Old Korean Writing on Wooden Tablets and its Implications for Old Japanese Writing

Abstract

The texts inscribed on wooden tablets ( mokgan 木簡) contain many examples of Korean hanja 漢字, unique characters developed and used in Korea. The fact that a few examples of these Korean hanja from Silla 新羅 resemble gugyeolja 口訣字 in shape enables us to hypothesize that gugyeolja attested in later periods might find their origins in these Korean hanja used on mokgan . In addition, some Korean hanja may also be observed in ancient Japanese texts, which supports the notion that Japanese writing practice was influenced by the notational conventions of the peninsula. In Japan, the origin of the use of both phonetic and semantic readings of Chinese characters can be traced to Baekje, and the use of what is now known as okuri-gana 送り假名 may be closely related to Silla’s conventions of hunju eumjong 訓主音從 and mareum cheomgi 末音添記. The historical change from an on-gana 音假名-based writing system to a kungana 訓假名-based practice in ancient Japan can be understood as the shift from following the notational conventions of Baekje to following those of Silla.