The Modern Colonial Period and the Sea Narrative in the Korean Mythological Work, Samgukyusa (The Retained History of Three Kingdoms): Choi Nam-Seon’s Imagination of the Sea

Abstract

Choi Nam-Seon placed critical importance on how the seas were depicted in Korean literary works during the Japanese colonial period. While studying in Japan, Choi majored in geography and history, examining the relationship amongst a nation’s land, history, and culture. Choi’s identification with the child and the sea began ever since he founded the magazine, Sonyeon(Boy), in 1908. In 1927, he reintroduced Samgukyusa (The Retained History of Three Kingdoms) — a representative Korean mythological literary work transported to Japan during the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592 — along with a preface. Choi did not merely reintroduce Korea’s native mythological work, but he also went on to directly confront the Tangun Negation Theory and the Monk’s Nonsense Theory claimed by Japan. To go on further, Choi countered the statement that Korea’s geographical shape was one that of a fearful rabbit. Instead, he actively utilized the theory that Korea was shaped like a courageous tiger. Choi approached the marine mythologies within Samgukyusa in two ways. Firstly, he focused on acceptability, in which people from different cultures strove to find a way to live together in peace and harmony through the sea. Secondly, he focused on the marine mythologies which possess the spirit of pioneering – one that endeavored to reach new worlds through the sea. © 2017 Institution for Marine and Island Cultures, Mokpo National University.