[KS] Re: Samguk sagi AND OTHER THINGS

Pankaj Mohan Mohan at hum.ku.dk
Sat Mar 4 14:56:24 EST 2000


Re. Samguk sagi
Papers by Yi Ki-dong and No T'ae-don which were presented at the 1996
conference on Silla and the Samguk Sagi (to which Ned Shultz referred in
his post today) have already been published in the 'Kyongju Sahak' (Or
should I romanise the journal title as Gyeongju Sahak?)16,1997. And as
regards the Koguryo Pongi, Dr K. H. J. Gardiner, formerly of the Australian
National University, Canberra, has completed its English translation
'Annals of Koguryo' which contains an exhaustive annotation. The
translation is indeed a delight to read. Unfortunately though, before Dr
Gardiner could prepare final draft of the manuscript, his attention got
diverted to some more urgent familial and academic projects, including his
most recent monograph 'Han China and the Roman Empire'. I hope he manages
to squeeze some time off his busy life for this important project on
Koguryo history.
And may I take this opportunity to tell my friends on the list that a
couple of hours before I took my flight from Canberra to Copenhagen in
August 1999 I handed in my doctoral dissertation on the topic 'Buddhism and
State in Early Silla'. My thesis aims at providing a systematic
understanding of the political aspects of Buddhism in the 'chunggo' or the
mid-antiquity period of early Silla. It demonstrates that though Buddhism
in Silla developed under the patronage of royalty and underpinned Silla's
development into a centralised monarchical state, the early Silla rulers
understood the significance of Buddhism primarily as a component of the
Chinese cultural ensemble. Chinese ideas and institutions were crucial to
the process of the evolution of the centralised government on the Chinese
model and the detribalisation of the consciousness of the people of Silla.
Additionally, by suggesting that the early Silla rulers drew on a diverse
source of legitimatory symbolism and demonstrating the political
significance of their Buddhist policies, I attempted to interrogate the
established paradigm of understanding the early Silla rulers as devout
Buddhists, and the entire trajectory of Korean Buddhism as an expression of
the "nation-protecting" spirit.
I would keep my post short, lest I am accused of taking unauthorised bites
(sorry, bytes) of your Apple MACs  or IBMs.
Sincerely
Pankaj Narendra Mohan


Pankaj N. Mohan
Teaching Fellow
Department of Asian Studies
University of Copenhagen
Leifsgade 33, DK-2300
Copenhagen S. ,  Denmark
Tel. [45] 35 32 88 44 Fax [45] 35 32 88 35
Email: Mohan at hum.ku.dk
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