초록 열기/닫기 버튼
This paper argues that Goguryeo was comprised of several regions in parallel cooperation, its leaders content to take individual areas as their own tianxias(worlds). This view of tianxia reflects the Goguryeo people's unique understanding of their own identity; their cheonha(world) were different one from those of China and other nomadic societies. With that cheonha in mind, the people of Goguryeo must have felt a kind of brotherly feeling for the people in neighboring states, namely those within their cheonha. The tombstone of Gwangaeto the Great defines the peoples in Shilla, Bailtjae and Eastern Buyeo as essentially subordinated to Goguryeo and justly under the reign of its king. That statement can be interpreted as an expression of brotherly feeling on the side of Goguryeo's ruling class. It might be going too far if this kind of brotherly feeling is argued to be a certain ethnic consciousness, but to call it an incipient form of such is not to be criticized, for that period was the one during which a certain common consciousness had been slowly maturing among the three states in the Korean Peninsula. It should not be missed that the Goguryeo people's view of cheonha(world), as is now verified by the very 5th-century inscriptions, exerted great influence in determining Koreans' self-identity. The pluralistic view of world order held by the people in Goryeo period (918-1391) was one of such instances; they did not insist on a single center of cheonha, admitting the possibility of many varied centers.
