This volume encompasses two histories of the early Korean kingdom
of Paekche (trad. 18 b.c.e.–660 c.e.). The first is a history of my composition that is based almost exclusively on information derived from
primary materials, both written and archaeological. This initial history
of Paekche is intended, in part, to serve as an introduction to the second, which is an extensively annotated translation of the oldest surviving history of the kingdom, the Paekche pon’gi—literally, the Paekche
Annals. Written in the chronicle format that was standard for the traditional official histories of East Asia, the Paekche Annals constitutes one
integral section of the Samguk sagi (Histories of the Three Kingdoms),
a comprehensive account of early Korean history compiled at royal
command under the editorial direction of Kim Pusik (1075–1151) late
in the first half of the twelfth century.
Although the two representations of Paekche’s history presented
here are markedly different in important respects, the underlying
historiographic problem faced by Kim in the twelfth century and by
me nearly nine hundred years later is essentially the same—namely,
how to fashion a responsible, encompassing, and reasonably coherent history of the kingdom from the meager, and often disparate and
fragmentary, available evidence. Kim had the significant advantage
of being closer in time to the period of concern and, consequently, of
having access to a number of earlier Korean historical texts that are no
longer extant. I have the significant advantages of, first and foremost,
access to Kim’s erudition in the Samguk sagi, and also of access to a
number of early East Asian sources—Korean, Chinese, and especially