Samguk sagi
Samguk sagi is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla. Completed in 1145, it is well-known in Korea as the oldest surviving chronicle of Korean history.
The Samguk sagi is written in Classical Chinese, the written language of the literati of ancient Korea. Its compilation was ordered by King Injong of Goryeo and undertaken by a government official and historian named Kim Pusik with his team of junior scholars. The document has been digitized by the National Institute of Korean History and is available online with Modern Korean translation in Hangul.
Description
Samguk sagi is critical to the study of Korean history during the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla periods. Not only because this work, and its Buddhist counterpart Samguk yusa, are the only remaining Korean sources for the period, but also because the Samguk sagi contains a large amount of information and details. For example, the translation tables given in Books 35 and 36 have been used for a tentative reconstruction of the former Goguryeo language.Background
There were various motivating factors behind the compilation of the Samguk sagi in the 12th century. These may roughly be categorized as ideological and political. The ideological factors are made manifest in the work's preface, written by Kim Busik, where the civil historian states,"Of today's scholars and high-ranking officials, there are those who are well-versed and can discuss in detail the Five Classics and the other philosophical treatises... as well as the histories of Qin and Han, but as to the events of our country, they are utterly ignorant from beginning to end. This is truly lamentable."
Contents
The Samguk sagi is divided into 50 books. Originally, each of them was written on a scroll. They are listed as follows:Silla's Records
12 scrolls, Nagi/Silla bongi, 나기/신라 본기, 羅紀/新羅本紀.Goguryeo's Records
10 scrolls, Yeogi/Goguryeo bongi, 여기/고구려 본기, 麗紀/高句麗本紀.Baekje's Records
6 scrolls, Jegi/Baekje bongi, 제기/백제 본기, 濟紀/百濟本紀.Chronological Tables
3 scrolls, Yeonpyo, 연표, 年表.Monographs
9 scrolls, Ji, 지, 志.Biographies
10 scrolls, Yeoljeon, 열전, 列傳.Translations in Western languages
Portions of the work have appeared in various English language books and articles, notably:Translation of the whole Silla bongi
- Gardiner, Kenneth H.J. 1982. "Legends of Koguryŏ : Samguk Sagi, Annals of Koguryŏ." Korea Journal, 22: 60-69 and 22: 31-48. .
- Jamieson, John Charles. 1969. "The Samguk Sagi and the Unification Wars." Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. .
- Lee, Soyun, and Shin Jeongsoo. 2018. "Chapters 44 and 45 of the 'Samguk Sagi': An Annotated Translation of Biography of Eulji Mundeok and Others." The Review of Korean Studies, 21: 165-145. .
- Na, Sanghoon, You Jinsook, and Shin Jeongsoo. 2018. "Chapter 41, 42 and 43 of the Samguk Sagi: An Annotated Translation of Biography of Kim Yusin." The Review of Korean Studies, 21: 191-262.
Books
Papers
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