뉴스레터

Princess Wencheng of Tibet

There is a Chinese saying that goes like this: History is like a girl, because you can dress it as you like. Ross Terrill, a China expert at Harvard, quoted it in his book, The New Chinese Empire, criticizing a longstanding tradition of history distortion in China for the purpose of promoting national integration and unity. From this perspective, one historical fact can be interpreted in different ways according to different people, as the colors or designs of the girl's dress can be changed. For example, the marriage between Tibet's Songtsän Gampo and China's Princess Wencheng can be seen as Emperor Taizong of Tang's attempt to seek peaceful relations with Tibet, whose military power was stronger, by sending his niece. On the other hand, it can be considered that Tang China took the initiative and made Tibet's Songtsän Gampo as his son in law.

Alternative history: projecting hopes in historical narrative

Alternative history was once a hot issue in Korea. It refers to rewriting the story on the premise that what if history took a different path at that point in time. Some people say it is just a technique for science fictions, but it is also a way of describing history by projecting hopes and desires. Imjinrok (壬辰錄) and the Tale of Madame Park (朴氏傳) are good examples of literary works in alternative history. It seems that there are still a lot of readers in the Korean society who have the desires to seek different perception of history with novels. I think this shows that they are not satisfied with our past and present history.

China was ruled by other tribes for about 870 years from Qin Dynasty (B.C. 221) to the fall of Qing Dynasty, which takes up 40% of entire Chinese history. The years when Han Chinese unified and ruled China account for only one fourth of China's history. Although Han Chinese accounts for a dominant majority in Chinese population, they do not have distinct characteristics in terms of lineage. In this context, Chinese people needed to conjure up a national identity as "Han Chinese", and ideologies developed to support this idea include Chinese ethnocentrism and Unified Multi-ethnic State Theory. In addition to this, problems regarding ethnic minorities in China put pressures on Chinese people. However, they cannot ignore Ranke's assertion that we should "let the facts speak themselves."

These days, China's emergence and growing power on the global stage remind us of memories of history. Many people are concerned about China's nationalism and patriotism as China pursues a series of historical projects and violates other nations' historical sovereignty. Does China cast a long, dark shadow over the Korean peninsula? Is there a way for China and Korea to coexist peacefully? Isn't it that we lack in-depth understanding of China and make a hasty judgment about their positions, behaviors and policies?

Jingbirok

It was in 1604 when Yu Seongryong finished writing Jingbirok (懲毖錄). Twenty years later, Joseon was swept by Manchu invasions (Jeongmyo Horan & Byeongja Horan). Yu Seongryong's attempts to learn from past mistakes of wars were in vain, and the public's hopes were shattered by incompetent ruling class. Facing the repeated pain and suffering, we cannot but ask ourselves, "What have we learned from history?" Instead, we should ask ourselves, "Have we made any genuine efforts to learn the lessons from history?"

Sometimes it feels like Seoul is farther away from Beijing than Tokyo, and even Washington. Despite the fact that Korea and China mean a lot to each other in terms of history and reality, it does not seem that Chinese people care that much about Korea. Many people in Korea say that we should enhance our understanding of China, but Chinese intellectuals point out that there are few insiders who really understand China. Korea and China should know the importance of each other, and we should be aware that peace in East Asia cannot be assured when Korean peninsula fails to fulfill its geographical function.

Good historians are those who foresee the future

Special lecture at Peking University

Robert W. Cox, who is an expert on international politics, argue that there are critical theory and problem-solving theory for international politics, and that we should develop an alternative order through critical theory. He emphasizes that critical theory is strictly based on understanding of history, and it can convince people because it denies both the eternity of current order and the impossible alternatives. It means that we should have a critical view of history, and explore the alternatives from the perspective of social science. We should no longer hear the sarcastic comments that China learned how to grow into an empire by dealing with Korean kings. Moreover, we cannot leave a divided nation to our children, and make them become peace-breakers. What we need here is a new set of interpretation, strategy and vision for the future. We should first have a clear perception of who we are before hoping anything for the future. Alternative history should serve as a pool of depthless imagination and possibilities, instead of a place to hide ourselves.

We can no longer repeat the behavior that we express our angers all at once and then forget about the essence of the issue. We need to redefine our geographical identity and continue to convince the world that we are the indispensible agents for peace in East Asia. E.H. Carr once said that good historians are those who feel the future deep into their bones, and they ask "why?" and "where?" at the same time. We need to combine our understanding of historical facts and social scientific solutions. "Let's get rid of artificial history and explore the possibilities of alternative history."