(1075–1151), Korean historian and statesman. Kim Pu-shik was one of the most notable scholar-officials of Korea's Koryo dynasty (918–1392) and a figure of central importance in Korean historiography for his role as chief compiler of the Samguk sagi (A History of the Three Kingdoms). He came from a family of noteworthy scholar-officials of the mid-Koryo and traced his lineage back to the royal line of the Shilla kingdom (57 BCE–935 CE). Under several Koryo kings, Kim Pu-shik served key roles in the kingdom's administration, even leading a Koryo army to defeat a dynasty-threatening internal rebellion in 1136. His crowning achievement came with the compilation of the Samguk sagi, a history of the three kingdoms of ancient Korea (Shilla, Paekche, Koguryo), commissioned by Koryo's King Injong (1123–1146) and completed in 1145. Its importance today lies primarily in the fact that it is the oldest surviving native Korean history and the chief source for the history of the three kingdoms.
Kim Pu-shik was an unapologetically Confucian scholar, trained and nurtured in Chinese literary technique and tradition, and always espoused Korea's politically subservient role vis-à-vis China, a fact that has made him the prime target of much latter day Korean nationalist criticism. Yet Kim Pu-shik was also a practicing Buddhist, and his surviving magnum opus reveals a just pride in Korean achievements and recognition of Korea's unique cultural development.
Further Reading
Gardiner, K. H. J. (1970) "Samguk sagi and Its Sources." Papers on Far Eastern History 2 (September): 1–41.
Jamieson, John C. (1969) "The Samguk sagi and the Unification Wars." Ph.D. diss., University of California, Berkeley.
Kim, Kichung. (1996) "Notes on the Samguk sagi and Samguk yusa." In An Introduction to Classical Korean Literature. London: M. E. Sharpe.
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