논문제목: War and Ritual in Ancient Korea: From the Bronze Age to the Three Kingdoms Era저자 : PARK Daejae(박대재)

출판사항 : Korea Journal Vol.51 No.1, 2011년 3월, Korean National Commission for UNESCO

Abstract

Since the 1990s the discovery of Korean Bronze Age village remains with defensive facilities such as wooden palisades and ditches surrounding settlements (hwanho), such as those excavated from the Geomdan-ri site in Ulsan and the Songguk-ri site in Buyeo, has resulted in close attention being paid to the relationship between agrarian settlements and primitive wars. The characteristics of primitive wars during the Bronze Age, which featured stones as the main weapon of choice, differed from those of the wars conducted by ancient states based on the use of iron weapons. The features of such primitive wars that used stones as their weapon of choice may be ascertained from the tradition passed down to the modern era known as seokjeon (stone battle). Seokjeon revolves around individuals being divided into two groups who must then throw stones at each other. The kings of ancient states can be perceived as having been newly established supreme rulers that emerged when heads of primitive societies, who had originated from war, secured, exclusive military and ritual rights for themselves at the state level. The war, determined by the king of ancient state, was a sort of ideological political ritual, not the simple physical expression of social conflicts. A pertinent example in ancient Korea of war being conducted as a state ritual led by the royal power occurred during the reign of King Jinheung of Silla (540-576). The fact that through the Hwarangdo, Buddhism, and memorial ritual for the dead soldiers King Jinheung was able to create a national consensus around the conduct of war proves the fact that such wars featured moralistic, ritual, and religious overtones to the nobles as well as the people, or more precisely, that they were sacred wars meant to protect the state. In other words, these wars were implemented as religious rituals designed to protect the royal power and the state.

Keywords: war, ritual, wooden palisade, ditch surrounding settlement (hwanho), stone battle (seokjeon), Hwarangdo, King Jinheung of Silla