Pohai/Parhae

[Ian_Lee]

What unites North and South Koreas together?

What divides North Korea and PRC?

The issue of Pohai/Parhae kingdom -- a kingdom that existed in present-day Jilin province around the early 10th Century.

North and South Korean historians consider that a Korean kingdom while Chinese histoirans consider it a Chinese kingdom.

Lately Chinese historians even started on the controversial project "Northeastern Engineering" by re-classifying Koguryo as a Chinese kingdom.

[skylee]

I've read something about 渤海國 written by 余秋雨 (about how barren the place was and how people were exiled there and how they discovered bits and bits of remains of the old kingdom and how they ignored them, if I remember correctly), which is very intriguing in my opinion.

Ian, was it you who posted the link to the report about the dispute over Koguryo? I find it very interesting.

[Ian_Lee]

I have watched the Korean KBS serial drama "Wang Guhn" -- the First emperor that established the Koryo Dynasty after reunifying the Later Three Kingdom period on the Korean peninsula.

It covered how the kingdom of Pohai/Parhae was destroyed by Khitan in merely 6 days with everything scorched into ruins.

But hardly was there any traces of Pohai/Parhae in Chinese or Korean history.

[skylee]

I have found some information (all in simplified Chinese) -

中韓歷史關係雜談 (A Chinese view on the issue)

渤海國訪古

脆弱的都城 (余秋雨writes about 渤海國) (scroll down to Section 16)

[Ian_Lee]

Skylee:

Thanks for the references. (But I have trouble in reading the first link.)

Other than the dilipidated ancient capital of Pohai, I am also curious how come so few traces of the ancient capitals established in northern China like those during the Liao, Jin and Yuan Dynasty (except Beijing) could be found.

More bizarre is that once these dynasties/kingdoms were doomed, these ethnic groups would go back to the pasture and suddenly reverted to the old nomadic culture.

[Quest]

http://www.koreanhistoryproject.org/Ket/KETIndex.htm

Very comprehensive and informative history site on the history of not only Korea, but also China and Japan.