Founding ancestor of the Suwon Baek clan (traditionally said to be a man of King Gyeongdeok's reign in Silla)
| Era | 신라 (전승) |
| Clan | 수원 백씨 |
Baek U-gyeong (白宇經) is traditionally regarded as the founding ancestor of the Suwon Baek clan. Genealogies in the Baek daedongbo tradition describe him as a native of Suzhou in China who served the Tang court and crossed to Silla in 780 (the first year of King Seondeok), settling beneath Mt. Jaoksan near Gyeongju. Explanations from the Korean Language Society repeat this account while noting that nothing can be confirmed about his ancestors before him.
This is a tradition drawn from genealogical works such as the Gapja daedongbo. The theory of an origin in China rests on a 1669 account based on the 1637 Jeongchuk old genealogy of the Daeheung Baek, and is not regarded as firmly documented; some scholars question it by comparing dates with figures in other genealogies. Others raise the possibility that the Baek (苩) clan among the eight great families of Baekje became the present Baek (白) in the Unified Silla period, but how the two lines connect is unknown.
His story is therefore best read as tradition. How his descendants came to use Suwon as their seat, and the generations between him and the middle progenitor Baek Chang-jik, are not clearly documented; the earliest known use of 'Suwon' as the clan seat is by Baek Hyo-sam, who wrote it on his 1427 examination record.
The best-known account of Baek U-gyeong is of his arrival in Silla in 780: a Tang official who crossed over and settled beneath Mt. Jaoksan, as told in genealogical works. Other accounts, however, place him in the reign of King Gyeongdeok (r. 742-765), so the date of his arrival differs from source to source.
The theory that the Suwon Baek founder came from China is criticized as poorly supported, and explanations such as the Korean Language Society's state that no ancestor before Baek U-gyeong can be identified. When several Baek clan seats were merged into Suwon in the 1980s-90s, the founder tradition was unified too, and some older seats (Nampo, Jiksan, Daeheung and others) objected that the Suwon genealogy was unclear. Please confirm your own family's roots in the genealogy you hold.
Through the middle progenitor Baek Chang-jik, his descendants are said to have maintained Suwon as their ancestral seat.