In 2009, the American "Science" magazine published the results of a study published by the International Human Genome Research Group (HUGO). In this article, the national origin of modern Koreans was discussed from a genetic perspective.

In 2009, the American "Science" magazine published the results of a study published by the International Human Genome Research Group (HUGO). In this article, the national origin of modern Koreans was discussed from a genetic perspective.

Research results show that among the DNA test results of modern Koreans, more than 70% of the samples are close relatives of ancient Cambodians.

Through historical comparative analysis, this means that the ancestors of modern Koreans migrated north from Southeast Asia from 12,000 BC to 4000 BC. After 200 years, they came to the Korean Peninsula and successfully replaced the local aborigines and established their feet.

From a scientific research perspective, the publication of this paper has greatly filled the gaps in related fields and is a valuable asset to modern genetics.

However, what is surprising is that when this article was published, it immediately aroused protests from many Korean scholars and netizens, who refused to admit this view.

Normally, serious academic papers rarely attract so much attention among the public, but why did this article cause so much controversy in South Korea? In the hearts of Koreans, what does the history of their country look like?

The origin of Korean unofficial history: Starting from the Anti-Japanese War period

For a long time, the history of North Korea or South Korea has been a mystery.

In the historical records of Japan and China, North Korea is just a neighboring country with average strength, and they were once their suzerains.

However, in the Korean history textbooks, they strongly advocate the prosperity of Korea in ancient times, conquering the nomadic empire in the north and the Central Plains dynasty in the south. As for Japan in the east, they ignore it.

Among the many histories fabricated by Koreans, the most exaggerated picture is of a whale swallowing all the areas north of the Yellow River in my country and all of Japan. Its hugeness is beyond imagination.

But why do Koreans care so much about their own nation’s history? When did this complex emotion of inferiority and arrogance develop?

For any nation, it is very important to construct a common national view of history.

From a cultural perspective, it can enhance national self-confidence and cognition. From a practical sense, it can also unite the people and increase cohesion.

The main purpose of building a national view of history is to enhance national self-confidence. Because of this, any nation will try to highlight the glory of its own nation in this process, and many people will even slightly modify the history.

In fact, this is understandable. On the one hand, everyone loves to save face. If there is a set of national history views that specifically talks about national humiliation, then not many people will be willing to read it and live with such a national identity. On the other hand, weakening the humiliating part of national history is more in line with the modern international order and eliminating historical hatred between different ethnic groups, which has certain positive and progressive significance.

Constructing a national view of history is a serious matter with historical significance. It does not mean that you can change it however you want. Therefore, when working in this area, most scholars will try to remain objective and absorb various historical materials for research.

This is the most basic moral bottom line for scholars, and it is also the premise for building a national view of history.

The history of the Koreans is not complicated. For most of their history, they have been a vassal state of the Chinese dynasty. From administration to economy to culture, they have been most influenced by China.

However, in modern history, with the gradual decline of the Qing Dynasty, at the beginning of the last century, a group of ultra-nationalists emerged among Korean scholars, trying to reshape the Korean nation's historical view.

To a certain extent, the main purpose of Korean scholars at that time in reshaping history was to resist the "Japanese and Korean homologous theory" proposed by the Japanese. At this time, the Japanese already had the ambition to engulf North Korea. If allowed to develop, North Korea would completely become a Japanese colony in the future.

In this context, North Korean scholars launched a "New Historical Outlook Movement" and decided to enhance the self-confidence of their nation through tampering.

The representative figure is the famous independent activist Shen Chaeho.

When engaged in this work, Shen Caihao was quite trapped. After all, there was only such a small part of North Korea's history, and there were basically no highlight moments.

After some hard thinking, Shin Chae-ho decided to start from the ancient myths of Korea, extract elements from various mythological stories, and create the "Tangun Myth", which replaced the previously commonly used "Yuzi Joseon". It pushed the history of Korea to the period of Yao, Shun, and Yu in ancient China, making it a civilization system that existed independently from China.

