Samguk yusa

 ( 13th-century History Books ) 

The book was written during the Mongol conquest of Europe and East Asia, including China and Korea. Mongols invaded Korea for the first time in 1231. The invasion devastated the lives of Koreans by destroying valuable cultural properties, recordings, and literature. This invasion motivated Il-yeon to protect all of the folklore and stories handed down. Il-yeon collected and analyzed many works of Korean culture for a long period of time prior to the writing of Samguk yusa. The Korean peninsula was not yet united when the Samguk yusa was composed, so one of the Samguk yusa myths, Dangun, which is regarded as the root of all Koreans, has long been believed to have contributed to the idea of "one blood, one nation" among Koreans, as well as helping them to characterize themselves as a "common blood race".

Wangnyeok is a brief chronology of the Three Kingdoms, Garakguk, Later Goguryeo, and Later Baekje. Gii contains the archive from Gojoseon to the late Three Kingdoms Period; it opens with an introductory passage explaining why it was written. Heungbeop is about the rise of Buddhism in the Three Kingdoms, and Tapsang includes pagodas and Buddhist images. Uihae contains narratives of famous monks during the Silla period. Sinju includes the tales about miracles that happened through esoteric Buddhism during the Silla dynasty. Gamtong is about stories of devotion. Pieun contains the legends of solitary heroes. Hyoseon contains folktales of filial piety and Buddhist virtues. Although it is divided into many parts, the composition of the entire book can be briefly described below:

20th-century Korean scholars such as Choe Nam-seon established the Buddhism monk Il-yeon (1206–1289) as the main compiler of the text, on the basis that his name (and full official title) was indicated in the fifth fascicle. This view is widely accepted among modern scholars.

Ha Chongnyong and Yi Kunjik produced a critical edition of Samguk yusa in 1997. According to Ha Chongnyong, Il-yeon wrote only the fifth fascicle, since his name is mentioned only in that section of the text.

The 1512 edition of the text mentions a dynastic chronology at the beginning, which has several discrepancies with the information that appears later in the text. According to Robert Buswell, Jr. and Donald S. Lopez, Jr., this chronology may have been a 14th-century addition to Il-yeon's compilation.

According to the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea, "the book contains a wide range of records about young soldiers of the Silla Period, which are more religious and poetical than those written in Samguk sagi." On the other hand, studies have found that " Samguk Sagi was almost immediately accepted as one of the most definitive histories of its time and within several decades was read even in China." Therefore, it can be considered that even though the Samguk yusa was written a century later, Il-yeon considerably relied on the Samguk sagi. Moreover, the Samguk yusa contains the historical elements not found in the Samguk sagi. Since it is also the same in reserve, it is found that the two works complement each other.

Kim Pu-shik attempted a more rational and logical approach towards the historical writings, whereas the romantic Buddhism approach of Samguk yusa of the Koryo dynasty allowed the readers to experience the old historical cultures such as superstitions, folklore, and mythical stories. Both of the historical books are also generally focused on certain backgrounds in terms of religion. Despite the reasonable writing of the Samguk sagi, nationalist historians and scholars refer to it as a Chinese Confucian-centered book, arguing that it instils a subordinate attitude ( sadae), with the ancient tradition ignored. In contrast, in the case of Samguk yusa, the majority of the text is dedicated to Buddhism, tailored to the Korean style under the author's influence; the only occurrence of Confucianism is in Hyoseon (part 9), which expresses filial piety as a way of Buddhism. Naturally, the contents of Samguk yusa were influenced more greatly by Il-yeon's Buddhist values than was the case for Samguk sagi. Il-yeon's work provides four bizarre stories depicting the discovery of archaeological artifacts to demonstrate the existence of Buddhism in the pre-modern era, the time of the tale's telling.

Buddhist stories, including both the principles of Buddhism and various Buddhist monks, account for nearly half (49.5%) of the total writing in Samguk yusa. In terms of adequate factual delivery, Samguk yusa conveys relatively insufficient historical information, such as about the explanation of kwallogup (officials' land) and sigup (the land for producing food), which are well described in Samguk sagi in detail. Nonetheless, the Samguk yusa and Samguk sagi are mutually regarded as complementary regarding uncompleted ancient recordings among Koreans today.

The author attempted to keep original phrases drawn from various sources—including Chinese Buddhist literature, Korean historical literature, and languages written in epigraphy—and he sometimes omitted unnecessary phrases or paraphrased several expressions with the intention of integrating them into the whole story. In terms of Il-yeon's research approach, he regarded the quality and quantity of the resources as crucial elements for his work, used the "inserted textual commentary" in order to seriously evaluate his resources, allowed readers to access comparative information about the history, and even expressed concerns about the reliability when there was insufficient information to depict. Moreover, Il-yeon attempted to use various versions of the same story when he recorded folktales and myths. For instance, he comments that the story of Tangun was quoted from both the Wei-shu (" Wei Dynasty History") and Tangun Kogi (" Ancient Record of Tangun"). This comment is valuable because both these source history books are not accessible now. The inscription of Samguk yusa is also a relatively credible source, but its contents are mainly confined to the mobilization of the peasantry for dike construction and the description of land property for the temple.

There is also skepticism surrounding Samguk yusa. It would not have been able to precisely interpret and explain the detailed picture of Silla, as it was written in the Goryeo, roughly six centuries after the Three Kingdoms Period. Significantly, stories of the other nations of the three-kingdom period (Goguryeo and Baekje) are excluded. The overwhelming bulk are Silla stories, especially the stories that came from Korea's south-eastern region of "Kyngsang", known as Il-yeon's place of birth. With regard to religion, Confucianism—highly influential in both China and Korea—was marginally dealt with in the Buddhism-dominant Samguk yusa tales as a subjugated religion. For example, in the "Tale of the Monk Chinjong", Chinjong's filial reasons for not wanting to enter the monastic life are countered by his mother, suggesting that monastic life is regarded as even more filial behaviour than ignoring filial piety.

One bias of the Samguk yusa is that it chiefly relays stories of the upper class of Silla instead of the ordinary people. The aristocracy and members of the upper class constitute over half of the total number of narrative protagonists, with the figures correlated with Buddhist monks or nuns making up approximately twenty-five percent, and commoners only making up around eight percent of the contexts. Although historical interpretations of the content of the Samguk yusa are dependent on the resources Il-yeon chose to include, the book is nonetheless worthwhile in comprehending the overall landscape of Silla.