濊貊族에 關한 硏究

A Study of Ye Maek(濊ㆍ貊) Tribe

It is well-known that the Ye Maek(the tribe of Huei-Mai) is an ancestor of Korean people. Now, there is no objection about it. The present tendency of arguing about this problem, however, has divided into two opinions-that is as to whether the Huei-Mai separates the Huei from the Mai, or the Huei-Mai regards itself as one tribe. About this problem, there have been many dissertations by domestic or alien scholars, but there is yet no any consistence of opinions in several theories. Most Korean and Chinese scholars tend to regard the Huei-Mai as one tribe, while some Japanese and Chinese scholars tend to separate it. Since the period of pre-Ch’in, however, if one examines the Chinese records under the Age of Ch’un-Ch’iu Chan-Kuo (春秋戰國) and the reign of Han, one comes to understand that the Huei and Mai would be separated. The two are one homogeneous tribe, but never just the heterogeneous one that Professor Mikami(三上) has insisted on. It is reasonable to view that this classification would result from considering the regional distribution. The territories in which the Huei Tribe lived have to be viewed as the eastern part of the Korean Peninsula and the southern tract of Manchuria, while the territories of the Mai have to be considered as the northern part of the Korean Peninsula and furthermore, Chinese Shantung and Liaotung neighbourhood. As an archaeological specimen about it, a wine-vessel called ‘Mai-tse-yu(貉子卣)’, excavated in Shou-kuan Hsien(壽光縣), Shantung Province, proves that the Mai Tribe lived in the Shantung Province. As has already been told, without the consideration of the racial distribution concerned with the regions, the problem about the tribe of Huei-Mai would not have solved. Of course, as the days had passed, even though their residence area had moved to the Korean Peninsula by the pressure of Chinese people, the tribes of Huei and Mai all did not move to the Korean Peninsula. Therefore, nowadays, as for the territories of the Huei, they are not always a part of Kangwon Province, Korea, of which some of us often remind. Until now, as to the Korean people, there have been many theories, which they are sometimes called the Tungus, the Paleo-Asiatic, or a group of Chinese people, but as a matter of fact, the Korean people do not belong to their groups. Since they had had quite different histories from ancient times, the Huei and Mai have to be identified among some tribes different from them. As the tribal problem has a direct relationship with the origin of the Korean people and culture, it is important that the archaeological theories concerned with the Huei and Mai will be examined. Professor Mikami, regarding the Huei and Mai as separate tribes,dilated some archaeological meanings upon them. It is well known that in the prehistoric culture of Korea there are two systematic streams: they are the undecorated pottery and the ornamented pottery. Thus, based upon the above archaeological theory, Professor Mikami had insisted the theory that the Huei Tribe was the owner of ornamented pottery and the Mai Tribe the owner of undecorated pottery. However, according to the records concerned, the Huei and Mai had been nearly in the same period; on the contrary, since the ornamented pottery was in chronological order earlier than the undecorated pottery, the combination of both will be impossible. It is furthermore embarrassed because there are a great deal of spaces of time between the age of ornamented pottery and the records of the Huei. Perhaps having been influenced by Professor Mikami, Wen Ch’ung-I(文崇一) insisted that the tribes of Huei and Mai, as one tribe, should be the owner of black pottery. This theory will be worthy of note, with the combination of the Mai tribe and the undecorated pottery, because this culture has a relationship with the period of the Huei and Mai.