[Trans] “The Legend” - Article from a Romanian Site Part 2

Posted in KOB by Marcela (post no.#61389)
Translated from Romanian into English by Marcela
Source : http://www.asiacinefil.com/the-great-king-partea-a-2-a-politizarea-istoriei-si-furtuna-iscata-de-serial/

The Great King, Part 2: Politicization of history and the storm aroused by serial

The second part of the article about this beloved series will reveal things hard to believe, but still that happened in the XXI century world. He certainly can give answer to all those who wondered why this series has a continuation.

Following the discovery of an ornament (a miniature bell) as a result of excavations in the province of Jilin, in the place where it was believed that is the tomb of King Kwanggaeto, a researcher from the Woosuk University made analysis, whose result was published in a study. He confirmed, from the writting on the object it was a bell made by "Hotaewang"priest or "Great King Ho" (also called Kwanggaeto), that was dated somewhere in 391 e.n. The tomb where was found had been suspected of belonging to King Kwanggaeto. Until this discovery, there was only one brick which were inscribed the words "Great King", this was the only indication, but no clear proof.

The discovery was crucial for this period of time. The importance of the discovery comes from the fact that the Japanese claim to have ruled the Korean peninsula's southern lands, in those times, which the discovery invalidate. Moreover, researchers studied this problem believe that the year wrote on that bell is the one in which King Kwanggaeto did something worthy of being mentioned. It is conceivable, he said, that in 391 Korean King crossed the sea and defeated the Japanese, a very bold theory, the exact opposite of what the Japanese say, that in that year, the Japanese tribes would have crossed the sea and conquered Baekje and Shilla (which, moreover, is demonstrated, not a mere hypothesis). Beyond the politicization of the subject specialists have developed, based on archaeological discoveries in the area, a digital restoration of his tomb, which probably would have looked like in the picture above.

Not only Japan has politicized subject reign of this king. For those who do not know the problem, ancient Goguryeo kingdom was located partially in China today. The dream the big Korean kings of this dynasty had, followed from the founder Jumong to the last monarch of the dynasty, Pojang (in 668 Shilla conquered Goguryeo is supported by the Chinese Tang dynasty) was the creation of a big and unified kingdom. Goguryeo's in the time of Kwanggaeto reached its peak of territorial expansion(never touched by any of the 28 monarchs of the dynasty), including northern and central part of Korean peninsula and northeast China.

But historical truth bother, and the demands of Japan shown above were accompanied by a reluctant position shown by the communist China. China does not recognize that a part of its territory was ruled by some king of Korea, although the history denies her position, and although today there are areas in China (Harbin, for example) where the Chinese-Korean people are speakers of Korean for centuries. Consequently, series "The Great King" was banned in China. The Chinese government has imposed an embargo in the press about this series and television was banned to broadcast it. This, however, could not prevent millions of Chinese to see the series, using other means. Despite this, the show raised a genuine dispute between the "netizens" in Korea and those in China, which showed, from the point of view of the neutral spectator, limitation and the indoctrination of the Chinese (some users denied more than 600 Chinese years of history and the stories written, as the existence of artifacts or evidence of Korean domination in Northeast China). We must not forget either that in 2002, the Chinese government began to implement a policy of erasing the "uncomfortable" historical materials , which contested the "official" history of China. This political consciousness can not but explain the limitation of thinking of such a society, and we, the Romanians, which we had more than 4 decades of communism, understand this very well.

The attitude towards the Chinese Communist state denial of a crucial part of the history of Korea, the Korean Government in office in 2007 ordered the creation of a government committee chaired by the Korean foreign minister himself, who take action against distortion of history by China. The Korean government has expressed a desire to provide greater support to the Research Foundation of Goguryeo's history in order to strengthen the position of the logic in the historical dispute between China in Korea. Political relations between the 2 countries have seriously worsened in 2008 when was learned that at the intervention of the Chinese foreign ministry, had been removed the History of Goguryeo (one of the 3 ancient Korean kingdoms)from an introduction to the history of Korea published in China. Moreover, China claimed Goguryeo as belonging to its own history, the official press agency Xinhua saying that in Goguryeo there was "a local administration" that has received authority from Chinese dynasties. In protest at this nonsense, the Korean Government has withdrawn, at that time the ambassador in Beijing, advancing an official protest to Chinese part.

To understand better the storm stirred by "The Great King", you must remember that South Korean officials and experts in the field have said, then, in public, that both South Korea and the North Korea, should unite in front of the "creation" of their history. In response, "Choson Shinbo, official newspaper of the pro-North Korea that appears in Japan said in its online edition, that the Chinese attitude is" a distortion on the face of history "that the Koreans can not tolerate. This was one of the rare moments when an press organ pro-North Korea has denounced China, a key Communist ally. In the conditions when ancient Goguryeo's artifacts are spread far too little territory of South Korea, but especially on that of North Korea and of China, South Korea has achieved recently, the establishment of UNESCO's patronage on them, putting such , a major obstacle on China policy to delete the history of Goguryeo.

So as we can see, "The Great King" was more than just a fantasy series. He raised heated passions not just for the actors, but also for different issues, involving history and very existence of the state of Korea. Perhaps the recent wave of Korean historical series should be viewed from this perspective also, the involvement of politics, the foreign pressure created by the policy of erasing the history of Korea by China may have led to a desperate desire of Koreans to show the whole world history, its beauty, justifying the 600 years of history that can not be constested by anyone outside a blind totalitarian ultra-nationalist regime, as the Chinese.

PS: I know politics are a sensitive subject, but don't shoot the translator ... please ... :)