Notes and Questions Concerning the Samguk Sagi's Chronology of Paekche's Kings Chŏnji, Kuisin, and Piyu

Research Notes Notes and Questions Concerning the Samguk Sagi's Chronology of Paekche's Kings Chönji, Kuisin, and Piyu THE final years of the fourth century and the opening decades of the fifth constituted one of the most tumultuous periods in Paekche's history : the kingdom's very existence was first threatened by the onslaught of Koguryô's armies, and then its political sovereignty was jeopardized by its consequential reliance on military assistance from Japan. For the most paTt, Kim Pu-sik's recounting of the events of these troubled years in the Samguk sagi is compatible with the information found in other early sources concerned with this period, most importantly the inscription on the memorial stele of King Kwanggaet'o, the pertinent dynastic histories of China, and the Nihon shoki. Certain entries from the Chinese and Japanese sources do, however, raise significant doubts about the reliability of the Samguk sagi's dating for the reigns of three of Paekche's early fifth-century rulers: King Chönji, King Kuisin, and King Piyu. To articulate these questions clearly, as well as to explicate the solutions offered herein, it will be necessary to open our discussion with a survey of the relevant passages of the Samguk sagi, the Chin shu, the Sung shu, and the Nihon shoki. King Chönji, at least according to the Samguksagi's account, shares with only one other king of Paekche the dubious distinction of having risen to the throne through the intervention of the Japanese government author's note: As used here, the terms "Japan" and "Japanese" are simplifications that refer to the government and inhabitants of the state which, at the time that concerns us, centered in the Yamato region of the island of Honshu in the Japanese archipelago. While recognizing that the use of these particular terms is historically problematic, the justification of a more precise terminology would raise complex issues extraneous to the present discussion . 126BEST after having spent a period of time as a hostage in Japan. ' Chönji was the eldest of the three sons of King Asin (392-405), and, after having been designated the heir apparent in 394, was sent by his father as a hostage to the Japanese court in 397. 2 At the time of his father's death eight years later (405), Chönji was still being detained in Japan. In Chönji's absence, his youngest brother, Chömnye, seized the crown for himself after slaying King Asin's second son, who had established a temporary caretaker government to maintain order until the crown prince returned. Once word of Asin's demise reached the archipelago, the king of Japan (Emperor Öjin) granted Chönji permission to return to his homeland and provided him with a bodyguard of one hundred Japanese soldiers. When Chönji and his Japanese guard drew nigh to the Paekche capital, Hans öng, he received word of Chömnye's treachery and prudently withdrew to an island in the Yellow Sea until the patriotic citizens of the capital were able to overthrow and slay the usurping fratricide.3 Following the drama attending his accession, the remainder of Chönji's reign, as described in the Samguksagi, seems quite staid: he visited the royal ancestral shrine, rewarded those of his subjects who had rendered him service during the contest for the throne, maintained the kingdom's defenses along the border with Koguryö, and strove to perpetuate Paekche's diplomatic ties with China and especially—as may be readily understood—with Japan. The Samguk sagi's account of Chönji's reign concludes with the statement that he died in the third lunar month of the sixteenth year of his rule (mid-April/early May, 420)." In contrast to its relatively substantial treatment of the notable events of Chönji's life and reign, the Samguk sagi has very little to say of his successor, King Kuisin. All that it records concerning this man whom it credits with having been the nineteenth king of Paekche is that he was Chönji's eldest son, that he was born early in his father's reign, that he ascended to the throne following his...