뉴스레터

Korean History as World History

A cultural expression, regardless of what kind it is or which country it originates from, belongs to the world and its history. To study the history of a country is to study the history of the world from a particular standpoint. Therefore, Korean history is certainly part of world history just as much as any other country's is. All humans live under the same sky and history is the result of their past and present existence as a community. All humans share the same brain, where the deepest part, the most primitive one, is in charge of feelings and emotions, and the rest is exposed to the influence of super-structural elements representing culture. This means that many historical situations may carry different appearances and aspects, yet share an identical origin and meaning. Hence the need to use, at once, two different methodologies in approaching history: a comparative one, aiming to individuate reactions to the same phenomenon within diverse cultures and a purely historical-philological one, aimed at investigating the way a reaction materializes in a single culture. In other words, everyone reacts similarly toward a certain situation, which falls under the realm of nature, but the form of such reactions differ among people, which falls under the realm of culture. To give an example, marriage and funeral rites are held in every country, but each performs them in a unique way. The reason for such differences is actually historical, although it is studied in the field of anthropology.

When comparisons are drawn between different countries, each country is concurrently similar and dissimilar to one another. The study of such differences and their reasons is exactly one of the tasks demanded of historical research. History embraces practical experiences and ideas which have travelled from east to west and vice versa in an endless exchange since the remote past.

At any rate, the revival of Buddhism and Confucianism in Korea belongs to the world, as much as Korean Shamanism, literature, folktales, language, food and the Korean alphabet belong to the world. These are all expressions of the Korean identity, culture and Korea's past. They are the contributions Koreans have made to the culture of the world and are the reason why the history of Korea belongs to the world as well.

All historical issues are equally important since all historical phenomena are interconnected. If we fail to consider one topic, we risk misunderstanding another. For instance, it is impossible to properly discuss the issues surrounding Dokdo (獨島) without mentioning the Late Joseon (朝鮮) period of Korean history. This is because in history, almost nothing happens by mere chance. History is an ocean where all human actions have their origin, but also the ocean into which all rivers of human actions flow. Literature is a historical phenomenon, as well as language, politics, society and law. Since historical research is a reconstruction of the past of the human race, it is both the mother and child of all "humanistic" academic disciplines.

There is no doubt many events in Korea played part in the way the major themes of history unfolded in East Asia. Hence, historical studies can never be subdivided into "watertight compartments", which is something a historian should always be aware of. As a matter of fact, in some situations I prefer to put it as studying the "History of Koreans" rather than the "History of Korea"

The involvement of Koreans in East Asian history goes as far back as the very birth of Korea as a nation, which must have undergone a long and difficult process to form. Probably as early as the Proto-Three Kingdoms period, a considerable amount of residents in Korea moved to Japan (the Japanese referred to them as "Umi-o watatte kita hito" 海を渡って来た人, or "The people who came by crossing the sea"), exporting essential elements of material culture such as dolmens and jar-burials along the way. Korean diaspora is a very ancient phenomenon, not a recent one.

As we close in on the examination of historical epochs, we are bound to find the history of Korea linked to the history of East Asia. The fall of China's Sui (隨) dynasty was a consequence of the socio-economic crisis that followed the war against Koguryo (高句麗). Koreans such as Heukchi Sangji (黑齒常之) and Go Seonji (高仙芝), who at that time served as generals under Chinese flags, were responsible for leading the Chinese army to victories and defeats. It was Hyecho (慧超) from Silla (新羅) who left us the only remaining record in the far east about India in the 8th century, which alsoi ncludes information about Arabs and even the Byzantine Empire. There are still many other cases similar to these that can be listed.

"Korean History" vs. "World History": The root of the academic nationalism

The history of one's homeland is studied as part of the history of the world since primary school in Europe. In fact, no university in Italy has a separate department titled "Italian history". We may then immediately notice the difference in the educational approach of teaching history between Europe and Korea, where a general and simple classification of "National History (국사)" versus "World History (세계사)" exists. This may appear to be a minor and idle topic, but its psychological impact can be massive and devastating because it means Korean children and adolescents are actually taught to understand that the world as well as the people living in it are divided into merely two segments: "Koreans" and "the rest". Young students accordingly begin to lose awareness of the connections and relations Korea possesses with the rest of the world. This is exactly the cradle of academic nationalism that still largely affects research and studies on Korean history.

On the above account, better scientific research on history arises as the consequence of better history education during the stages of primary and secondary education. Under a comparative approach, children should be exposed to Korean history from its very beginning as a part of the history of the world. Korea is not another planet separate from the Earth: it belongs to this world and takes part in its history. Korean history must be taught as a history of the world, but not in a nationalistic way. Moreover, no true scholar would attempt to distort historical truths or forge evidence in favor of any kind of nationalism. If Korean scholars are ready to accept this, there should be no problem with the cooperation and collaboration between European and Korean historians.

"Modern" vs. "Pre-modern": What will the future of studies on antiquity hold?

For a European historian, it will be difficult to be convinced to accept the concept of "pre-modern history". The term, which was imported to Korea from the United States, sounds almost strange or even meaningless in Europe. What is worse is that this term is also discriminatory because whenever we partition Korea's entire historical past into "modern history", which spans more or less a hundred years, and "pre-modern history" of two thousand years more or less, it is obvious that much more significance is bound to be placed on the former than the latter. This signifies that more positions in the study of modern history rather than in pre-modern history are likely to be available at universities, and more students will abandon their original interest in antiquity to devote themselves to the modern period. Subsequently, more funds will be granted to research projects on modern history and less allocated to those on pre-modern history. Also, more books will be written about modern history and less published on pre-modern history. What is certain is that such discrimination will result in a heavy and dramatic handicap for studies on antiquity, if not the very death of classical studies. For this reason, as a scholar mainly interested in the history of antiquity both in the West and East, I sincerely hope Korea's academia may reconsider the distinction being made between "modern" and "pre-modern" history, which may be acceptable in a country such as the United States politically born only in 1776, but simply unacceptable in Europe and Asia. End.