There seems to be an interesting relationship between the death of ???? and the 1919 independence movement. A lot of the activity that year appears to have been an outpouring the wake of his passing. Also, the ????? ???? ?????? ????? (provisional gov’t) was formed that year in Shanghai. In the latter case, were the people involved hoping to restore ????穫 ???? (the Korean Empire) while ???? was still alive, then proclaimed the former ????? ???? as a republic (????) after his death?

Regarding the 60-year cycle (???? ?????/????????), it worked like this: each year (?????/?, for example), is named by 2 characters. The first character is one of the “10 heavenly stems” (????/????); the second is one of the 12 zodiacal signs or “earthly branches” (????/????), I believe they’re often called in English. The first year in the cycle is ????? (???), a combination of the first heavenly stem and the first zodiacal sign. (1984 was the last ?????? year.) From there, the ???? proceed in six ten-year cycles and the ????? proceed asynchronously in five twelve-year cycles. ?? and ??? coincide again every sixty years. Just as many modern events (????? ????, ?????? ??????) are named for the date they started on, many more historical events are named for the year they occurred in. So there’s the ???? (????) ?????, the reforms of 1895; and the ?????? (??) ???? in 1905, when Korea became a Japanese protectorate.

Many ????? ?????? (at least those by ???? ????) have a table of the ?뢮?? ?????. A good exposition on it in English is in the appendix to Paul H. Crane’s book Korean Patterns, published by the Royal Asiatic Society.

But that doesn’t explain how that year got used on a document that was verifiably written in 1919. So unless President Park had a secret time machine (and he had a secret nukes project, so I won’t say it’s impossible) then the usage must predate Park by some decades at least.

Whats the oldest Korean book? Samguksagi - compiled in the late 1200’s by Kim Pu Shik.

Whats the oldest significant Korean text? Kwanggyet’otaewangreungbimun (Gravestone inscription of the Great King Kwanggyet’o) from AD 391. Koreans detest this text (and implausibly claim it is partially fraudulent) because it contains the story of Paekje allying Japan against Koguryeo.

Whats the oldest mention of Korean-like people in any ancient book? Samgukji (Three [Chinese] Kingdom’s History) from sometime between AD 233-297, written by a Chinese guy.

Where does the “5000 years of history” claim come from? Late 19th/early 20th-century nationalist readings of the Samgukyusa (again compiled in late 1200s) passage which discusses the founding of Kochosun (Ancient Chosun) by a guy named T’angun who lived for over 1000 years. Pak Chung Hee started using “T’angi” - or T’angun Years - in the 1970s I believe, and thats where this “year 4252″ stuff comes from.

Wow, Korea is really weird.

Anyways I did a little history research with my students anbout Samil Day, or 3, 1 day. Check it out at my site.