Why do many Koreans insist Dongyi people (東夷人) invented Chinese characters and they were the descendants of Dongyi people?

为什么很多韩国人坚称汉字是他们的祖先东夷人发明的？

以下是Quora网友的评论： 

Robert Dashang

Some Koreans say that some Chinese discredit them, but is that really the case?

Here are some screenshots of comments on such videos.

Of course, Koreans should be able to understand the content.

有些韩国人说部分中国人败坏他们的名声，事实真是如此吗？

我贴了这种视频的一些评论截图。

当然了，韩国人应该能看懂。

This is a related book from Korea.

The meaning of this book is "Chinese characters were created by the Dongyi nationality, the ancestor of our nation."

But the content makes the Chinese people even more amazed.

It not only claims that Chinese characters were created by the Dongyi nationality, an ancient Korean ancestor, but also defines Chiyou, a very important historical figure in Chinese culture, as an ancient Korean.

The most outrageous thing is that the content of this book describes that both the ia Dynasty and the Shang Dynasty were founded by Korean ancestors.

这是韩国一本相关书籍。

这本书的意思是“汉字是我们民族的祖先东夷族创造的。”

但内容更让中国人惊掉下巴。

书中不仅声称汉字是由朝鲜族的祖先东夷族创造的，还将中国文化中非常重要的历史人物蚩尤也划入古代朝鲜人。

这还不算，书中最离谱的内容是称夏朝和商朝都是由朝鲜祖先建立的。

The author of this divine book is 진태하.

This man is a leading figure in the field of Korean linguistics and a well-known professor at Korea University.

And is the first to put forward the view that "Chinese characters come from the ancestors of ancient Koreans".

In this book, the Korean professor concluded that in history, it was not other ethnic groups that occupied the Yellow River civilization, but Dongyi, that is, ancient Koreans.

这本神圣的书的作者是陈泰夏。

他是韩国语言学界的领军人物，也是高丽大学的著名教授。

他是提出“汉字出自古代朝鲜人祖先”观点的第一人。

他在书中总结说，历史上，占据黄河文明的不是其他民族，而是东夷族，即古代朝鲜族人。

It also claims that this conclusion has been recognized by the entire circle of East Asian historians.

South Koreans publicize their exaggerated history to the world through Netflix's TV series Suriname, claiming that China and South Korea have been at war for 5,000 years.

Dongyi in the Shang and Zhou dynasties was part of early China, which is now Shandong; it was the State of Qi and Lu in the Spring and Autumn and warring States period. Do some ultra-nationalist Koreans also think that Qi and Lu are Koreans? This is ridiculous.

书中还称这一结论得到了整个东亚历史学界的认可。

韩国人通过网飞公司的电视剧《苏里南》向世界宣传韩国的历史，称中韩之间的战争持续了5000年。

商周时期的东夷是中国早期的一部分，也就是现在的山东，即春秋战国时期的齐国和鲁国。这些极端民族主义的韩国人是不是也认为齐鲁人就是韩国人？这真是荒谬至极。

Jacky Zou

I think this come from their misconception about who the term Donyi(東夷人) referred to at the time of the creation of Chinese characters, probably because they are not aware that the term referred to different people at different stages of history. First evidence of Chinese characters come from Oracle bones from Shang dynasty. Dongyi of that time are the inhabitants Eastern China, a Sinitic people that split from the Huaxa people earlier and are genetically close to Huaxa people (one evidence is very high frequency of O3 haplogroup in Dongyi genetics), and later mixed with Huaxa people to form the new Han Chinese ethnicity. Basically, Dongyi(pre-Qin dynasty context) + Huaxa + (some)Nanman = Han Chinese, not just Huaxa alone. Dongyi(pre-Qin dynasty context) are not non-Sinitic, they are one of the ancestors of Han Chinese. If Koreans don’t believe me, go do research online yourself. Only after Qin dynasty, which is after Warring States period, did the term Dongyi start to refer to Koreans/Japanese, who are even further east. Some Koreans, intentionally or not, mix up the people referred to by the term Dongyi of the two periods, and equate Dongyi to Koreans, and came at the conclusion that Koreans invented Han characters and Confucius is.

