Astronomical Records in the Goguri Annal of the Three Kingdoms Period

Abstract

It is known that Chang-Hwa Park (1889–1962) transcribed a chronicle of the Goguryeo kingdom (BC 37–AD 668) of Korea (hereafter Goguri annal) from literature of the time that is no longer available. However, the authenticity of his transcription remains disputed. This study attempts to verify whether the Goguri annal is a pseudograph by analyzing the astronomical records in the annal. Although the Goguryeo kingdom fell in the year 668, the Goguri annal contains records up to the year 536. In this study, we have classified the astronomical records into eight categories and clustered them into two groups: a calendrical data group of reign-name and calendar date categories, and a celestial phenomena group of solar eclipse, trespass, comet, daylight appearance of Venus, meteor/meteorite, and other categories. The records of each category have been compared with those of the Samguksagi (History of the Three Kingdoms), Chinese chronicles, and with the results of modern computations wherever possible. From this comparison, we have not found any critical record that would indicate that the Goguri annal is a pseudograph, although the same astronomical records, with the exception of a few, are also found in the Samguksagi and Chinese chronicles.

Keywords

• istorical astronomy
• astronomical record
• goguryeo kingdom
• samguksagi