“On the Ancient History of the Korean Peninsula” is the 2013 Major Project of the National Social Science Fund (the second batch) with the project fund of RMB800,000. The project is the first batch of the funded project with the tender subject of “Historical Studies of China's Neighboring Countries”. Yang Jun, Chief Executive of the project, is Vice-Director of the College of the Humanities of Jilin University and Professor of the Department of Chinese Language & Literature. In 2005, Yang was elected into the Supported by Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, and into the Top Innovative Talents in Jilin Province in 2007. In 2013, Yang won the award of the Excellent Teacher of Baosteel Education Foundation. The project consists of four sub-topics with more than 20 scholars from seven research institutions inside and outside Jilin Province who are studying the history of the Korean Peninsula, the archaeological issues and the history of relationship between China and Korea, etc.
The unique academic value of the project lies in the construction of the ancient history system of the Korean Peninsula from the new perspective of regional history researches, and the systematic and comprehensive display of Chinese scholars’ understanding of the ancient history system of the Korean Peninsula. Under the above guidance, the project mainly focuses on the following four aspects: The first aspect is the ancient history system of the Korean Peninsula; Second, issues that Chinese scholars differ greatly from South Korean, North Korean and Japanese scholars. Third, some very important historical issues in the ancient history of the Korean Peninsula; Fourth, some important issues in the ancient history of the Korean Peninsula which have not been studied systematically before.
In summary, in addition to the subject of ancient history system of the Korean Peninsula, the project mainly studies the primary, focal and neglected issues. Through the focus studies, the project can push the studies on ancient history of the Korean Peninsula into a new height.
