『三國遺事』의 史書로서의 特性

Characteristics of Samguk Yusa(三國遺事) as an Historical Text

&nbsp;&nbsp;There has been a premise that had been suggested during the time of Choi Nam Seon/崔南善 and has been widely accepted since then, which considered『Samguk Yusa/三國遺事』written by priest Ilyeon/一然 as the only text that was left to the Korean people to show them the original forms(原形) of the ancient Korean culture. In this article, this grand premise is critically examined.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;So, this author attempted to reevaluate the value and true nature of『Samguk Yusa』from the viewpoint of the late 13th century(the time period when the text was born) and not from a viewpoint that would have been engineered in later periods. Result of such reevaluation shows two distinct characteristics of 『Samguk Yusa』 as an historical text. First, as we can see from the title, the text shows the characteristic of being the documentation of ‘Left facts(遺事)’. In 『Samguk Yusa』, things that were left out of the historical texts which had dealt with the Three-dynasties period and the Unified Shilla dynasty period were mainly collected and examined. And it seems that such collection of the &quot;left-out&quot; facts continued in three directions. First, things that were not dealt with or included in『Samguk Sagi/三國史記』written by Kim Bu Shik/金富軾, who was a Confucian scholar(儒者) and therefore designed the text as a King-based, royal affairs-based one and also concentrated upon the history of political affairs, were collected. Second, things that were not dealt with or included in『Haedong Goseung-jeon/海東高僧傳』 written by Gakhun/覺訓, who was a Gyojong/敎宗-school Buddhist priest and designed the text around Buddhist priests&quot; biologies, were collected. And third, things that were not included in his(一然) own texts about the history of Seon school(禪宗史) must have been collected as well. As we can see, historical texts that dealt with the ancient history and culture of Korea existed in at least three of these areas at this point, so it can be said that the publication of 『Samguk Yusa』was intended to supplement these existing texts.<BR>&nbsp;&nbsp;Because『Samguk Yusa』was a collection of ‘left facts[遺事]’, it covered the historical facts of the Korean history that were not included in previous historical texts, and as a result came to reflect the society of the Goryeo dynasty up until the latter half period of the 13th century. As we can see from the title originally it must have been meant to deal with the left out things in the history of the Three dynasties, yet the facts that are discussed in this text are from the 4th century through the ending days of the 13th century. This means that between the date of publication of 『Samguk Yus a』 and the days of the Three dynasties and the Unified Shilla, there was a time gap bigger than 250 years and smaller than 900. This kind of time gap would surely have had influence upon the people&quot;s viewing of the &quot;original forms of the ancient culture&quot;. So, it is clear that texts which were written during the Goryeo dynasty period cannot be considered as texts containing the &quot;original forms of the ancient culture&quot;, and they should be interpreted instead as reflections of the Goryeo people&quot;s view upon the ancient culture. This is what this author wish to label as the second characteristic of『Samguk Yusa』.