In the known history, Shin Chaeho desperately searched for the great achievements and heroic figures in Korean history and vigorously exaggerated them.

Based on Shen Chaeho, Korean scholars quickly wrote books such as "Korean History" and "Mengtian" to replace the original history.

As the saying goes, "big birds dare to go into any forest." It was originally a cultural movement to resist the Japanese invasion. In the end, it intensified with the help of a few people, and turned into a movement that blindly exaggerated itself.

The most exaggerated one is the "Huantan Ancient Records". The book records that Goguryeo and Baekje occupied large areas of North China many times and were the overlords of Northeast Asia in ancient times.

For example, the land of the Tang Dynasty was less than 1/3 of North Korea. During the Southern Song Dynasty, it was not Mongolia but North Korea that pushed the Southern Song Dynasty to the southwest corner...

In the end, this set of historical views was also perfectly inherited by South Korea. In the eyes of many Koreans, their ancestors are aboriginal people who have lived on the Korean Peninsula for generations and have established a glorious history and culture. Naturally, they are unwilling to admit that they are descended from ancient Cambodians.

Three historical views go hand in hand: Descendants of Mongolia or Descendants of China?

South Korea is a country that lacks legal rationality. After the end of World War II, the Korean nation regained its independence. The north established the socialist country North Korea, while the south supported South Korea with the support of the United States.

After the outbreak of the Korean War, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea once swept all the way and almost eradicated the South Korean regime. However, at this moment, the United States forced its way out and used force to forcibly establish a new country south of the 38th parallel to curb the spread of socialism.

This makes the entire South Korea itself just a "tool" of international forces. It does not represent the people of this land, but imperialism.

Such a country naturally does not have any cohesion. In order to enhance the self-confidence of the people, the South Korean regime began to vigorously promote this "unofficial history theory".

It is worth mentioning that although Shen Caihao’s view of history sounds good, it is not easy to use. With the popularization of modern education and changes in the international situation. More and more South Korean and North Korean scholars are beginning to face up to history, hoping to find a more realistic "destination" for themselves.

In modern times, scholars from North Korea and South Korea have two main views: The first is that the ancestors of Koreans are a branch of the Mongolians, hybrid descendants of the Donghu people and the Tungus people of Northeast Asia.

From a geographical point of view, South Korea is not far from the Mongolian grassland. According to the ancient population flow rules, it is very likely that the Mongolians flowed into the Korean Peninsula and thrived here.

This statement is feasible to a certain extent, at least more reliable than unofficial history. In addition, it is not shameful to recognize Mongolians as ancestors. Because of this, this statement has been widely recognized by Korean academic circles.

Influenced by this idea, Korean investment in Mongolia began to rise after the 21st century. Mongolia's economy itself is not developed and is not a good place for investment. However, perhaps because of this possible blood connection, Korean investors are still coming in an endless stream.

In return, Mongolia has also become South Korea's "good buddy". According to surveys, South Korea is currently the best choice for Mongolians to live abroad. There are only 3 million people in Mongolia, but 47,000 people live in South Korea, a proportion of 1.5%. This number is already quite huge. If you include the relatives of these 47,000 people, people influenced by South Korea account for a considerable proportion of the people in Mongolia.

In addition to the saying that their ancestors are Mongolian, there is also a saying that Koreans are descendants of the farming people in the Central Plains of China.The term

comes from the research results of Kim Wook, a professor at the Department of Biology at Dankook University in South Korea in 2004.

When Professor Jin Xu was studying related issues, genetic testing technology was already quite mature. As long as Korean genetic samples were selected that were not related to each other, the approximate blood relationship between the entire Korean nation and other ethnic groups could be obtained.

Through hard work, Jin Xu finally collected 185 samples. After DNA testing and comparison, Jin Xu found that 40% of the Korean genetic samples were similar to the native Han samples in Henan Province, my country.

