A History of Korea (5 page)

When China proper was unified by the Qin and Han empires in the late third century
BC
, a majority of the dongyi people in eastern China had become assimilated and converted to Chinese. But many among the ruling classes chose to go into exile in southern Manchuria and the Korean peninsula. For instance, Wiman, a refugee from the Yan dynasty, which then existed around present-day Beijing, led his band of more than 1,000 followers into exile in Old Chos
ŏ
n in the early second century
BC
. To summarize, in the course of China’s unification, the dongyi people were squeezed out of their territories in eastern China and forced to move to southern Manchuria east of the Liao River and the Korean peninsula. Thus Korea’s Bronze Age people, Neolithic natives, and the dongyi who had migrated from eastern China all merged together to become the ancestors of the Korean race.

According to legend, Korea received its birth as a nation-state in 2333
BC
, when a king named Tan’gun, “the Lord of the Pakdal [sandalwood] tree,” founded “(Old) Chos
ŏ
n,” usually translated as “Land of the Morning Calm.” As the legend goes, a divine spirit named Hwanung, a son of Hwanin, the sun god, who yearned to live on the earth among the people, descended from heaven to Mount T’aebaek (present-day Paektu-san), with 3 divine stamps and 3,000 followers, and proclaimed himself king of the universe. Hwanung constructed a holy city just below the divine sandalwood tree at the summit of the mountain and administered 360-odd human affairs, including crops, diseases, punishments, and good and evil, with the help of his vassals
p’ungbaek,
or god of the wind;
ubaek,
or god of the rain; and
unsa,
or god of the clouds. He instituted laws and moral codes, and taught the people arts, medicine, and agriculture. His son was Tan’gun. The story of Tan’gun’s birth appears in one of the oldest extant history texts,
Samguk yusa,
or Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, written by the Buddhist monk Iry
ŏ
n in 1285:

In those days there lived a she-bear and a tigress in the same cave. They prayed to Hwanung to be blessed with incarnation as human beings. The king took pity
on them and gave each a bunch of mugwort and 20 pieces of garlic, saying, “If you eat this holy food and do not see the sunlight for 100 days, you will become human beings.”

The she-bear and tigress took the food and retired into the cave. There, eating the food, they were to spend 100 days. In 21 days, the she-bear, who had faithfully observed the king’s instructions, became a woman. But the tigress, who had disobeyed them and stepped out of the cave in a few days, remained in her original form.

The bear-woman could find no husband, so she prayed under the divine sandalwood tree to be blessed with a child. Hwanung heard her pray and took her for his wife. She conceived and bore a son who was called Tan’gun Wangg
ŏ
m.
²

Every year, on 3 October, the day that Tan’gun (“Lord of Sandalwood”) founded Chos
ŏ
n in 2333, is celebrated in South Korea as
Kaech’
ŏ
nj
ŏ
l,
or Foundation Day. Holding his court at Asadal (Pyongyang), Tan’gun reigned with unparalleled wisdom until 1122
BC
. In present-day South Korea, one may observe shrines to his memory. Another legend holds that a noted sage named Kija (Jizi in Chinese) became disheartened with the lawless state of China and migrated to Tan’gun’s Chos
ŏ
n with 5,000 followers. In 1122
BC
Tan’gun abdicated the throne in favor of Kija to become a mountain god.

The myth of Tan’gun is symbolic on several levels. First, Hwanung and his followers, numbering 3,000, who descended from heaven, symbolize newcomers with a highly advanced Bronze culture. The animals, the she-bear and the tigress, represent ancient tribal totem symbols. Early Korean or Tungusic tribes were usually represented by totem symbols of animals. Specifically a bear was worshiped throughout Northeast Asia, and a tiger frequently figured in Korean folklore and art. The tribes represented by the she-bear and tigress were probably native settlers with a Neolithic culture. The bear-woman’s marriage to Hwanung thus signifies the union of two large tribes in Korea. In other words, the Hwanung tribe, believing itself to be descendants of the king of heaven, became the “king tribe,” and the bear tribe defeated the tiger tribe to become the “queen tribe.” Tan’gun’s birth between Hwanung and “
ungny
ŏ
,
” or the bear-woman, suggests that a migrant tribe with a Bronze culture united with a native tribe with a Neolithic culture to form a walled-town state named “Chos
ŏ
n.”

