Issue 134 (2017)

V. Rubel, Doctor of History, Professor

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Kyiv, Ukraine

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17721/1728-2640.2017.134.3.16

THE PROBLEM OF CHRONOLOGICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL AUTHENTICITY OF “ANCIENT WRITINGS OF HWAN BEING” HWANDAN GOGI (桓檀古記)

The semi-mythical chronology of the «Hwan-guk epoch» accepted in the Korean historiography causes reasonable doubts. The «Ancient Writings of Hwan Being» Hwandan Gogi (桓檀古記) determine the time of appearance of the first proto-Korean Hwan-guk State as «very old» with existence duration of 3301 years. Within those terms, the consecutive board of seven supreme Hwan-guk’s leaders was mentioned. Those leaders got an official title “hwan-in” (桓因 / 桓仁) that means «the attendant of the god». Differently, every hwan-in should have kept the throne approximately for 470 years. It is clear that such dating should not be taken for granted, but is it necessary to reject it completely? Probably, the problem is what should be counted as "year". Our calendar operates with the concept of "solar" year of 365/366 days. However, ancient people had their own notion of calendar cyclicity. Quite often «the lunar cycle» between the nearest full moons was a base element of early calendars. It consisted of four seven-day weeks or 28 days. It means that if accept not solar but lunar "year" as a base system of calendar cyclicity, the knowledge of the Hwandan Gogi is quite representative. Thus the duration of existence of the Hwan-guk State can be determined with 250 years approximately, which may include all the seven reigns of “hwan-ins”, mentioned in the source (approximately 35 years for each reign).

Key words: Ancient Korea, Hwandan Gogi, Hwan-guk State, chronology, solar year, lunar cycle.