Silla nachimban, a true north-pointing compass
for navigating the seas

In Korea’s long tradition of seafaring history, sailors' ability in navigating the open waters has always been taken for granted. Ancient seafarers mastered navigating the open seas when they finally deciphered the secrets of the direction of the magnetic north.

Conquering the seas has defined great empires in history as seen in Baekje (18 BCE - 660 CE) Empire's prominent presence surrounding the West Sea (Yellow Sea) and its sailors' far reach into lands where elephants and monkeys roam.

"One of the reasons why Baekje dominated the open seas early on was its advanced navigation technology as shown in the fact that Baekje scholar Dr. Wang-in traveled to Japan by boat at the end of the 4th century." said Bok Gi-dae, a professor of archaeology and director of Gojoseon Research Institute at Inha University in Incheon.

"During the 3rd and 4th century Baekje navigated across open waters of the Balhae Bay and conquered the western part of Balhae Bay, establishing Yoseo (Western Liaoning) and Jinpyeong districts. The largest island in Balhae Bay was named Baekje Island," documented in many historical records." according to Professor Bok.

Baekje scholar Dr. Wang-in, better known in Japan as Wani, is credited with the introduction of the Hanja writing system to Japan which Japanese call Kanji characters. Dr. Wang-in is from the coastal city of Yeongam in South Jeolla Province.

"Baekje ships have sailed many oceans with various ocean currents. In order to navigate the oceans and not just navigate around the coastline, you can't just rely on star constellations. You need a compass." according to Professor Bok.

Magnetic compass is called La Chim Pan in Hanja characters, the original written language of all of East Asia. East Asians have used the word La Chim Pan, which is a short for Sil-La Chim Pan, which means, pointed needle of Silla. La Chim Pan is also pronounced Na Chim Ban following South Korean pronunciation guides, which is different from that of North Korean Hangul rules.

Lodestone is the natural magnetic stone used in making La Chim Pan which historically was available in Korea. The word magnet from “magnetite” to describe the magnetic stone lodestone is from Greek mythology of Magnes the shepherd who first discovered that the nails of his shoes and the metal tip of his staff were attracted to a magnetic stone on Mount Ida while he was pasturing his herds.

The Samguk Sagi, a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla documents that "in January 669, Tang dynasty's monk Beop-an came to Silla in search of lodestones." The Samguk Sagi recorded that In the same year, "in May of 669, two boxes of lodestones were sent to the Tang dynasty" from Silla.

While early open water navigation travels were rarely documented in history books by intellectuals and aristocrats, a ninth century Japanese monk Ennin’s travel log has many insightful details of early seafarers.

Japanese monk Ennin (794 - 864), of the Tendai school of Buddhism whose diary of travels in China, translated into English by Harvard researcher Edwin O. Reischauer under the title "Ennin's Diary: The Record of a Pilgrimage to China in Search of the Law," ranked among the best travelogs in world literature, chronicled the Silla people and their colonial settlements in Tang territory.

Ennin had traveled to the Tang dynasty aboard Silla ships and returned home with help from Chang PoGo and his fleet of "efficient and fast Silla ships," which efficiently carried him back to Fukuoka City.

Chang PoGo was the international maritime trader who ruled waters of East Asia during the reign of the 42nd king of Silla, King Heungdeok (777 - 836).

Researchers believe that the "Silla ships had a Vee-bottom design which is suitable for fast travel compared to the flat-bottom design of ships which navigate not too far from the land" according to Lee Moon-kyo, a docent at the Chang PoGo museum in Wando.

According to Ennin's diary, "Silla sailors used Geographical Navigation in which the people of navigate by calculating the direction and distance, Observational Navigation based on night sky's stars, and navigation using a magnetic compass called La chim pan on cloudy days crossing the open seas." said Bok Gi-dae the archaeologist.

According to Ennin's diary, a Silla ship which he was on "April 16, 839 traveled on a cloudy day looking like it would rain and I couldn't see anything." On the following day Ennin wrote on April 17, 839, "the rain had stopped early in the morning, but the clouds were thick."

It seems probable that Silla sailors used the Silla compass called Sil La Chim Pan or La Chim Pan for short, when they were capable of navigating the open seas even when their visibility was compromised. The Silla Compass vocabulary La Chim Pan has remained the same in East Asian lexicon until today.

Ennin documented that even after the Silla ship sustained damage to its hull, the part of the ship that stays submerged underwater when the ship is in the water, the ship continued sailing without sinking. The "compartmentalized water impermeable hull design" was the secret to unsinking Silla's ships even when they sustained damages.

Researchers believe a typical Silla merchant ship capable of carrying some 150 persons and 300 tons of cargo with Vee-bottom design.

The cutting edge Vee-bottom ship design at the time was exported to Japan according to historical records.

Korean Poong-su uses a magnetic compass called La-gyeong or Na-gyeong, for burial and building constructions, using the same Hanja word La or Na from Sil-La.

Some fourteen centuries later, the ancient La Chim Pan from the Silla period has evolved into an electronic gyro compass in the 21st century which is far more accurate in navigating the open seas.

The electronic gyro compass accurately seeks the direction of true north using the force of gravity and the rotation of earth.

"Compared with up to 0.2 degree errors of gyro compass, magnetic compass can be off as much as 10 degrees at times, such as when you're near Cheongsando in Wando County, South Jeolla Province in the southern waters of Korea where the area is mostly iron ore." said Captain Lim Heekun, Master of SK AUDACE who navigates frequently in open waters transporting fossil fuel from the US and Middle East to Europe and to East Asia.

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