A New History of Parhae trans. by John Duncan (review)

Surprisingly little has been written by Western authors on the kingdom of Parhae. Hence this edited volume, translated from the Korean, is a very welcome addition. The translator, John Duncan, is a specialist in premodern Korean history and offers a translator’s introduction that outlines the historiographical problems of Parhae very well. His introduction is an important entrée for the reader because the original Korean authors of A New History of Parhae give their interpretation of Parhae history often as historical fact. Rarely are the original written sources cited precisely or discussed fully, making it difficult for most readers to form their own opinion or even to evaluate the picture the authors are drawing for us. The reader has to believe whatever is offered. The Korean authors do not misrepresent the facts so much as they interpret them. The problem about Parhae history is that many questions are beyond a simple answer. Different, nearly contemporary, sources represent fundamental questions in very different ways with different possible interpretations. Somehow one would have wished for an enhanced edition of this New History of Parhae with all the source material fully cited. This book nevertheless is valuable as a Korean view on Parhae history and culture.

The original book, published in Seoul in 2005 (2nd edition, 2007), here in translation, is a collection of fifteen chapters by eleven authors on different aspects of Parhae history and culture. The main body of this book is grouped into five parts. The first deals with the establishment and growth of Parhae. The second part focuses on aspects of Parhae’s history, territory, administration, and demise. The third approaches Parhae’s international relations while the fourth details the material culture of Parhae and the last discusses the different points of view of Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and South and North Korean historians on Parhae history.

Part 1 contains a contribution by Lim Sang-sun (Im Sangsun) on the founding and naming of Parhae and another by Han Ciu-cheol (Han Kyuch’ŏl) on the ethnic composition of Parhae. Han Ciu-cheol has written many thought provoking and usually well-researched works on this topic. He acknowledges that the Malgal were in the majority within Parhae and challenges the widely accepted theory that the Malgal were descendants from the older Suksin and ancestors of the modern Manchu. Han believes “Malgal” was a term, probably derived from the name of a small ethnic group, used in a very general sense for all tribes and peoples of “Manchuria” by the Chinese. The Parhae never called themselves Malgal and were called so only by outsiders. “Simply put, the Malgal language and customs were the same as those of Koguryŏ and Parhae” (p. 23). The roots of the name “Malgal” or “Mulgil” lie in the Koguryŏ language, Han claims. He thinks that even the name of the state Parhae is derived from the name of an old “Korean” tribe, the Yemaek. Thus, “Maekhae” could have become “Parhae.” Whereas I should agree that the rather loose confederation of Malgal tribes originally incorporated different ethnic elements, even some proto-Korean, the last theory seems far-fetched. The founder of Parhae first named the state “Chin” and only later, after having received the title “Province-King of Parhae” in 713 from the Chinese, changed the name of the state to Parhae. Parhae (Bohai) is an old Chinese name for the region and the sea between Liaodong and Shandong. It seems unlikely that it coincides with a native name of similar sound-value. There is no direct evidence from the sources to support the name “Maekhae.” Lim Sang-sun’s tale of the founding of Parhae is much more straightforward and less controversial, though of course contradictions within the original source material are always open to interpretation.

Part 2 contains four...