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Not enough research has been done on either the concept or the definition of baekdudaegan. Only a few peoplehave their own opinions about baekdudaegan. The concept of baekdudaegan in this article refers to Sanhyungpyo, a book published around 1800. Sanhyungpyodescribes the most famous conceptual of baekdudaegan, which organizes Korean mountainous region into the baekdudaegan and one mountain region and 13 mountains. It labels the main ridgewhich runs from the Mt. baekdu to the Mt. Cheelee as baekdudaegan and auxiliary branches off the main one as mountain ridge and mountains. Therefore, in order to have abetter understanding of baekdudaegan, one needs to observe, analyze, and be able to present the geographical characteristics of baekdudaegan the way Sanhyungpyo does. Now, let us look at the general concepts of baekdudaegan and its geographical domain.
1) The narrowest meaning of baekdudaegan - mountain trail
The direct distance between Mt. baekdu and the Mt. Cheelee is about 1,625 km. The narrowest meaning of baekdudaegan refers to a path 690 km long that runs from Mt. Cheelee to Jinboo-ryung. This is the portion of theridge that lies only in South Korea. However, the most common definition refers to even smaller area. It is the Jungjoo mountain trail that runs along the ridgeline rather than the whole mountain system.
2) The less narrow meaning of baekdudaegan main mountain ridge
This idea refers to a big mountain ridge that starts from Mt. baekdu and passes through Mt. Won, Mt. Nangrim, Mt. Dooryu, Boonsoo-ryung, Mt. Kyumjang, Mt. Ohdae, Mt. Taebaek, Mt. Sokleeh, Mt. Jangahn, and Mt. Cheeleeh. In this case, the name baekdudaegan refers to one continuous mountain system, thus has the proper name baekdudaegan. This definition excludes the branches off the main ridge. It only represents the main back bone. Sanhyungpyo puts the mountains and the hills into 123 categories. A simple analogy would be a tree trunk with its branches trimmed off.
3) The broad meaning of baekdudaegan main mountain ridge and its auxiliary hills
In this category, the baekdudaegan includes everything but the mountain ridge and the 13 mountains and their subordinate mountainous region. Therefore, it includes the main back bone and its branches. The baekdudaegan has numerous mountains branched off from itself. The mountains themselves also have many little branches. The baekdudaegan has a lot of smaller branches that are smaller than the mountains. One can compare thisto a main tree trunk with big boughs, and it turn the boughs have smaller branches. Also, the main trunk has little branches directly from it. In other words, in this view point, we are looking at the main stem with the big boughs cut off and with only the small branches attached. For this sense of baekdudaegan, Shankyungpyo includes 464 names of mountains and hills. And because it includes numerous branches in a size of mountains, it is rather incorrect to see it as a unit of a mountain ridge.
4) The broadest meaning of baekdudaegan the traditional understanding of geography
Since the foundation of the country, our ancestors believed that this land is an organism composed of the mountains and the waters in accordancewith the laws of mother nature. This traditional view sees the formation of the mountain as a living tree trunk, the big boughs, and the small and smaller branches. Rivers form between the small branches of a mountain. Also, phrases such as "mountain-river" and "mountain-water" are used to symbolize its nation.
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