Hyech‘o’s Description of the Byzantine Empire and its Historical Reliability
Year: 2024

This chapter considers the only testimony about the Byzantine Empire related to us by Korean sources of the ancient period.The reference occurs in Wang o ch'nch'ukkukchn , the travel diary of the Korean monk Hyech'o (ca.700-780), who from 723 to 727 embarked on a pilgrimage to the holy places of Buddhism in India and Central Asia.In this regard, Hyech'o's work is of enormous interest, not only because it is the sole testimony on eighth-century India that comes to us from the Far East, but also b