The STUDIA UNIVERSITATIS BABEŞ-BOLYAI issue article summary

The summary of the selected article appears at the bottom of the page. In order to get back to the contents of the issue this article belongs to you have to access the link from the title. In order to see all the articles of the archive which have as author/co-author one of the authors mentioned below, you have to access the link from the author's name.

  
       
         
    STUDIA PHILOLOGIA - Issue no. 1 / 2013  
         
  Article:   READING THE TEXT AS A PRASASTI (PANEGYRIC): A FRESH APPROACH TOWARDS KING KWANGGAET’O STELE.

Authors:  . 		 
       
         
  Abstract:  Reading the Text as a Prasasti (panegyric): A Fresh Approach towards King Kwanggaet’o Stele. Kwanggaet’o stele, commemorating the divine genealogy and military conquests of King Kwanggaet’o of Koguryo lay concealed in obscurity until 1876 when it was re-discovered. Soon after its re-discovery the stele caught the attention of scholars from various parts of the world. The paper points out that the purpose of the stele was to glorify King Kwanggaet’o and it sought to achieve this in part by blackening his enemies and exaggerating their power. No part of the text has caused more controversy than the statement that claimed Paekche and Silla as originally subjects of Koguryo and projected King Kwanggaet’o as a victor in a battle with the “Wa’ ‘that crossed the sea, defeated Paekche and Silla and made them their subjects’. There is no evidence other than the stele’s statement (and one might add very little probability) that Paekche had in any sense been ‘subject’ to Koguryo before 391, and Yamato was not in a position to wage war on and subdue the southern Korean states, since it was not in control of Western Japan. The stele is intended to convey the impression that the King of Koguryo was not a naked aggressor, but as a sacred ruler, a cakravartin (the Wheel-turning Ideal King) who came to the assistance of his neighbors against a foreign invader and emerged victorious in all the battles he waged.

Keywords: Early Korea, Koguryo, Yamato, Epigraphy, Korea-Japan Relations

 
         
     
         
         
      Back to previous page