Preserving the Lore of Korean Antiquity: An Introduction to Native and Local Sources in Iryŏn’s Samguk yusa

The Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, ca. 1282–1289) is not a Buddhist or nationalistic response to the Samguk sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms, 1136–1145). Iryŏn and his disciple Hon’gu compiled the Samguk yusa to present anecdotes from Korea’s rich native and local lore and to demonstrate that the tales of Korea’s founders were just as good as those of China. A more fruitful way to conceptualize the relationship between the Samguk sagi and Samguk yusa is to think of the former as more representative of official, Confucian, or central discourse and the latter as preserving the lore of Korea’s antiquity. Although unavoidably influenced by Buddhist perceptions of the cosmos, the value of the Samguk yusa comes from its inclusion of many types of unofficial materials, including samples of local records, inscriptions, monastery records, strange tales, and songs in the vernacular. These local materials, filtered through the lens of Buddhist monks of the Koryŏ period, conserve something of the voice of ancient and medieval Koreans.