뉴스레터

One spring in 2005, Yuan Li, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told me. “Renxi! A Zhuang People in Debao County, Guangxi Province is trying to find Korean ancestors. He’s visited several embassies and has not found his ancestors yet.”

When I first heard this, I thought I had heard it wrong. Zhuang People is a southern ethnic group residing in Guangxi Province, in the southernmost part of China. Debao County is a famous place for mini-horse. In 『Book of the Later Han(後漢書)』, Hui(濊) has a record of being “There's a guo xiama, three feet tall and small enough to pass under fruit trees”. I thought the mini horse was guo xiama, so I was interested in Debao.

In August of that year, I finished my exploration of 'Yao people in white trousers' in Nandan County, Guangxi Province. And to meet one Zhuang People 'Kim' I left for Debao. Yao people in white trousers are a minority of about 30,000 inhabitants in the mountainous areas of Guangxi Province and Guizhou Province. They wear triangular white pants, so people call them 'Yao people in white trousers'. The southern midsummer was hot, and the bus I boarded was driven by two men alternately; I arrived at Tian Yang in eight hours. Upon arriving at the hotel, I contacted Lu Jinzai, who claims to be a descendant of Zhuang People Kim.

As Mr. Lu entered the hotel lobby, I recognized him at a glance. Eyes without double eyelids, round face. He laughs and looks like Hahoe-tal. Southern ethnic groups generally have deep double eyelids. In his hometown, only Mr. Lu's brothers had no double eyelids. In the village, people call Mr. Lu's family 'Kimgane(金家)'. Because their looks are different and they are descendants of Kim from Korea.

It is known that Mr. Lu is a descendant of Koreans when studying at China University of Political Science and Law, and the government foreign affairs team went to see him. At the time, the foreign affairs team asked, "So Kim's ancestor was born by ‘comfort women’?" Mr. Lu was angry and shouted, "My ancestor is a man, not a woman!" The next morning, I left for Debao County with Mr. Lu and his wife. When I arrived in the village, two of Mr. Lu's brothers greeted me. I ate the food they prepared and talked about Kim's ancestors.

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“My ancestor arrived here in 1886. The hometown is 37 kilometers from the truce line, and it is not clear whether it is south or north. The island name is called '~島' in two letters, and there are no high mountains and there are many flats. Two brothers were sailing to Dalian, Liaoning Province in China and drifting to Hainan. I think Hainan is Vietnam, south of Guangdong Province. My ancestor's brother died there, and my ancestor walked in the north direction unconditionally to return to his hometown. But he came here in the wrong direction. It was a primitive forest at the time. The bombs never fell in eight years of war with Japan.

My ancestors brought a copper washbasin and jade from Korea. The copper washbasin was for storing rainwater on the ship and using it. But the people who live here say that because they first saw copper, they thought it was gold. And my ancestor's mother gave him jade to protect his son.

The name of the ancestor is Kim Chul-chan(金哲燦) or Kim Chul-hwang(金哲煌). My ancestor changed his name to Kim Jin-jang(金眞壯) with the idea that “If I don't really get stronger in a strange tropical village where conversation doesn't work, I can't survive.” He changed his name again after becoming a member of the wife’s family. The son-in-law was named Lu(陸) following the family name of the father-in-law because he had to act as the son of the father-in-law.

And the generation name of father-in-law, 'Rong(榮)', was put into the name and called Lu Rongji(陸榮基).

My ancestor wrote many articles in Korean, with a brilliant brain. There are several boxes of his writings. I saw those articles when I was a child, but I could not read them because they were written in Korean. Unfortunately, my ancestors' writings were burned during the Great Cultural Revolution. At that time, all the old things were called superstitions and burned. The genealogy is burned, and the washbasin is gone. I don't know who has jade. Now my ancestor's grave is in the middle of the Guanyin Mountain behind the village. The tombstone is carved as 'the tomb of Kim Jin-jang' as my ancestor's original name. On March 3 of the lunar calendar, all the descendants gather to sacrifice and eat."

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Mr. Lu is Kim's fifth son.

He has a grandson, so Kim's family already has seven grandchildren.

In the village, Kim's descendants live in about 20 houses, and the total descendants are 120.

Mr. Lu said he wanted to find a home in Korea.

I wondered why.

“Why are you trying to find a home in Korea?

Your ancestors died, and seven generations have passed since.

I don’t think there are many descendants who remember that your ancestors came from Korea.”

Mr. Lu hastily continued: “It is to comfort my ancestor’s deep sorrow. My ancestors lived in the father-in-law's house. So people ignored him. The descendants were also hard to get a wife in the village when they married. My brother had to find a woman to marry in a neighboring village. His ancestral tablet is engraved with the word '陸~~', which is originally '陸金' right. I wanted to put a '金' in the sunname, but I could not. Fortunately, we have been able to do so since the 5th generation of Kim. My name is ‘金在’ and my brothers’ names are ‘金萬’, ‘金泰’ and ‘金昌’. I heard that my ancestor had a great longing for his hometown. He told many stories about Korea to his offspring. If I find my home in Korea, I want to visit there. It is a pity that I do not know my origin because I do not have a genealogy. I hope that even the descendants will find ‘the home’.”

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Mr. Lu’s brothers treated me as a family, and called ‘meimei(妹妹)’. ‘Meimei’ means younger sister. We drank rice-made alcohol. They said it was a very delicious drink and asked me to convey the taste of it to Korea. And Mr. Lu's brothers asked me to teach Korean. I taught them, “I love you, mother, father, me, you” and so on. Mr. Lu's brothers imitated Korean with poor pronunciation. And they asked me whether Korea is a really good country and how the weather is.

The next morning, I boarded a bus to Nanning(南寧) to return home. Mr. Lu bought me a bus ticket and gave me a basket of tropical fruits. I was tired of a tight schedule and immediately fell asleep as soon as I got on the bus. I woke up in a sense of smell. It was from the fruit basket beside me. At that moment I thought of Mr. Lu and his brothers. Why is Mr. Lu trying to find the home of Korea? Of course, they would have wanted to comfort the deep sorrow of their ancestors. But more fundamentally, they will find the answer to "Who am I, where am I from?" Because the history of Kim's ancestors is empty. Mr. Lu with a gentle eyes and a good heart, I thought of him and fell back into sleep.