Читать книгу The History of Korea - Homer B. Hulbert - Страница 11

Table of Contents

Southern Korean. … Ki-jun’s arrival … differences which he found … three groups. … Ma-han … position … peculiarities … characteristics … worship … tatooing … numbers. … Chin-han. … Chinese immigrationimmigration … customs. … Pyön-han … position … habits … the philological argument … southern origin. … Ki-jun and his descendants.

We must now ask the reader to go with us to the southern portion of the peninsula where we shall find a people differing in many essential respects from the people of the north, and evincing not merely such different but such opposite characteristics from the people of the north that it is difficult to believe that they are of the same origin.

When King Ki-jun, the last of the Ki-ja dynasty proper was driven from P’yŭng-yang by the unscrupulous Wi-man, he embarked, as we have already seen, upon the Ta-dong River accompanied by a small retinue of officials and servants. Faring southward along the coast, always within sight of land and generally between the islands and mainland, he deemed it safe at last to effect a landing. This he did at a place anciently known as Keum-ma-gol or “Place of the Golden Horse,” now Ik-san. It should be noticed that this rendering is simply that of the Chinese characters that were used to represent the word Keum-ma-gol. In all probability it was a mere transliteration of the native name of the place by the use of the Chinese, and the rendering here given was originally unthought of.

They found the land inhabited, but by a people strange in almost every particular. The explicitness with which all native accounts describe the people whom Ki-jun found in the south is in itself a striking argument in favor of the theory that a different race of people was there encountered. The southern part of the peninsula was divided between three groups of peoples called respectively Ma-han, Chin-han and Pyön-han. How these names originated can hardly be learned at this date, but it would seem that they were native words; for the last of the three, Pyön-han, was also called Pyön-jin, a word entering into the composition of many of the names of the towns peopled by the Pyön-han tribes. It is necessary for us now to take a brief glance at each of these three groups, for in them we shall find the solution of the most interesting and important problem that Korea has to offer either to the historian or ethnologist.

The Ma-han people occupied the south-western part of the peninsula, comprising the whole of the present province of Ch’ung-ch’ŭng and the northern part of Chŭl-la. It may have extended northward nearly to the Han river but of this we cannot be sure. On its north was the tribe of Nang-nang, on the south was probably a part of Pyön-han but one authority says that to the south of Ma-han were the Japanese or Wă-in. These Japanese are carefully described and much color is given to this statement by certain coincidences which will be brought out later. No Korean work mentions these Japanese and it may be that the Japanese referred to were those living on the islands between Korea and Japan. But we can easilyeasily imagine the thrifty islanders making settlements of the southern coast of Korea.

The first striking peculiarity of the Ma-han people, and one that differentiates them from the northern neighbors, was the fact that they were not one tribe but a congeries of small settlements each entirely independent of the others, each having its own chief, its own army, its own laws. It is said that they lived either among the mountains or along the coast, which would point to the existence of two races, the one inland, indigenous, and the other, colonists from some other country. The Ma-han people were acquainted with agriculture, sericulture and the use of flax and hemp. Their fowls had tails ninety-five inches long. Here is one of the interesting coincidences that uphold the contention that the Japanese were in the peninsula at that time. These peculiar fowls are now extinct, but, within the memory of people now living, such fowls were quite common in Japan and preserved specimens in the museum at Tokyo show that the above measurements are by no means unusual in that breed of fowl. It would seem then that Japan procured them from Korea, or else the Japanese colonists introduced them into Korea.

Another point which differentiates the south from the north was the fact that a walled town was a thing unknown in the south; as the Korean writer puts it “There was no difference between town and country.” Their houses were rough thatched huts sunken a little below the surface of the ground, as is indicated by the statement that the houses were entered from the top. These people of Ma-han were strong and fierce and were known by the loudness and vehemence of their speech. This accords well with the further fact that they were the virtual governors of all south Korea, for it was Ma-han who furnished rulers for Chin-han. These people did not kneel nor bow in salutation. There was no difference in the treatment of people of different ages or sexes. All were addressed alike.

Another marked difference between these people and those of the north was that the Ma-han people held neither gold nor silver in high repute. We may safely reckon upon the acquisitive faculty as being the most keen and pervasive of all the faculties of eastern as well as western peoples, and that the north should have been acquainted with the uses and values of these metals while the south was not, can argue nothing less than a complete ignorance of each other. The southern people loved beads strung about the head and face, a trait that naturally points to the south and the tropics. In the summer they worshipped spirits, at which time they consumed large quantities of intoxicating beverages while they sang and danced, several “tens of men” dancing together and keeping time with their feet. In the autumn, after the harvest, they worshipped and feasted again. In each of the little settlements there was a high priest whose business it was to worship for the whole community. They had a kind of monastic system, the devotees of which fastened iron drums to high posts and beat upon them during their worship.

Another striking statement is that tatooing was common. This is another powerful argument in favor of the theory of a southern origin, for it is apparent that tatooing is a form of dress and is most in vogue where the heat renders the use of clothing uncomfortable. As might be expected, this habit has died out in Korea, owing without doubt to the comparative severity of the climate; but within the memory of living men it has been practiced on a small scale, and today there is one remnant of the custom in the drawing of a red colored thread under the skin of the wrist in making certain kinds ofof vow or promises.

In the larger towns the ruler was called Sin-ji and in the smaller ones Eup-ch’a. They had tests of endurance similar to those used by North American Indians. One of them consisted in drawing a cord through the skin of the back and being hauled up and down by it without a murmur.

We are told that in Ma-han there were 100,000 houses, each district containing, from 1,000 to 10,000 houses. This would give an approximate population of 500,000. The names of the fifty-four districts or kingdom included in Ma-han are given in the appendix together with those of Chin-han and Pyön-han.

