The first evaluation on Chang Po-go was done
by a Chinese poet Toumu(Doomok in Korean, 803-852), the author
of a collection of books called 'Beon-Cheon-Moon-Jip'. This
collection was written during the Chang Po-go's lifetime,
and so this record is evaluated to be the closest to the truth.
Doomok compared Chang Po-go to a person Guo-Fen-Yang(Gwak
Boon-yang in Korean), who was active during the An Lu-Shan's
rebellion. He also described Chang Po-go as an intelligent,
good man and one of the most distinguished persons in the
East. This shows that Chang Po-go was highly respected Shilla
person in China at that time.
A Changpogo monument in
China
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| A Chinese history book, 'Xin Tang
Shu'(Shin-Dang-Seo in Korean) praised Chang Po-go
as a great man by comparing him to two Chinese great
men, Qi Xi(Ki Hae in Korean) during the Qin Dynasty(221-206
BC) and Guo-Fen-Yang from the Tang Dynasty. During
the Koryo Danasty, Kim Boo-sik, the author of Sam-Gook-Sa-Ghi,
described in the biography of 'Kim Yoo-sin, "Even
if General Ulji Moon-deok was a clever commander
and Chang Po-go was a righteous and brave man, without
Chinese history books, we wouldn't have known their
existence and greatness.' From this description,
we can tell the objective evaluation on Chang Po-go
had already begun during the Koryo Dynasty. |
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In recent years, some intellectuals in Korea realized that
most of the leading countries in the world history were naturally
the powerful maritime countries which had control over the
sea. Chang Po-go is now revaluate a pioneer who saw through
the importance of advancing to the ocean and took a leading
role in shifting tribute trade (public trade) to private trade.
In Korea, professor Kim Sang-gi wrote the first academic article
on the achievement of Chang Po-go and asserted that he was
literally 'the Builder of Maritime Kingdom' who personally
practiced the principle -'A person who controls the sea rules
the world itself'. Professor Edwin O. Reichauer of Harvard
University, who was American Ambassador to Japan, called Chang
Po-go as 'The Trade Prince of the Maritime Commercial Empire'.
In Korea nowadays, the movement of reevaluation on Chang Po-go
keeps spreading among some scholars steadily.
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Historical Evaluation on Chang Po-go