The national historical "ownership" of the ancient Northeast Asian kingdom of Parhae (Ch. Bohai; 669-926) has been a controversial issue over the past several decades, with scholars in China, Korea, and even Russia all claiming that Parhae belonged to their nations' history. The authors of the various chapters in this book have exhausted the textual sources and archaeological data on this kingdom in building their argument that Parhae was the succesor to the earlier Korean kingdom of Koguryŏ. In the process, they have shed fresh light on Parhae's political development, ethnic composition, diplomatic and trade relations, and cultural aspects and have provided new insights into the nature of interactions among the states and peoples of Northeast Asia.