TheSamguk sagi is written inClassical Chinese, the written language of the literati of ancient Korea. Its compilation was ordered by KingInjong of Goryeo (r. 1122–1146) and undertaken by a government official and historian namedKim Pusik with his team of junior scholars. The document has been digitized by theNational Institute of Korean History and is available online withModern Korean translation inHangul.[3]
Samguk sagi is critical to the study of Korean history during the Three Kingdoms and Unified Silla periods. Not only because this work, and its Buddhist counterpartSamguk yusa, are the only remaining Korean sources for the period, but also because theSamguk sagi contains a large amount of information and details. For example, the translation tables given in Books 35 and 36 have been used for a tentative reconstruction of the formerGoguryeo language.[4]
There were various motivating factors behind the compilation of theSamguk sagi in the 12th century. These may roughly be categorized as ideological and political. The ideological factors are made manifest in the work's preface, written by Kim Busik, where the civil historian states,
"Of today's scholars and high-ranking officials, there are those who are well-versed and can discuss in detail theFive Classics and the other philosophical treatises... as well as the histories ofQin andHan, but as to the events of our country, they are utterly ignorant from beginning to end. This is truly lamentable."[5]
TheSamguk sagi was written on the basis of theGu Samguksa (舊三國史, Old History of the Three Kingdoms), and other earlier historical records such as theHwarang Segi (花郞世記, Annals of Hwarang), most of which are no longer extant.
Concerning external sources, no references are made to the Japanese chronicles, like theKojiki (712) or theNihon Shoki (720), chronicles of Japan. It is possible Kim Busik was ignorant of them or scorned to quote a Japanese source. In contrast, he lifts generously from the Chinese dynastic chronicles and even unofficial Chinese records, most prominently theRecords of the Three Kingdoms (280–290),Book of Wei (554),Book of Jin (648),Old Book of Tang (945),New Book of Tang (1060), and theZizhi Tongjian (1084).[6]
Portions of the work have appeared in various English language books and articles, notably:
Translation of the whole Silla bongi
Shultz, Edward J.; Kang, Hugh H.W.; Kane, Daniel C. (2012).'The Silla Annals of the Samguk Sagi. Seongnam-si: The Academy of Korean Studies Press. p. 468.ISBN978-8971058602.
Translation of the whole Goguryeo bongi
Shultz, Edward J.; Kang, Hugh H.W.; Kane, Daniel C.; Gardiner, Kenneth H.J. (2011).'The Koguryo Annals of the Samguk Sagi. Seongnam-si: The Academy of Korean Studies Press. p. 300.ISBN9788971057919.
Translation of the whole Baekje bongji
Best, Jonathan (2007).A History of the Early Korean Kingdom of Paekche [Baekje], together with an annotated translation of The Paekche Annals of the Samguk Sagi. Harvard East Asian Monographs. Vol. 256. Harvard University Asia Center. p. 555.ISBN978-0674019577.
Gardiner, Kenneth H.J. 1982. "Legends of Koguryŏ (I-II): Samguk Sagi, Annals of Koguryŏ."Korea Journal, 22(1): 60-69 and 22(2): 31-48. [translation of book one of the Goguryeo bongi].
Jamieson, John Charles. 1969. "The Samguk Sagi and the Unification Wars." Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Berkeley. [Translation of books 6 and 7 of the Silla bongi and eleven of the biographies, mostly of men of Silla].
Lee, Soyun, and Shin Jeongsoo. 2018. "Chapters 44 and 45 of the 'Samguk Sagi': An Annotated Translation of Biography [sic] of Eulji Mundeok and Others."The Review of Korean Studies, 21(2): 165-145. [translations of books 44 and 45 of the biographies section].
Na, Sanghoon, You Jinsook, and Shin Jeongsoo. 2018. "Chapter 41, 42 and 43 of theSamguk Sagi: An Annotated Translation of [sic] Biography of Kim Yusin."The Review of Korean Studies, 21(1): 191-262.
Beckwith, Christopher (2007).Koguryo: The Language of Japan's Continental Relatives. Brill's Japanese Studies Library. Brill. p. 296.ISBN9789047420286.
Kim, Kichung (1996). "Chap 4. Notes on the Samguk Sagi and Samguk yusa".An Introduction to Classical Korean Literature. Routledge. p. 256.ISBN978-1563247866.
Sin, Chaeho (1931). "조선상고사" [History of Ancient Korea, 2 vols].Reprinted in 단재 신 채호 전집 [Collected works of Danjae Sin Chaeho] (in Korean). ed: 단재 신 채호 전집 편찬 위원회 (Compilation Committee), Seoul, Munjangsa, 1982.
