[KS] Vale: Ken Gardiner

[Frank Joseph Shulman]

The following information regarding Kenneth Gardiner's doctoral dissertation may be of some interest to members of the Korean Studies listserve:


GARDINER, Kenneth Herbert James  (1932-2011).

The Rise and Development of the Korean Kingdom of Koguryô from the Earliest Times to A.D. 313.  University of London [United Kingdom], 1964 (Ph.D. in History, School of Oriental and African Studies).  Chairperson-Major Adviser: William Gerald Beasley and Denis C. Twitchett.  vii, 527p.  No published abstract.  EThOS Persistent ID: uk.bl.ethos.266770. British Library Document Supply Centre no.DX202459. A microfilm copy is available at the Center for Research Libraries in Chicago, Illinois (call number 80000993).

This dissertation is a chronologically arranged synthesis of Korea's earliest history, starting from before the Han conquest in 108 B.C., in which Gardiner "brought together what was known (as of 1964) or could be surmised about the early development of Koguryô (Goguryeo) until that kingdom succeeded in overrunning the last Chinese commanderies in Korea".  Analyzing and comparing all available written sources including brief accounts and references in the Chinese dynastic histories and "legendary material retold in Sino-Korean chronicles", he indicated some of the possible variations in the interpretations and hypotheses regarding social, economic, and cultural activities on the Korean Peninsula and traced Koguryô's changing relations with China as the kingdom expanded its power.  Gardiner did not attempt, however, to "write any kind of continuous history of the beginnings of Koguryô".

Contents: 1. General Characteristics of the History of Koguryô, and the Nature of the Sources from Which It Is Obtained.  2. The Background to the Struggle between China and Koguryô: Korea before the Chinese Conquest.  3. The Han Commanderies in Korea.  4. Kao-chü-li and Kao-chü-li hsien.  5. The Legend of the Founding of Koguryô.  6. Koguryô and the Chinese Commanderies during the First Century A.D.  7. The Internal Organisation of Independent Koguryô: The King and the Clans.  8. A Note Concerning the Royal Line of Koguryô in the First Century A.D.  9. The Beginnings of Continuous History: The Reign of King Kung (Part One).  10. The Reign of King Kung (Part Two).  11. The Successors of King Kung and the Chinese Recovery.  12. Koguryô and Its Relation to Han China and the Northern Peoples.  13. Koguryô and the Kung-sun Lordship of Liaotung.  14. Koguryô and the Wei Dynasty: The Chinese Reconquest of Korea.  15. Koguryô and the Last Phase of Chinese Occupation in Korea 246-313.  1 map.  2 tables.  Appendices [1-3]: pp.446-506.  Bibliography: pp.507-18.  Index: pp.519-27.

Published in part as The Early History of Korea: The Historical Development of the Peninsula up to the Introduction of Buddhism in the Fourth Century A.D., by K.H.J. Gardiner. Canberra: Centre of Oriental Studies in association with the Australian National University Press; Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1969. viii, 78p. (Oriental monograph series, no.8).


Source: "A Century of Doctoral Dissertations on Korea, 1903-2004: An Annotated Bibliography of Studies in Western Languages. Compiled, annotated and edited by Frank Joseph Shulman.  Forthcoming, Winter 2011-2012.


Frank Joseph Shulman
Bibliographer, Editor and Consultant for Reference Publications in Asian Studies
9225 Limestone Place
College Park, Maryland 20740-3943 (U.S.A.)
E-mail: fshulman at umd.edu