai Mountains, the Tian Shan Range, and the Takramakan Desert. In the 13th century, the Mongols avoided the unrelenting desert, and developed the Tian Shan North Route. What came after is something we all know well: Genghis Khan brought Central Asia and Europe to their knees.

What if Kim Bu-sik had visited Amnok and Liaohe?

The domains of Gojosen, Buyeo, and Goguryeo, the key players in ancient Korean history, extended from Lian Shan (連山), Dalinghe (大凌河), and Liaohe (遼河) to the west all the way to the Baekdu Mountain and Amnok River regions. The farther back in time we go, Korean history is an "international history" of nomadic and agricultural peoples spread across an expansive geographical area. In contrast, as we move toward the present, from medieval era to the modern period, the geographical scope of Korean history becomes increasingly confined to a "local history" of an agricultural people.

It is common knowledge that waters become passageways and mountains become borders. Even today, the Himalayas serve as the border between China and India, and the Hindu Kush, the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Altai Mountains to the north is a border shared by four countries: Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China. The great powers of the 21st century are using military might in an attempt to break down mountain borders. The aim of 21st-century territorial expansionism is to secure natural resources. As time passes, the resources we consider important today will no longer be important. When that time comes, only the resentment of the victimized peoples will be remembered by history. History will be remembered by the coming generations, and there may be retaliation down the road.

If Kim Busik had surveyed the area from the Lioahe basin to Amnok River, Samguk Sagi would have been much more resplendent and vivid. That is why I advise younger to-be-historians to first become travelers; after all, geography is the father of history.