The language of Paekche (1)

I am greatly indebted to the late prof. Luigi Polese Remaggi for the help received while I was working on this research.

Introduction

One of the most stimulating problems for the imagination of a linguist interested in Japanese and Korean is that of the etymology of the name Kudara ¹. This name in Japan refers to the Korean state of Paekche 百濟 ², which at the time of the Three States (Samguk 三國) was occupying the South-Western part of the Korean peninsula ³. The state of Paekche, because of the continuous pression exerted upon it by Koguryŏ 高句麗 ⁴ and Silla 新羅 ⁵, was the most faithful ally of Japan in the peninsula for fighting against the other two states. Starting from the 4th century on, it was the most important intermediary of the continental Chinese culture towards Japan. In the year 660 it was conquered by Silla ⁶, which in 668, with the capitulation of Koguryŏ, was able, for the first time in history, to unify under its rule all the Korean peninsula.
[page 2 of the original]
Still today in Japanese the state of Paekche is called Kudara. This name, so different from those which are the Japanese pronounciations hakusai and hyakusai ⁷ of the two Chinese characters forming it, has been the object of various interpretations, mainly by Oriental scholars.

This script does not aim to solve the problem in an irrefutable way, but simply tries to clear up some historical-linguistical issues connected with the research about the etymology of the name Kudara. Some solutions will be proposed, although not definitive for the time being, but susceptible of further reconsiderations and developments should other material relating to the research be discovered or the studies on this subject be furtherly deepened.

This study is divided into the following parts:

• Paekche and Kudara
• The language of Paekche
• Several hypotheses on Paekche
• Several hypotheses on Kudara
• Conclusion

Paekche and Kudara

The Kudara reading for 百濟 appears only in Japanese texts, where it is attested already in the Kojiki 古事記 (712) ⁸, in the Nihon Shoki 日本書紀 (720) ⁹ and in the Hizen-no-kuni fudoki 肥前國風土記 (first part of the 8th century) ¹⁰. The reading (furigana 振り假名) of those texts, although, probably does not go back to the age of their compilation, while it is likely that the reading Kudara mentioned in the Genji monogatari 源氏物語, compiled at the beginning of the 11th century, goes back to the time of its writing ¹¹.
[page 3 of the original]
Was Kudara a name made up by the Japanese themselves, or, on the contrary, was it based on a Korean pronounciation? Being the name of a foreign state, it is more probable that, beforehand, the second thesis could be supported, that is that Kudara was a non-Japanese name. The name, however, because of the different phonetic system of this language could have taken in the Japanese transcription a form different from the original one and, to some extent, “japanisized”. We must also presume, until we have proof of the contrary, that Kudara was the name with wich the inhabitants of Paekche called their state, although, frankly, the exchanges of populations' names were not so rare in the Japanese historiography ¹². This study bases itself on the hypothesis, supported on the other hand by all the scholars who dealt with this subject, that the name Kudara was not an original Japanese name.

The name Kudara should moreover have some relationship with the Korean pronounciation at that time of the two Chinese characters forming the Paekche name, or with the original Korean word, whose pronounciation the two character were transcribing. This name, too, like that of Paekche, cannot be separated, at the beginning, from the name which probably was the original name of the state. Kudara and Paekche, however, are phonetically so distant that we cannot see how it could be possible to establish between them any kind of relationship, even supposing the most daring phonetical variations. They do not have a single sound in common and this, as a starting point, is rather discouraging.

In the Chinese sources Paekche (Chinese Pai-chi ) appears for the first time, quoted with the characters 伯濟, in the San-kuo-chih 三國志 ¹³, but the fact that it is written with those characters and that it is listed as one of the 55 small states of Mahan 馬韓 ¹⁴, leaves many questions open about its possible identification with the state we are now studying.
[page 4 of the original]
With the characters 百濟, those same characters that are read Kudara in the Japanese sources, the name is mentioned for the first time in the Chin-shu 晉書 ¹⁵, where it is reported in the second year of Yung Ho 永和 of the Eastern Chin 東晉 dynasty (346 A.D.).

The language of Paekche (1)