我认为这是因为他们对“东夷”这个词在汉字创造时期指代的族群有误解，可能是因为他们并不知道这个词在不同历史阶段指代的是不同族群。

汉字的最早考古证据来自商代的甲骨文。当时的东夷族指的是居住在中国东部的居民，之前从华夏人中分离出来，

在基因上与华夏人十分接近(证据之一是东夷族基因中O3单倍群的出现频率非常高)，后来东夷族又与华夏人繁衍成了新的汉族。

基本上，东夷(先秦时期所称)+华夏+(部分)南蛮=汉人，华夏人并非只有单一族群。东夷(先秦时期所称)也属汉人，他们是汉人的祖先之一。

如果韩国人不相信，可以自行上网查查。只不过在秦朝之后，也就是战国时期之后，汉人才开始用东夷这个词指代生活于更遥远的东方的朝鲜人和日本人。

一些韩国人有意无意地把两个历史时期的“东夷族”概念混为一谈，把“东夷”等同于韩国人，进而得出“韩国人发明了汉字，孔子是韩国人”的荒谬结论。

P.S. Some Koreans say that Koreans are descendents of Dongyi people from Eastern China that migrated to the Korean peninsula, and therefore, they are the descendents of Dongyi of pre-Qin context. Yes, some Dongyi people from Shandong have migrated there, but they are not the majority. Plus, Koreans are descendents of ancient Koreanic people living in today’s Manchuria and SouthEastern Siberia, so those Dongyi people got assimilated by the Koreans. Koreans claiming to be descendents of Dongyi(pre-Qin dyansty context) is claiming to be the descendent of a foreign minority group that got assimilated by your majority ancestors thousands of years ago. That logic doesn’t quite work out.

附：有些韩国人说，韩国人是从中国东部迁移到朝鲜半岛的东夷人的后裔，所以他们是先秦时期东夷人的后裔。没错，是有一些山东东夷人移居到朝鲜半岛，但毕竟不是主流。而且韩国人是生活在今天满洲和西伯利亚东南部的古代朝鲜族人的后裔，所以那些东夷人被当地朝鲜族人同化了。韩国人声称自己是东夷(先秦时期)的后裔，声称自己是数千年前被你们主流人口的祖先同化的外国少数族群的后裔。这个逻辑是站不住脚的。

Dan Kim

My hope is that this is the last time I see - “Why do some people on Internet say … [Fill in the blank]?” - type of questions...

Let’s get over the facts first. 동이 - 위키백과, 우리 모두의 백과사전

Korean wiki entry says nothing of Dongyi inventing Chinese characters, and clearly shows the Dongyi people are from Shangdong region. Although originally referred to Northeastern Chinese, the name Dongyi was later generalized to refer to ianbei, Malgal (Manchu), Koreans. This isn’t surprising since Dongyi simply means Eastern foreigners (Barbarians). Koreans used the word Dongyi to refer to Japanese from time to time. In any case, the original Dongyi that was first mentioned in Chinese records (oracle bone scripture from 11th century B.C.) were people from Jiaodong peninsula (Shandong and parts of Anhui and Jiangsu), who were considered foreign barbarians at the time, but who were eventually absorbed into Han Chinese ethnic group before China was unified.

我希望这是我最后一次看到——“为什么网上有人说……?”——诸如这类的问题……

我们先了解一下事实吧。东夷-维基百科，我们所有人的百科全书

韩国的维基词条没有提到东夷族发明汉字，还清楚地指出东夷族来自山东地区。东夷族最初指东北人，后来泛指鲜卑人、满族人、朝鲜人。这并不奇怪，因为东夷只是指东方的外国人(蛮夷)。韩国人也常用“东夷”一词来指代日本人。不管怎么说，中国最早记载(公元前11世纪的甲骨文)中提到的东夷来自胶东半岛(山东、安徽和江苏部分地区)，当时他们被认为是外来的野蛮人，但在中国统一前被吸收进了汉族。

Now, what I actually find more fascinating is…

the incredible degree to which Koreans/Chinese/Japanese care about how the other two nations view its own history. The degree of intolerance and nosiness exhibited by the three nations on how the other view their own history is a fascinating facsimile of religious intolerance of the West.

现在，我发现更有趣的事在于……

韩国人/中国人/日本人对其他两个国家如何看待自己国家历史的关心程度高得令人吃惊。这三个国家对于对方对自己国家历史的看法所表现出的偏狭又八卦，简直就像西方的宗教专治的历史复现。

My message to you is we should tolerate others’ view of their history as we tolerate others’ religious beliefs. History is study of past event, it is a field of study much like Biology is a study of living things. Often times, you’ll find people who don’t agree with you or have the facts wrong - when it happens you have to learn to let it go. Treat history as what it is - a field of study full of gaps and imperfect understandings that should be taken loosely. It is not a religion - a belief system full of gaps and imperfect understanding that are taken as absolute truth.