The proportion of 40% is already quite high. Considering the interbreeding and integration of various ethnic groups in history, Professor Jin Xu’s final view is closest to the historical view before Shin Chae-ho, that is, the Han people are the ancestors of the Koreans.

Jin Xu’s statement also caused a sensation at the time.

However, it must be mentioned that his experiment also had loopholes, because during the genetic testing process, Jin Xu only found that the gene base pair sequences of some Koreans were similar to those of Han people. Due to the imperfection of genetic technology at the time, there is no guarantee whether this statement is correct.

Because of this, for a long time, Korean people’s view of history has shown a serious three-level differentiation.

Some people firmly believe in unofficial history, others insist that they are descendants of the Mongol Empire, and others believe that their ancestors are Chinese. In fact, no matter which view of history the Koreans choose, it is not bad. After all, the national view of history is not enough to satisfy hunger and thirst, and it is just to look good.

Each of these three historical views is more powerful than the other, and any one is acceptable. It wasn't until 2009 that the "Science" magazine article published that article, completely shattering the psychological defenses of Koreans.

The reversal of professional organizations breaks the psychological defense line

Let alone what kind of race the ancient Cambodians were, just the three words "Cambodian" are enough for Koreans to find it unacceptable.

South Korea is an economic powerhouse with a per capita GDP of US$35,000, ranking 27th in the world. It has just entered the ranks of developed countries a few years ago.

htmlFor more than 0 years, the Korean entertainment industry has relied on various Korean groups to enter the world market, trying its best to shape its international image, and has achieved considerable results.

In comparison, Cambodia is just a small, poor and backward Southeast Asian country. According to data, Cambodia’s per capita GDP was only US$1,500 until 2021, which is less than a fraction of South Korea’s. It is indeed shameless to regard such a country as an ancestor.

What’s even more unfortunate is that if an ordinary scholar publishes an article, that’s it. You say yours, and I say mine. At worst, I won’t acknowledge it and that’s it. But it was Science magazine that published the article.

First of all, "Science" magazine is currently the world's top journal. Secondly, the method of judging national ancestry through DNA base sequence testing has achieved many results and has been applied. Its professionalism is unanimously recognized by mainstream scholars around the world.

This put Koreans in an extremely embarrassing situation overnight. It was neither acknowledgment nor denial. It was precisely because of this that it caused such a big wave on the Korean Internet.

has to say that this result is beyond everyone’s expectations and even somewhat subversive.

It is difficult for people today to imagine that between 12,000 BC and 4,000 BC, there would be a tribe that traveled thousands of miles, and one tribe traveled from Southeast Asia to the Korean Peninsula.

You must know that horses were domesticated around 2000 BC. At that time, if you wanted to complete such a long distance, you could only rely on walking.

At that time, many tribes had been born in the land of China. Not only did these Cambodians have to travel long distances, they also had to cross the blockade of the locals, which was as difficult as a long march.

In 200 years, a plague or a war will kill a primitive tribe. Even if you are lucky and marry and settle with a local tribe passing by, this long journey will not succeed.

But history is so magical. This ancient Cambodian people not only succeeded, but also conquered and replaced the aboriginal people on the Korean Peninsula, and continued their own bloodline until 16,000 years later.

's research also pointed out that Koreans are also a typical mixed nation. Around the Neolithic Age, Koreans and southern Chinese tribes had blood fusion. However, this fusion was very short-lived. Then this tribe continued to go north, barely stopping in northern China, until it reached the Korean Peninsula. In the millennia after

, Koreans certainly had blood contact with their close neighbors, the Tungus people of North Asia, but this contact was very limited. According to the survey results, whether the paternal or maternal autosomes of Koreans were affected by the Tungus people of North Asia, they were very little affected and could almost be ignored.

Reference materials:

1, "Are the ancestors of Koreans from China?" ", Tong Guanglai, "Beijing Science and Technology News"

2, "Korean Views on History and China-South Korea Relations", Wang Yuanzhou, "International Political Studies"