Abstract
The aim of this article is to summarize knowledge regarding dispute about Koguryo territorial and historical affiliation, which occurred on the political and academic level. Between 37 BC and AD 668 ancient Kingdom of Koguryo embraced large area from central Manchuria to south of Seoul. After year 1945, when Korea regained independence Korean researchers were able to begin their studies on the foundation of the national identity. According to the “Serial Research Project on the History and Current status of the Northeast Border Region” started in China in 2002, Koguryo was an ethnic system in one of the provinces in ancient China. Through this project Chinese historians and archaeologists wanted to incorporate history of Koguryo into the Chinese history, which was not acceptable to Korean researchers. Because of such approach from both sides to this issue, both countries were forced to use archeological excavations and obtained relics in order to show the connection between past and present in both, Koguryo-China and Koguryo- Korea history.
Highlights
The aim of this article is to summarize knowledge regarding dispute about Koguryo territorial and historical affiliation, which occurred on the political and academic level
The problem concerning Koguryo’s territorial and historical connections has its start in the year 2001, when authorities in “Pyongyang applied to UNESCO to have tombs from ancient kingdom of Koguryo registered as North Korean’s first “world heritage” sites” (Gries, 2005: 3)
Foundation is an answer to all actions taken by the Chinese government directed against Koguryo’s historical affiliation to Korea (Koguryo Research Foundation, 2006)
Summary
As Park states “the Northeast Asian Project is a large scale academic project designed to study the history and present state of China's border areas”. Everything changes in 1983, when the majority of articles associated Koguryo with Chinese history This way of treating Koguryo by connecting it with China reached the highest point in 1997 ( 2002:14). To emphasize Chinese position towards Koguryo, Lee presents opinion of Chinese historian Sun Jinji, who in the year 1986 argued that "the people of Buyeo and Koguryo had the same lineage as the Chinese in the Northeast region, while the Korean people were a part of the Silla lineage" This statement meant that author was considering that Koguryo’s history did not have any connection with the period in which Three Kingdoms emerged and existed (Lee, 2005: 189). According to Yohnson, Chinese scholars, in Northeast Project, based their demands for Koguryo’s historical heritage on two main points: the first is that Koguryo had its roots in Han Chinese commandery of Xuantu’, its connections with China are much more justified than those with Korea; the second one is that according to Ma Dazheng’s words Koguryo was "an influential ethnic group in China's border area in northeastern China between the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC- 24 AD) and the Tang Dynasty (AD 618- 907)" (2006-a: 1-2)
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