我想告诉大家的是，我们应该允许别人对自己国家历史有不同的看法，就像我们接受别人的宗教信仰一样。历史学是对历史事件的研究，是一个研究领域，就像生物学是对生物的研究一样。很多时候，你会发现有人不同意你的观点，或者把事实搞错了——当这种情况发生时，你必须学会一笑置之。我们要实事求是地对待历史——这是一门充满鸿沟、了解有限的研究领域，我们应该放松一点来看待历史。历史不是宗教——一种被视为绝对真理的充满鸿沟和了解有限的信仰体系。

Jangwon Suh

Long story short, this BS needs to stop, really.

What you are regarding as a fact before making the question is that many South Koreans actually insisted on the idea of Chinese characters being theirs. You even stated that “quite a large proportion of Korean netizens” do this.

I repeat, this is simply nonsense. Got this clear? Why don’t you give them some proof first that the majority of Koreans actually think this way? Why don’t you stop believing in this make-believe created and exaggerated by the Chinese whose main goal is to worsen the relationship between China and Korea?

长话短说，真的该叫停这种胡言乱语了。

在你提出这个问题之前，你认定了一个事实，认为很多韩国人都坚称汉字是韩国人的。你甚至说出“相当大比例的韩国网民”都这样认为的话。

我再说一遍，这完全是无稽之谈。你听明白了吗？你为什么不先列举一些证据，证明大多数韩国人都这么想呢？你为什么还要继续相信这些由中国人编造夸大的虚构问题，他们的主要目的就是要恶化中韩关系呀。

Yes, you may have proof, of course you do. Some Korean professor might’ve mentioned it in his/her thesis. Some Korean netizens here and there might’ve made a few comments. Surprising. I’m sure there are some Chinese netizens who think Korea and Japan are all theirs, but Koreans don’t judge Chinese on that. See the point?

While I don’t really call myself a patriot—I’m far from it—I have no respect for people who bash on my country and my countrymen without facts.

是的，也许你有证据，你当然会有证据。韩国教授可能在论文中提到过这种观点。也有些韩国网民可能发表过一些评论。但我也相信有些中国网民认为韩国和日本都是中国的，但韩国人并不会因此来评判中国人。

虽然我没把自己当做爱国者——我做的远远不够——但我对那些无凭无据就抨击我的国家和同胞的人，绝无一丝尊敬。

To Chinese Quorans who still believe these hoaxes: If you are reading this answer, please, do me a favor and snap out of it. Not just this one, but all these “Why do Koreans claim that [insert something made by Chinese here] are theirs?” questions. I assure you, almost all of those are false, if not all of them.

对于相信这些骗局的中国quora网友：如果你正好看到这个答案，请帮我个忙，无视所有“为什么韩国人声称[中国人制造的东西]是韩国的？”的问题。我向你保证，这些基本都是骗人的。

Joseph K. Kim

I am asked to answer such a claim from too many Chinese quorans, and I am sick and tired of this.

I never heard of such a claim coming out from a mouth of Korean people nor media. Sure, I dont doubt that there’d be some extreme nationalists among us, but it is not a popular theory, nor a familiar one.

I believe it may be Chinese Co unist party that spread these rumors as their political agenda, and I think it is by no means necessary nor productive in a long run.

Please, Koreans are happy with what they have, and they have no intention to steal magnificent wonders of Chinese culture, so relax, your treasures remain unharmed.

许多中国网友请我回答这种问题，我实在烦不胜烦。

我从来没有听哪个韩国人或哪家媒体说过这样的话。当然，我相信会有一些极端的民族主义者，但这不是主流观点，也不是耳熟能详的观点。

我认为这些谣言可能是中国出于自己的政治目的而散布的，从长远来看，我认为这样做并没有必要，也没有成效。

拜托，韩国人无意窃取中国的文化瑰宝，所以放轻松点吧。

John SI

first of all, it's just Modern Nationalistic Propoganda. I never heard of anyone in South Korea ever talk about the Dong Yi or claim that Koreans invented the Chinese characters.

首先，这就是现代民族主义的宣传。我从来没有听说过韩国人谈论过东夷，也没有听说过韩国人发明了汉字。

Second of all, it seems that Chinese people often confused the term Dong Yi as a tribe that lived in Northern China and that's simply untrue. Dong Yi is just a general term for Eastern Barbarians.

其次，中国人似乎经常把东夷这个词误认为是生活在中国北方的一个部落

Soyu Jae

It's nonsense!

For the simple fact that if Korean ancestors invented Chinese characters, why don't they proudly continue to use it today? Instead they invented Hangul to replace Chinese characters in 13th century and use it till today!

这纯粹是胡说八道！

有个很简单的事实，如果真是朝鲜族的祖先发明了汉字，为什么他们今天没有自豪地继续使用汉字呢？相反，朝鲜族在13世纪发明了朝鲜文来取代汉字，并一直沿用至今！