竹島問題の歴史

7.9.07

1793 Oct 1 "Songdo another name for Ulleungdo"

Today I was looking again at the 1793 passage about "Songdo" (松島) from Korea's "Ilseong-rok" records and realized that my previous translation of the passage was probably a mistranslation. Here is the complete 1793 passage:
召見輪對官于熙政堂

禮曹正郞李福休曰兩昏朝私家設享不合於禮博採衆議立廟享祀似好矣予曰曠古未行之典何可輕議乎福休曰臣按本曹謄錄蔚陵外島其名松島卽古于山國也新羅智證王時異斯夫以木獅子恐㥘島人而受降今若立碑於松島述異斯夫舊蹟則其爲我國土地可以憑驗矣
I had previously translated the part marked in red as follows:

臣按本曹謄錄蔚陵外島其名松島卽古于山國也
The attendant observed that in the Yejo record, Ulleungdo’s neighboring island of Songdo was part of the country of Usan.
I think the above translation is wrong because I think 蔚陵外島 should be translated as "Ulleung and its surrounding islands." If I am right, then the translation should be corrected as follows:
臣按本曹謄錄蔚陵外島其名松島卽古于山國也

The attendant said that according to the Yejo record, "Songdo" was another name for Ulleungdo and its surrounding islands," which was the old kingdom of Usan.
"Songdo" is the Korean pronunciation of 松島, which the Japanese pronounce as "Matsushima." It appears from this 1793 record that Koreans believed Songdo/Matsushima (松島) to be Ulleungdo, not Liancourt Rocks or not even a neighboring island of Ulleungdo.

I am not sure how to translate the remaining portion of the passage, so if anyone has a translation, please let me know.

8 comments:

  1. Gerry,

    The word 蔚陵外島 may have various meanings but 蔚陵 means Ulleungdo and 外 means "outer" or "other" and 島 means island. So I think the whole word may mean "another island except Ulleungdo" or "the other island (but not Ulleungdo)".

    The latter may have a meaning that there are two islands, one is Ulleungdo and another one is the island the author referred to.

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  2. So if I was right, the whole sentence should mean:

    臣按本曹謄錄蔚陵外島其名松島卽古于山國也

    The attendant observed that in the Yejo record, another island beside Ulleungdo is called as Songdo, it was the country of Usan in the older days.

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  3. Pacifist,

    The problem with your translation is that it is saying that Ulleungdo's neighboring island was the old country of Usan, not Ulleungdo, itself. However, the country of Usan was not Ulleungdo's neighboring island, but "Ulleungdo and its surrounding islands" (蔚陵外島). That is why I think 蔚陵外島 should be translated as "Ulleungdo 'and' its surrounding islands."

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  4. Gerry,

    If 蔚陵外島 means "Ulleungdo and surrounding islands", then the island group is called as Songdo as a whole, which is not reasonable, isn't it?

    How about other sentences in the whole book? What they say?

    If another island (today's Jukdo) was called as Songdo, it may another clue to the "Matsushima (Songdo) is Usando, which is also our land, how can you live there?" statement...

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  5. Pacifist,

    Yes, of course, it is possible. When Japanese refer to Ulleungdo as "Matsushima," aren't they really referring to Ulleungdo, in general, which would include its main island and surrounding islands?

    Yes, if it said that Ulleungdo's neighboring island was called "Songdo" (Matsushima), then it would help explain what An Yong-bok was talking about when he said that Matsushima was Korea's Usando since Korean maps after the incident showed Usando to be Ulleungdo's neighboring island of Juko. However, we cannot translate it that way just because it would be a convenient translation. Besides, when An Yong-bok said that Matsushima (Songdo) was Usando, was he referring to Ulleungdo's neighboring island or to Ulleungdo, itself? Either way, it would still show that the Matsushima in the 1793 document was not referring to Liancourt Rocks.

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  6. Gerry,

    Yes, I agree. It couldn't be Liancourt rocks because the text seems to be mentioning that the islanders erected a monument on Songdo.
    There had been no islanders on Liancourt rocks, and if they erected a monument on the small rocks it would be easily found and documented by Japanese fishermen or someone else but there had been no record about the monument.

    So the Songdo in the text should be Ulleungdo or Jukdo.

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  7. Anonymous7/9/07 18:24

    At this point in time Ulleungdo's neighbour island Jukdo was already called as such.

    This is recorded in the inspection report by Shim JIn Hyeon in 1794.

    1794-Jukdo

    ReplyDelete
  8. not anonymous (toadface),

    The 1711 Korean map and 1834 Korean map, which you can see in this site, show that today's Jukdo was called Usan (or so-called Usando).

    But it seems that there were confusions concerning the name of neighboring island to Ulleungdo, as well as the same kind of confusion in the names of islands in Japan.

    However, close examination of the various documents and maps will give us clue about the truth.

    ReplyDelete

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