『환단고기』 위서론의 발생과 최근 동향

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Since its publication in 1979, the Hwandangogi has received much attention from the general public, which interested many scholars in the historical circle. But its contents on the ancient history of Korea were so unique that they could not be harmonized with orthodox theories supported by mainstream scholars. In this context, some of the scholars studying on the Korean ancient history claimed that the Hwandangogi was a forgery by presenting several papers related to the theory of forgery. However, while points and contents they suggested were very similar with one another, their claims were sufficiently refuted by the majority of scholars who had accepted the significant value of the Hwandangogi. Recently, the forgery theory forgotten for a time has been proposed once again by a group of young scholars, who this time around did not target the texts themselves of this ancient scripture but instead raised doubts on the legitimacy of non-mainstream historians and their scholastic authority. The mainstream historians derogatorily claimed that the non-mainstream historians do not deal with orthodox history but pseudo history. This paper reviews in refutation the rise and development of the forgery theory about the Hwandangogi year by year. Also, this study shows an analytical criticism on the forgery theory that was recently suggested by a group of young historians. In this way, this paper discloses the overall problematic matters involving the forgery theory and probes into the hidden motivation behind it.