Foreword

This project, i.e. a somewhat interactive Table of Contents of the Samguk Yusa, uses the two following versions of the text, as recorded via 2009 MLA style citation:

Ilyon. Samguk Yusa: Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea. Trans. Ha Tae-Hung and Grafton K. Mintz. Lexington, KY, USA: Silk Pagoda, 2006. Print.

---. Overlooked Historical Records of the Three Korean Kingdoms. Trans. Kim Dal-Yong. Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea: Jimoondang, 2006. Print


Furthermore, the ISBN numbers are as follows:

Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms of Ancient Korea: 1-59654-348-5

Overlooked Historical Records of the Three Korean Kingdoms: 89-88095-94-4

I started this endeavor both as a personal aid and as a possible tool for others. My original plan was to type a table of contents for the Ha and Mintz (HM) edition of the Samguk Yusa, provide a brief summary of each story, and apply labels to make finding a story that mentions a particular location ( Ex: Mt. T'aebaek), person (Ex: Queen Sondok), or theme (Ex: Eating Human Thigh) much easier to find. I realized that this would take a great while to compile and may be somewhat unwieldy after all is said and done. However, I imagined it would help the devout scholar in  his or her quest for knowledge. Since that time, I have completed the original Table of Contents.

I have also gained a new edition of the text by Kim Dal-Yong (KDY). Although I originally used the HM version for my notes, I have decided to use the KDY version as the basis for my future endeavors. I shall go back and update my previous story posts to reflect this. However, it would be unwise to completely disregard the HM version. Therefore, I shall be using it to augment my notes and will point out any differences that I stumble across.

A Note on Titles: The two versions use different titles for each individual story. While I will keep the HM titles in their Table of Contents, I will use KDY's titles for individual story posts with the corresponding number of the story from the HM version in parenthesis afterwards. Therefore, the titles will look like this:

Master Jinjeong, Whose Filial Duty and Good Conduct Were Both Beautiful (134)

A Note on Romanization: The HM version of the Samguk Yusa uses what I believe to be the McCune-Reischauer system of romanization, as opposed to the KDY version's Revised Romanization system. While I will use the Revised Romanization in the KDY version primarily, I will still note the McCune-Reischauer romanization in brackets. I will not use parenthesis for this purpose because the KDY version already uses parenthesis to make notes, such as the hangeul spelling of someone's name. It is my hope that this will allow users of both versions to gain benefit from this online tool.