We Have to Know Koguryo’s History in Order to Defend It

“We will act so that our people will argue with the Chinese over Koguryo’s history everywhere.”

It is a pledge of SeoKyeong University’s Professor Seo Kil-soo, who directs an EBS program entitled “A Planning Series-Seo Kil-soo’s Awakening of Koguryo’s Soul,” which will be first telecasted at 9 p.m. from Monday through Wednesday. Professor Seo lectures on the history of Koguryo eighteen times over six weeks with scholars in the Koguryo Research Institute, including Kim Eil-kwon, Ph.D. who has researched Koguryo astronomy. Professor Seo will give his lectures and field investigation documents based upon materials he has accumulated through the ruins of Koguryo in China from the 1990s.

He will verify the historical fabrication of China`s five-year research program on Northeast Asia, incorporating the history of the ancient Korean kingdom of Koguryo into China’s national history in the first round. China insisted that Koguryo’s drifting people became Chinese after Koguryo’s collapse, but Professor Seo reminds us that Balhae succeeded Koguryo. In the second round, he will reconfirm that the history of Koguryo is not that of China by pointing out the ancient history of Korean peninsula, succeeding Gojosun-Buyeo-Koguryo.

In the third to sixth rounds, he introduces ancient relics, including ancient ramparts and the royal tomb of King Jangsoo remaining in ZolBon, the first capital city of Koguryo and in KukNaeSeong, the second capital city. ZolBon is now located in the Liaoning province and Kuknaeseong in Jilin province in China.

In the ninth and tenth rounds, he will reveal that “Koguryo was a country of Heaven that performed a sacrificial rite to Heaven through the historical book of Three Nations,” and his filed investigation of KukDongDaeHyul, located in Ji Ahn province, as the place of sacrificial rites. At that time, since the Sun of Heaven could perform a sacrificial rite to Heaven in East Asia, it implies that Koguryo was equal to China.

Meanwhile, Satellite KBS Korea, which is telecasting “Invitation to the Special Lectures of Culture Accompany- New year’s Project Koguryo” at 1 p.m. on Wednesdays and Thursdays from January 1, will complete the series on January 14 and 15. On January 14, Professor Yoon Myoung-cheol will show that Chinese dynasties Soo and Dang considered Koguryo as a foreign country and made international wars through a program entitled “Koguryo and China Seen by a War History.” On January 15, Professor Seo Kil-soo will lecture about today’s meaning of the history of Koguryo through “The Identity of Koguryo Seen by its Relics.”

kathycho@donga.com