We are told that the aged men of Chin-han held the tradition that thousands of Chinese fled to Korea in the days of the Tsin dynasty, 255–209 B.C., and that the people of Ma-han gave them land in the east and enclosed them in a palisade, and furnished them with a governor who transmitted the office to his son. This could refer however only to a small portion of Chin-han. There was a large and widely scattered native population occupying approximatelyapproximately the territory covered by the present Kyŭng-sang Province. It is probable that these Chinese refugees exercised a great influence over them and taught them many things. It is not improbable that it was owing to this civilizing agency that Sil-la eventually became master of the peninsula. But it should be carefully noted that this Chin-han did not derive its name, from the Chin (Tsin) dynasty of China through these Chinese refugees. The character used in designating Chin-han is not the same as that used for the Chin dynasty.

The land was fertile. The mulberry flourished and silk culture was a common employment. Horses and cattle were used both under the saddle and as beasts of burden. Marriage rites were scrupulously observed and the distinction between the sexes was carefully preserved. When a body was interred men followed the bier waving feathers in the air to help waft the soul of the departed on its flight to heaven. The country contained much mineral wealth. Ye-măk, Ma-han and the Japanese all obtained metal from Chin-han. Iron was the medium of exchange. They were fond of music and the dance. Their music was made by means of a rude harp and an instrument made by stretching wire back and forth inside a metal cylinder which, when struck, caused the strings to vibrate. When a child was born a stone was placed against its head to flatten it. Tattooing was common in those parts contiguous to the Japanese, which would imply that the custom was a borrowed one. When two men met on the road it was considered good form for each to stop and insist upon the others passing first.

It is hardly necessary to dwell upon the characteristics of the Pyön-han people, for they were nearly the same as those of the people of Chin-han. Some say they were within the territory of Chin-han, others that they were south both of Ma-han and Chin-han, and nearest to the Japanese. They tatooed a great deal. Beyond this fact little is known of them excepting that their punishments were very severe, many offences being punished with death.

It is difficult to say what was the nature of the bond between the different districts which made up the whole body of either Ma-han, Chin-han or Pyön-han. On the one hand we are told that the districts were entirely separate and yet we find Ma-han, as a whole, performing acts that imply some sort of federation at least if not a fixed central government. In fact one Chinese work states that a town named Cha-ji was the capital of all three of the Hans. We must conclude therefore from those and subsequent statements that some sort of central government prevailed, at least in Ma-han.

The names of the several kingdoms which composed the three Hans are preserved to us, mutilated, in all probability, by reason of Chinese transliteration, but still useful from a philological and ethnological standpoint. If the reader will glance but casually at the list of these separate districts as given in the appendix, he will see that there was good cause for the division into three Hans. We will point out only the most striking peculiarities here, as this belongs rather to the domain of philology than to that of history. In Ma-han we find seven of the names ending ro. We find two or three of the same in Pyön-han but none in Chin-hau. In Ma-han we find fourteen names ending in ri but none in either of the others. In Pyön-han we find ten names beginning with Pyön-jin which is wholly unknown to the other two. In this we also find three with the unique suffix mi-dong. In Chin-han we find nine ending in kan and five in kaye, which are found in neither of the others. It is hardly necessary to say that these cannot be mere coincidences. In each group we find at least one considerable set of endings entirely lacking in the others. As our own ending ton, ville, burgh, chester and coln have an original significance, so these ending ro, ri, mi-dong, kan and ka-ya have a meaning which should supply us with important clues to the origin of the people of southern Korea.

The marked polysyllabism of these names makes it impossible to imagine a Chinese origin for them. It is seldom that a Manchu or Mongol name of a place exceeds two syllables. On the other hand we find in Japan and Polynesia common use of polysyllabic geographical names. A thorough discussion of the subject here would be out of place, but this much must be said, that several of these endings, as ro, pin and kan, find their almost exact counterpart in the Dravidian languages of southern India, where they mean village, settlement and kingdom.

The argument in favor of the southern origin of the people of the three Hans is a cumulative one. The main points are; the structure and vocabulary of the language, the nonintercourse with the people of northern Korea, the custom of tattooing, the diminutive size of the horses found nowhere else, except in the Malay peninsula, the tradition of the southern origin of the people of the island of Quelpart, the physiological similarity between the people, especially the females, of Quelpart and Formosa, the seafaring propensities of the people of the three Hans, their ignorance of the value of gold and silver, the continuous line of islands stretching along the whole coast of China together with the powerful ocean current which sweeps northward along the Asiatic coast, the tradition of the Telugu origin of the ancient sultans of Anam and the love of bead ornaments.

Such was the status of southern Korea when Ki-jun arrived at Keum-ma-gol. By what means he obtained control of the government is not related but the fact remains that he did so and founded a new kingdom which was destined to survive nearly two centuries. Ki-jun died the same year. No details are given of the events that transpired during the next hundred years or more excepting that one Chinese work states that during the reign of Emperor Wu-ti 140–88 B.C. frequent envoys went from Ma-han to the Chinese court. We are also told that off the coast of Ma-han among the islands lived a tribe called the Chu-ho, a people of smaller stature than the people of Ma-han, and speaking a different language. They cut the hair and wore skins for clothing but clothed only the upper part of the body. They came frequently to Ma-han to barter cattle and pigs.

Ki-jun’s seventh descendant was Hun, with the title of Wŭn-wang. His reign began in 57 B.C. during the reign of the Han Emperor Hsuan-ti and in the second year the great kingdom of Sil-la was founded in Chin-han. In his twenty-second year the great northern kingdom of Ko-gu-ryŭKo-gu-ryŭ was founded, 35 B.C., and nineteen years later the kingdom of Ma-han fell before the forces of Păk-je.