{"id":97626,"date":"2026-10-10T10:00:38","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thekoreantoday.com\/incheonsouth\/2026\/10\/10\/history-lives-on-baekje-series-episode-27-rediscovering-baekje\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T10:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T01:00:57","slug":"history-lives-on-baekje-series-episode-27-rediscovering-baekje","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thekoreantoday.com\/incheonsouth\/2026\/10\/10\/history-lives-on-baekje-series-episode-27-rediscovering-baekje\/","title":{"rendered":"[History Lives On – Baekje Series] Episode 27: Rediscovering Baekje"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u767e<\/span> <\/div>\n
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THE KOREAN TODAY<\/p>\n

History Lives On<\/h1>\n
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The Baekje Chronicle<\/h2>\n

Episode 27: Rediscovering Baekje’s Heritage – Gongju and Buyeo<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In the summer of 1971, a drainage ditch dug during the monsoon season uncovered a king who had slept underground for some 1,400 years. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

After the fall of the capital Sabi in 660 CE, Baekje survived in written history only thinly. The Samguk Sagi was compiled from the perspective of the Korean states that outlasted it, and almost no Baekje-authored chronicle survives. The vivid face Baekje shows the world today is largely the work of the shovel, not the archive. <\/p>\n

Think of Howard Carter opening Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, or the 1939 discovery of the Sutton Hoo ship burial in England. Korea had its own such moment in Gongju. Who dug, when, and with what motives? This episode traces a century of rediscovery, from colonial-era looting to UNESCO inscription in 2015. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\ud83c\udf0d Western Historical Parallel <\/h4>\n

Baekje moved its capital to Sabi (modern Buyeo) in 538, just a year after Emperor Justinian completed the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in 537. King Muryeong, whose tomb was found in 1971, reigned from 501 to 523, a generation when the Western Roman Empire had already fallen and Frankish and other successor kingdoms were taking shape. The Convention that created the UNESCO World Heritage system was adopted in 1972, only a year after Muryeong’s tomb came to light. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\u25c6<\/span> The Ancient Landscape <\/h3>\n
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In 475, Goguryeo’s assault cost Baekje its capital Hanseong, and the court relocated south to Ungjin (modern Gongju). In 538 it moved again to Sabi (modern Buyeo). For roughly 180 years these two cities in today’s South Chungcheong Province were the heart of the kingdom. After Sabi fell in 660, palaces, temples and royal tombs lay buried and forgotten. <\/p>\n

Modern investigation began under Japanese colonial rule. Between 1927 and 1933 the Songsan-ri tombs in Gongju were handled by Karube Jion and the Government-General Museum. Karube, a schoolteacher, dug large numbers of tombs, and the museum’s own artifact cards record his activity as unauthorized digging. The records have scholarly value, but the scattered finds and lost context can never be fully recovered. In 1933 the Government-General Museum formally investigated Tomb No. 6. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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“King Muryeong stood eight cheok tall, with eyes as fine as a painting; he was benevolent and generous, and the hearts of the people turned to him.” (paraphrase of the chronicle’s description of the king) <\/p>\n