Editing Balhae (section)

===Ethnic identity===
The ethnic identity of Balhae's founder is [[Balhae controversies|controversial]] and disputed. Many Chinese, Korean, Russian, and Japanese scholars of Balhae believe its population was composed of Goguryeo remnants and Mohe tribes.{{sfn|Kim|2011|p=292}} Chinese scholars consider that Mohe people form the ethnic majority of Balhae, and arguments for this opinion are also viewed positively in Russia{{sfn|Kim|2011|p=292}} and in the West.<ref name="vovin_script"/> While modern Korean scholars usually consider Balhae a Korean state and one of the [[Northern and Southern States period|Northern and Southern States]] of Korea, Russian and Chinese scholars reject this notion, echoing the position of historical Korean scholars such as [[Kim Bu-sik]], author of the ''[[Samguk sagi]]''.{{sfn|Kim|2011|p=292}}

Some historians view this dispute as the polemics reflecting modern politics rather than historical evidence.{{sfn|Kim|2011|p=299}}

{{blockquote|The problem about Parhae history is that many questions are beyond a simple answer. Different, nearly contemporary, sources represent fundamental questions in very different ways with different possible interpretations.{{sfn|Reckel|2015|p=481-482}}|Johannes Reckel}}

Historical sources give different accounts of Dae Joyeong's ethnicity and background.<ref name=w /><ref>{{cite book |last1=Richard |first1=Zgusta |title=The Peoples of Northeast Asia through Time Precolonial Ethnic and Cultural Processes along the Coast between Hokkaido and the Bering Strait |date=2015 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-30043-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oToLCgAAQBAJ&q=Mohe+tribes+bohai&pg=PA141}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ahmerov.com/book_821_chapter_12_ISTORIJA_TUNGUSSKIKH_PLEMEN_MOKHEH_I_GOSUDARSTVA_BOKHAJJ.html |title=История тунгусских племен мохэ и государства Бохай |trans-title=The history of Mohé and Bohai Tungusic tribes |author1=Tsiporuha Mikhail Isaakovich |work=Покорение Сибири. От Ермака до Беринга |date=2017 |access-date=5 February 2019 |archive-date=13 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210613014441/https://www.ahmerov.com/book_821_chapter_12_ISTORIJA_TUNGUSSKIKH_PLEMEN_MOKHEH_I_GOSUDARSTVA_BOKHAJJ.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Among the official dynastic history works, the ''[[New Book of Tang]]'' refers to Dae Joyeong and his state as [[Sumo Mohe]] (related to [[Jurchens]] and later [[Manchus]]) affiliated with Goguryeo.<ref>''New Book of Tang'', Chapter 219: Bohai. 渤海、本粟末靺鞨附高麗者、姓大氏。</ref>{{sfn|Kim|2015|p=8}} The ''[[Old Book of Tang]]'' also states Dae's ethnic background as Mohe but adds that he was "高麗別種" (''gaoli biezhong'').{{sfn|Sloane|2014a|p=12}}<ref>''[[Old Book of Tang]]'', Original: 渤海靺鞨大祚榮者，本高麗別種也. [https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E8%88%8A%E5%94%90%E6%9B%B8/%E5%8D%B7199%E4%B8%8B Link]</ref> Literally speaking, ''biezhong'' means "separate kind."{{sfn|Sloane|2014a|p=12}} The term is interpreted as meaning "a branch of the Goguryeo people" by South and North Korean historians, but as "distinct from Goguryeo" by Japanese and Chinese researchers.<ref>{{cite web |last1=徐吉洙 |title=渤海は高句麗を引き継いだ |trans-title=Bohai succeeded Goguryeo. |url=http://www.searchnavi.com/~hp/koguryo/balhe-30.htm |publisher=高句麗研究会}}</ref>{{sfn|Sloane|2014a|p=12}} According to Sloane, Tang sources divided Balhae's population into two categories, Goguryeo and Mohe. The royalty and upper class were composed of Goguryeo remnants while the majority of Balhae's population were Mohe.{{sfn|Sloane|2014|p=366-367}} In a diplomatic mission to Japan in 727 or 728, the Balhae envoy said that Balhae has "recovered the lost land of Goguryeo and inherited the old traditions of [[Buyeo]]."<ref name="Kim2012"/> Some consider this divide to be a cause of tension that contributed to Balhae's eventual downfall.{{sfn|Lee|1988|p=91}} Chinese scholars have made claims that [[Han Chinese]] were a part of the Balhae population, but apart from Goguryeo and Mohe, no other group is associated with the foundation of Balhae in Chinese, Korean, or Japanese sources.{{sfn|Kim|2011|p=293}}

