Contents


Preface 5
Contents 17
Introduction 27

OPENING CHAPTER
Why the “Five-State Age” Rather Than the “Three Kingdoms Period”? 50

I. The Problem of Historical Naming 51
II. The Historiographical Power of the “Three Kingdoms” 52
III. Buyeo: The Missing Northern State 54
IV. Gaya: The Missing Southern State System 57
V. The Anachronism of Projecting Three Kingdoms Backward 59
VI. The Five-State Age as a Polycentric Order 60
VII. Five States Did Not Mean Five Identical Kingdoms 62
VIII. Why Not Four States, Six States, or Many States? 63
IX. The Administrative Advantages of the Five-State Framework 64
X. Major Objections to the Five-State Concept 66
XI. Three Kingdoms and Five States: A Comparative Assessment 67
XII. The Five-State Age as an Interstate System 68
XIII. A New Periodization 69
XIV. The Conceptual Meaning of “Five-State Age” 69
XV. The Five States as Administrative Archetypes 70
XVI. Implications for the Study of Korean Administrative Civilization 71
XVII. Conclusion: From a History of Three Winners to a History of Five State Traditions 72

CHAPTER 1
The Concept and Research Domain ofAge the Five-State 77

I. Defining the Five-State Age 78
II. Chronological Boundaries 80
III. Geographical Domain 83
V. Kingdom, Confederation, and State System 86
VI. The Meaning of Administration 88
VII. Administrative Civilization 90
VIII. Primary Research Objects 92
IX. Secondary Research Objects: Society Beyond the Court 94
X. Levels of Analysis 95
XI. Principal Research Questions 96
XII. Sources and Evidentiary Domain 97
XIII. Methods of Research 99
XIV. Boundaries and Exclusions 100
XV. The Five States as Comparative Cases 101
XVI. The Research Domain as an Integrated Model 102
XVII. Why This Research Domain Matters 102
XVIII. Conclusion 103

CHAPTER 2
Sources and Methodology for the Study of the Five-State Age 107

I. The Evidentiary Problem 108
II. Categories of Historical Sources 110
III. Korean Historical Sources 111
IV. Chinese Dynastic Histories 113
V. Japanese Historical Sources 116
VI. Epigraphic and Documentary Evidence 117
VII. Archaeological Sources 118
VIII. Environmental and Scientific Evidence 121
IX. Source Criticism 123
X. Triangulation and Convergent Reconstruction 124
XI. Historical Institutionalism 126
XII. Process Tracing 127
XIII. Comparative Historical Analysis 128
XIV. Functional Administrative Analysis 130
XV. Spatial and Landscape Analysis 131
XVI. Network Analysis 132
XVII. Quantitative Evidence 133
XVIII. Causal Explanation 134
XIX. Historiographical Biases 135
XX. Standards of Evidentiary Confidence 136
XXI. Research Protocol for Each Chapter 137
XXII. Research Ethics and Scholarly Transparency 138
XXIII. An Integrated Methodological Model 138
XXIV. Methodological Limitations 140
XXV. Conclusion 140

PART I
FOUNDATIONS OF STATE FORMATION BEFORE THE FIVE-STATE AGE 144

CHAPTER 3
The Reorganization of the Northeast Asian Political Order after Gojoseon 144

I. Gojoseon and the Preexisting Regional Order 145