As with Koguryô, the origins of Paekche are obscure. It first appears in the Chinese history Sanguozhi [Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, 280] as the name of one of the tribes constituting the Mahan confederacy in the central Korean peninsula. This makes the 12th century Korean history Samguk sagi’s date for Paekche’s founding (18 BCE) rather untenable. Based upon various textual sources it is widely accepted that Paekche was formed sometime in the early 3rd century, likely by aristocratic, horse-riding remnants of the defeated Puyô state, which was based in modern day Manchuria. How such refugees could have bypassed Koguryô to get to the southern peninsula is another issue. By the end of the fourth century, however, we know it had definitely emerged as a centralized kingdom and soon to be rival of both Koguryô and Silla. Paekche holds some prominence, and garners much controversy, for its ties with the Japanese islands. That there was some close relationship between the Paekche court and the court of Yamato Japan is undeniable, attested to by textual and archaeological evidence. Japanese scholars long claimed that Paekche territory (called in Japanese Kudara) was a Japanese colony in the 4th century (basing their judgement almost solely on 8th century Japanese court histories). Korean historians vigorously deny this. In later centuries there were in fact intimate ties between the Yamato court and Paekche, with Paekche serving as a conduit of both Chinese and native Paekche culture to Japan. The Japanese would send troops to help Paekche in its struggles with Silla and Koguryô. The exact nature of this later relationship between Paekche and Japan, and whether it was a vassal-lord relationship and if so who was who, is also a contested topic, interpretation often falling along modern national lines (see Hong Wontack, 1994; Kim, Young-duk, 1996). The foremost Western authority on Paekche is Jonathan Best, a professor of art history at Wesleyan, whose specialty is both Paekche art and Buddhism.
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