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The Geographical Names for the Sea of . ,Japan in Chinese Historical Documents

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The Geographical Names for the Sea of . ,Japan in Chinese Historical Documents .... The Geographical Names for the Sea of . ,Japan in Chinese Historical Documents Song-di Wu (The Institute of Chinese C'xeography in Fudan University, Shanghai, China) The Sea of Japan, surround by North Korea, South Korea, Japan and Russia. IS an important sea in tile Northeast Asia. Before the Second Opium War(1854-1860), the lo\ver reachers of the Heilongjiang River, the Wusulijiang River valley and Sakhalin of now Russia were historical documents some records of how the present Sea of Japan was called during various historical times. These records will provide some helpful clues to the discussion of the naming problem of the Sea of Japan today. I. The first Chinese historical document which mentioned tile Sea of Japan was Dong Yi Lie ZhuanO;j[~J!Jfi) of Hou Han Shu(13t7:l~), which recorded Yi Lou(m:I:), which was the kingdom set up by the ancient Su ShenOlitJ)i) tribe, was more than 1,000 Ii northeast of Fu YU(7-:~); it faced the sea on the east and was bounded by the north Wo JuWi:illJ kingdom. Wo Ju was located in the northeast of tile Korean Peninsula, Fu Yu was in the central part of the Northeast Plain of China: Yi Lou was in the \Vusulijiang River valley and the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River which now belong to Russia, so "the sea" Yi Lou faced on tile east could only be the northern area of the Sea of Japan today. It was also recorded in the same book that. to the north of the Wei kingdom \vere Gao Gou Li and Wo Ju, to tile south of it was Chen Han, to the east was "the ocean" and to the west was Le Lang. We know the Wei Kingdom was in the Northeast of the Korean Peninsula, so "the ocean" mentioned above should be the Southern area of the Sea of Japan. DLUing tile times of the Three Kingdoms, the troops of the Wei Kingdom, after wiping out the local kingdoms in Liao Dong, pursued in long distance and attacked the troops of Gao Gau Li. "The Wei troops marched through the regions inhabited by tile Wu Wan, Gu Du and Wo Ju tribes, entered the area in which the Su Shen tribes lived, and continued to march easteard until the troops reached the coast of "the ocean"(\Vu Wan Xian Bei Dong Yi Zhuan) of San Guo Zhi. the Su Shen tribes were actually the Yi Lou tribes. Since the Wei troops - 8 - started their pursuit from a near the seashore and marched in a northeastern direction and thus entered the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River, "the ocean" whose coast they had reached was therefore the northern part of the Sea of Japan today. This war increased the Wei people's knowledge of the Northeast Asia, but it did not add much about the scope of activities of the East Wo Ju. Yi Lou and Wei tribes to Wu Wan Xian Bei Dong Yi Zhuan of San Guo Zhi. The book only said: "the East Wo Ju tribe lived near the seashore, Yi Lou faced the ocean and Wei faced the ocean on the east". the "ocean" here in fact referred to the Sea of Japan today. The added part of San Guo Zhi as a result of this war was mainly about the three Korean kingdoms, Ma Han, Chen Han and Bian Han. It said : "Three Han Kingdoms were on the south of Dai Fang, surrounded by waters on the west and east, facing Japan on the south, with an area of 44 ti". The ancient Ma Han, Chen Han and Bian Han, if put together, almost equal to the territory of the South Korea today. The waters they faced on the west was the east part of the Huanghai Sea today and on the east were the south of the Sea of Japan today. It was recorded in the Chinese historical documents dated from the 3rd century to the 6th century, such as Si Yi Zhuan of Jin Shu, Dou Mo Lou Zhuan of Wei Shu and Dou Mo Lou Zhuan of Bei Shi. Si Yi Zhuan of Jin Shu recorded : "Chen Han was on the south of Dai Fang and was bounded by waters on the west and east". It said also "the Su Shen tribes, also caled Yi Lou, lived on the north of the Bu Xian Shan, which was today's journey from Fu Yu. On the east of the Su Shen tribes was 'the ocean' and on the east was Kou Man Han kingdom, and on the north was Rou Shui. The "waters" on the east of Chen Han or the "ocean" on the east of Su Shen was in fact the Sea of Japan today. It was recorded in Dou Mo Lou Zhuan of Wei Shu that the Dou Mo Lou kingdom, formerly called North Fu Yu, was 1,000 Ii north of the kingdom of Wu Ji, "the sea" on the east of Dou Mo Lou should be the Tartar Strait which is the northern area of the Sea of Japan. We can see from the above discussion that in the Chinese historical documents before the 6th century there was no record of specific names for the sea area which is now the Sea of Japan. It was generally referred to as "the ocean" or "the sea" in the description of the scopes of territories of the kingdoms. This shows that the Chinese people at that time was not quite familir with this sea area. II. In Chinese history, the Tang Dynasty enjoyed much prosperous economy and culture, the result of which was a stronger economic enhancements also took place in these areas. In the Northeast Asia, Mo He tribe set up in 698 a comparatively large kingdom named the Kingdom of Bo Hai, which lasted for more than 200 years. This kingdom had much communication with inland of China; Consequently, there was an increased amount of account of the Sea of Japan in the Chinese historical documents. Although Gao Li Zhuan, Xin Luo - 9 - p Zhuan an Ri Ben Zhuan still employed some general names such as "the ocean" or "the sea", Liu Gui Zhuan of Xin Tang Shu, Tang Hui Yao and Tong Dian had begun to use proper names for this sea area or part of it. As Bo Hai of Xing Tang Shu recorded, there were five main lines of communication in the Kingdom of BohaL One started from the Southeast of the Longyuan District, passed through "the ocean" and reached Japan. Another one, with the Kingdom of Xing Luo as its destination, started from the Nan Hai District{the South Sea District) and passed through "the South Sea". Moreover, one of the famous commodities sold in the Kingdom of Bohai was Kun Bu from the South Sea District. The Longyuan District had a jurisdictional ara including today's Hun Chun of China, Chongjun of North Korea and Zal patra velikogo of Russia while the Nan Hai District admunistered the coastal area on the northeast of Korea. That is to say, the western part of the sea area which is now the Sea of Japan was named "the South Sea" by the Bohai tribes. There were two chapters of Tang Hui Yao(Mo He and Liu GuD which had also mentioned the northern part of the present Sea of japan. Mo He had the following account. The scope of activities of Hei Shui Mo He tribe was an area surrounded by the Xiande District of the Kingdom of Bohai on the South, Xiao HaiOiterally "Small Sea") on the north, "the ocean" on the east and the territory occupied by the Shi Wei tribe on the west. It had a distance of about 2,000 Ii grom north to south and about 1,000 Ii from east to west. Lui Gui had a distance of 15,000 Ii away from our capital and was on the northeast of the Hei Shui Mo He tribe, and on the north of Shao HaiOiterally "Small Sea"). It was a land surrounded by sea on three sides, a land of much swamp and a land productive of fish and ji salt.... it was bounded by Mo Ye Mo He tribe on the south. ;i The scope of activities of the three tribes of Hei Shui Mo He, Mo Ye Mo He and Lui Gui ii j lied actually within territory of Russia today. The scope of activities of the Lui Gui tribe, it is argued, was either in Sakhalin or Kamchatka Peninsula. According to the record of Lui Gui Zhuan of xing tang Shu that Lui Gui tribe lived in an area which was close to the Mo Ye Mo He tribe on the south and it would take 15 days to sail from Lui Gui to Mo Ye Mo He m a southeastern direction, I personally hold that the Lui Gui tribe lived in where which is now the Kamchatka Peninsula, because 15 days would be too much for a boat to sail from Sakhalin to the Mo Ye tribe. We may now conclude that "the ocean" mentioned in the record was the southern area of the present Sea of japan. some historian hold the view that the Xiao Hai or Shao Hai should be today's Ochotsk,but I think it should be the northern Sea of japan including the Tartar Strait. In the Chinese language Xiao Hai literally meaning "small sea", while "the ocean", if also literally translated, should be "big sea".
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