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On the history of the Three Kingdoms spanning more than three hundred years, there is
no documentation from the Three Kingdoms, Koguryo, Paekche and Shilla. In the
specific case of Paekche, there is no information whatsoever on the kingdom between
384, the official date of acceptance of Buddhism, and 526 (4 th year of the reign of King
Song).
The only documents available today, and continuously used as reference in fundamental
research, were written almost six centuries after the destruction of Paekche, on the basis
of various archives and records from the China’s Tang Dynasty and in very close
following of the procedures and canons of its historiographers: Haedong Kosung Chon
(Biographies of Eminent Korean Buddhist Monks) compiled by the monk Kakhun in
1215; Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) by the Confucian and notoriously anti-
Paekche Kim Pu-sik (1075-1151), written in 1145; Samguk Yusa (Memorabilia of the Three
Kingdoms) by the Buddhist monk Ilyon (1206-1289), written in 1279.
Those authors, however very limited in material, recounted with ease facts, many times
distant from them of almost 9 centuries, without revealing their sources or providing
references. As is the case of the Liang Dynasty Haedong Kosung Chon edited in 519.
2) A CENTRAL ISSUE: THE CHOICE BETWEEN TWO MODEL CIVILIZATIONS.
I) The nations. The following kingdoms, including China, were undergoing cultural and
political improvements. They were more or less advanced and equivalent:
* The various kingdoms and successive dynasties of multiethnic “ China” experienced
chronic instability until the Sui Dynasty in 581;
* Koguryo, a militarized and very structured society with warrior traditions, were initially
influenced by “Chinese” culture;
* Paekche, an industrious land with no direct access to “China” and the rest of the
continent by land, had early developed business ties and maritime links to the neighboring
tribal confederation of Kaya, Yamato archipelago, South of China and South-east Asia;
* Being a sort of Paekche and Koguryo combination, surrounded by the the Pacific
Ocean, Yamato aimed at controlling its archipelago and maintained cultural, economic,
political, and military ties with all these states. Given its continental position, openness to
culture, and critical role in the foundation of Yamato’s state and institutions, more than
only a high-profile and strategic ally, Paekche is Yamato’s twin-state, the model kingdom
to go along with.
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