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Table of Contents
Unforgotten Sisters investigation
Background
I became aware of the Cosmos Magazine article The unforgotten sisters: Sonduk, the astronomer queen (hereinafter “Cosmos Magazine article,” archived version https://archive.is/j7d1n ) from somewhat implausible claims about the ancient Korean monarch Seondeok (善德王) being discussed as fact on social media.
I found out the article was adapted from an earlier book by the same author, Gabriella Bernardi's The Unforgotten Sisters: Astronomers and Scientists before Caroline Herschel (2016 Springer Praxis, hereinafter “Unforgotten Sisters”) and started tracking down possible sources of these claims starting with the bibliography of Bernardi's book.
Suspicions about these claims and subsequent research were recorded contemporaneously on a thread on writeout.ink. This page and linked pages are a more formal documentation of the findings.
Sources tracked
Women of Korea
- Yung-Chung Kim, Women of Korea: A History from Ancient Times to 1945 (2nd ed. 1977)
- Index of Queen Sŏndŏk references: 23, 24, 27, 42 (Apparent mistake for 25, 26, 27, 42)
This book (hereinafter “Women of Korea”) was cited in the bibliography of Unforgotten Sisters and I read the parts relevant to Seondeok as a possible source for the unusual claims. However, Women of Korea does not go beyond the known historical information on Seondeok and I could not find any mention of details unique to Unforgotten Sisters such as her passion for astronomy, having a Tang ambassador as a tutor, etc. See Passages on Seondeok from Women of Korea (1977).
Sŏndŏk: Princess of the Moon and Stars
- Sheri Holman, Sŏndŏk: Princess of the Moon and Stars (2002)
Not directly cited in Unforgotten Sisters and found by independent search, this middle-grade novel (hereinafter “Princess of the Moon and Stars”) has many striking similarities with the assertions about Seondeok that I could not trace to any historical source. There are even passages with very similar wording. See Comparison with Princess of the Moon and Stars.
Other sources
I have looked through four other sources that might be relevant to Seondeok and that I had library access to, mostly biographical dictionaries of astronomers and scientists. I could not find any mention of her, however.
The Unforgotten Sisters chapter on Seondeok
I also read the Seondeok chapter of Bernardi's Unforgotten Sisters and found it had the same problems as the Cosmos Magazine article: Similar in substance, no labeling of fictional content in a book meant to be non-fiction, and no mention or citation of Holman's novel that I could find,
Further issues: Claims regarding Cheomseongdae
The fictional details about Seondeok claimed as fact are the most egregious errors, but there are issues with the discussions on Cheomseongdae as well. There is dispute in the Korean historical and archaeology communities over whether the building was an observatory and some disagreement between records on the specific period of construction, but I do not expect most people outside Korea to go beyond conventional wisdom.
More problematic are Bernardi's claims on the story behind the construction of Cheomseongdae and the method of observation from the tower, with the first evidently being another uncited invention of Holman's and the second not having any basis in the historical record.
The construction of Cheomseongdae
In the Cosmos Magazine article Bernardi claims the following about the background for the construction of Cheomseongdae:
Sonduk had begged her father for several years to set out on its building, but eventually accomplished the challenge on her own.
The historical records on the construction of the Cheomseongdae specifying it being in Seondeok's time, however, is the following line from the Samguk Yusa (三國遺事):
別記云是王代鍊石築瞻星臺 (A separate record states that it was in the King's [Seondeok's] time that stone was shaped to build the Cheomseongdae.)
Yet again, the only “basis” for the assertion that this was something Seondeok begged of her father seems to be Holman's Princess of the Moon and Stars in passages like the following:
It is my greatest desire to one day build an observatory here dedicated only to mapping the sky. I have hinted to Father that is what I want for my New Year's gift. (p. 9)
> My heart leaped at his words, Grandmother. Finally, he would grant my desire.
"It is not an observatory," he said, as I unwrapped a small red package. Inside was a lovely golden bracelet, hung with the astrological signs . . . carved in jade. . . . I smiled weakly, trying to hide my disappointment . . . (p. 43)### The method of observation from Cheomseongdae
Bernardi states the following in the Cosmos Magazine article:
According to the historical accounts, when astronomers were observing in Sonduk’s tower, they laid on their back and watched the celestial objects through four domes on the top, arranged in a square and oriented towards the four cardinal points.
This would be remarkable if true because there is no such historical account to my knowledge, and to the knowledge of many scholars over the centuries who have speculated on how the Cheomseongdae was used for observation of the heavens—if it was at all, as alluded to above.
Ironically, this is one assertion that cannot be traced to Holman's Princess of the Moon and Stars because Holman states in the epilogue:
It is almost certain that a wooden platform made the tower even higher, but modern scientists are not absolutely sure as to how the tower was used. It is shrouded in mystery. (p. 161)
I am unsure about the strength of the wooden platform assertion, but at any rate it contradicts Bernardi's account. Furthermore, the acknowledgement of uncertainty over the specific mode of Cheomseongdae's usage is a much better-supported statement than Bernardi's claim of a historical record documenting a specific method. If Bernardi can present such a historical record, of course, it would be quite a remarkable find, though I personally could find no such record myself and could not trace it to any of her cited sources I could access.
Tentative conclusions
- The claims about Seondeok not found in the recorded history appear to be drawn uncited and uncredited from the novel Princess of the Moon and Stars.
- The chapter in Unforgotten Sisters and the Cosmos Magazine article should be retracted or corrected to remove the fictional material.
- If the chapter and article are left as they are, they should be marked or otherwise notified as largely fictional, and Ms. Holman's permission should be sought for the use of details she originated, with appropriate credit. She may also be due some form of apology, acknowledgement, and recompense.
- There are other assertions with dubious support, such as the method of using the Cheomseongdae for observation, that need better sourcing.