{{blockquote|The question of the ethnic composition of the Bohai state has become a political problem in the East Asian region. Chinese and Korean historians alternatively regard Bohai as a Chinese provincial power or as an independent Korean country, based on intrinsically subjective positions. Certainly, all Korean specialists believe that the Koguryŏ population was dominant in Bohai. But Chinese historians tend to disagree, believing that Bohai was a Chinese province with some political autonomy, with the Mohe people as its main population.{{sfn|Kim|2015|p=7-8}}|Alexander Kim and Min Kyounghyoun}}

According to [[Ch'oe Ch'i-wŏn]] (b. 857), the people of Balhae were Mohe.{{sfn|Kim|2011|p=293}} In the conflict between the joint Tang-Silla forces against Balhae, Silla described Balhae as "rebellious barbarians."{{sfn|Kim|2011a|p=351}} Sillan aristocracy tended to view the Balhae population as consisting of solely Mohe people, but this could be due to the antagonistic relations between the two states causing the Sillan nobility to ignore Goguryeo elements of Balhae ethnic composition.{{sfn|Kim|2015|p=8}} The ''[[Ruijū Kokushi]]'', a 9th-century Japanese text, says that when Balhae was founded, it spanned 2,000 ''li'' and was filled with villages, each of which were Mohe tribes.<ref><類聚国史>卷一九三记载:天皇二年(698年),大祚荣始建渤海国,其国延袤二千里,无州县馆驿,处处有村里,皆靺鞨部落。其百姓者 靺鞨多,土人少,皆以土人为村长.</ref>{{sfn|Kim|2011|p=292}} Japanese diplomatic communications with Balhae recognized it as a "state of Go[gu]ryeo."<ref name="Kim2012"/> In the early 12th century, the [[Jurchens|Jurchen]] leader [[Emperor Taizu of Jin|Aguda]] sent ambassadors to the Liao dynasty to call on the Balhae people there to rebel against the Liao by appealing to a common origin between the Jurchens and Balhae. According to the appeal, both the Jurchens and Balhae people descended from the seven Wuji tribes. However, according to Alexander Kim, this only applied to the Mohe portion of Balhae's population and not the Goguryeo people, who were not included in the seven Wuji tribes.{{sfn|Kim|2011b|p=173}} The ''[[Samguk sagi]]'', written in the 12th century by [[Kim Bu-sik]], did not consider Balhae a Korean state.{{sfn|Kim|2011|p=292}} The ''[[Samguk yusa]]'', a 13th-century collection of Korean history and legends, describes Dae as a Sumo Mohe leader. However, it gives another account of Dae being a former Goguryeo general, citing a now-lost Sillan record.<ref>''Samguk yusa'', Chapter 1, Section Mohe Bohai. 通典云，渤海，本栗未靺鞨。至其酋柞榮立國，自號震旦。 [...] 又新羅古記云，高麗舊將柞榮，姓大氏。</ref> Kim considers this unlikely since Goguryeo fell in 668 while Dae died in 719, and young men could not receive the rank of general.{{sfn|Kim|2011|p=297}}

{{blockquote|As we know in relation to the origin of the Bohai people, when Gouli (Koguryŏ) was not yet destroyed, they [the Bohai people] were the useless tribe of Mohe. Many tribes were the same; its name was that of the small barbarian nation Sumo, and in the past [this tribe], being in competition with Gouli, moved to the inner region [China].{{sfn|Kim|2015|p=8}}|[[Ch'oe Ch'i-wŏn]]}}

Russian scholars argue that the ethnic composition of Balhae cannot be determined with great precision because no materials exist that can confirm either the Chinese or Korean claims. Some Russian scholars claim Balhae as part of Manchurian history while others believe Balhae was neither a Korean state or Chinese province and there is no direct link between Balhae and either modern China or Korea.{{sfn|Kim|2011|p=299}} E. V. Shakunov believes that Balhae's population also consisted of elements from [[Central Asia]] such as [[Sogdians]] and [[Tocharians]]. Many [[Yugur|Uyghurs]] fled to Balhae after the destruction of the [[Uyghur Khaganate]] in 840 but they failed to adapt to Balhae society and caused social unrest.{{sfn|Kim|2015|p=10-11}}

It is evident that Balhae had a diverse population, including other minorities such as [[Khitan people|Khitan]] and [[Evenks|Evenk]] peoples.<ref name="杨军">{{cite book|author=杨军|script-title=zh:渤海国民族构成与分布研究|date=2007|publisher=吉林人民出版社|location=Jilin |isbn=978-7206055102|language=zh}}</ref> Archaeological evidence suggests that the Balhae culture was an amalgamation of High Tang Chinese, Korean, and Tungusic cultures.<ref name="Seth2016">{{cite book|author=Michael J. Seth|title=A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YB1BCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA72|date=21 January 2016|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield Publishers|isbn=978-1-4422-3518-2|pages=72–73}}</ref>