The mugwort, the 20 pieces of garlic, and the gods p’ungbaek, ubaek, and unsa all suggest that Old Chos
ŏ
n was an agricultural society. The term tan’gun means shaman, or religious leader, and wangg
ŏ
m means political leader, and so the name Ta’gun Wangg
ŏ
m implies that Old Chos
ŏ
n was a theocratic society. Thus Old Chos
ŏ
n was an agricultural theocracy.

There is no archeological or anthropological evidence to support the legend that Tan’gun Chos
ŏ
n (Old Chos
ŏ
n) was founded in 2333
BC
, but archeological finds suggest that because Bronze culture appeared in southern Manchuria in the fifteenth century
BC
, small-scale walled-town states, or tribal states, such as Tan’gun Chos
ŏ
n, probably did come into existence. Some Chinese documents, written in the early seventh century
BC
, recorded that a Chinese kingdom of Qi (Che in Korean) traded with Chos
ŏ
n, suggesting that Old Chos
ŏ
n was an internationally known, commanding state. Then, in the sixth century
BC
, Chos
ŏ
n was so well known among the Chinese that the famous sage Confucius was said to have wished to go to Chos
ŏ
n to lead a life there. This tale indicates that the ancient Chinese saw Chos
ŏ
n as a “utopia,” where life was far better than in China, a place infested with constant warfare and turmoil.

After the Han empire was founded in 206
BC
, references to the existence of Chos
ŏ
n became more obvious in Chinese records. For instance, the Chinese historian Sima Qian’s
Shiji,
or Historical Records, described that when the Yin dynasty fell to the Zhou dynasty in 1122
BC
, Jizi (Kija), a member of Yin royalty, with 5,000 intellectuals and technicians in tow, migrated into Chos
ŏ
n to ascend the nation’s throne. Considering that the first Chinese historical documents describing Jizi, such as
Zhushu jinian,
or the Bamboo Annals, and
Lunyu,
or the Analects, made no mention of Jizi’s supposed migration to Chos
ŏ
n, this legend of “Kija Chos
ŏ
n” suggests that not Jizi himself but his descendants might have come to Chos
ŏ
n in succession in the fifth and fourth centuries
BC
. Wielding highly advanced iron implements, these people became the new ruling class in Chos
ŏ
n, which was still then in the Bronze culture. These Yin people also migrated to Chos
ŏ
n, as Chos
ŏ
n was considered the native state of the dongyi people. Because their own country was also founded by the dongyi people, they may well have felt that the Zhou, established by the Chinese, might not suit them well. When the Han dynasty was later at war with Chos
ŏ
n, Chinese historians embellished Jizi as the progenitor of Old Chos
ŏ
n.

Kija’s descendants succeeded the throne until the early second century
BC
, when, as mentioned above, Wiman, a political exile from the Yan dynasty, usurped the throne. King Chun, the last king of Kija Chos
ŏ
n, is said to have fled southward to the state of Chin, where he called himself the “Han King.” Since the period of the Three Kingdoms, Chun’s descendants seem to have had such family names as “Han,” “Ki,” and “S
ŏ
nu.”

With the advent of Bronze culture, several walled-town states began to appear in Manchuria and the Korean peninsula. Around 450
BC
Puy
ŏ
arose in the upper reaches of the Songhua River in Manchuria, Ye (Yemaek) along the middle reaches of the Yalu, Imdun in the Hamh
ŭ
ng plain on the northeast seacoast of the Korean peninsula, and Chinb
ŏ
n in today’s Hwanghae province in North Korea. Chin emerged in the region south of the Han River around 430
BC
, and at about the same time some people of Chin found their way into western Japan.

Among these walled-town states the most advanced was Old Chos
ŏ
n, established before the eighth century
BC
at the latest. Originally Old Chos
ŏ
n appears to have been just a small political entity dominating a minor portion of the Liao River plains, but by the early fourth century
BC
it had entered the Iron Age and proceeded to incorporate, by alliance or military conquest, other walled-town states scattered throughout the vast region between the Liao and the Taedong rivers to form a large confederation. At this stage Old Chos
ŏ
n was entitled to be called a confederated kingdom.

Old Chos
ŏ
n held its court at Pyongyang. At the time there were three different sites called “Pyongyang” (meaning “flatland”): one west of the Liao River, a second east of the river, and the third in northwestern Korea. One can surmise that the first capital of Old Chos
ŏ
n was located west of the Liao River, was then transferred east of the river as the Chinese forced Old Chos
ŏ
n out of the region, and finally, with the decline of its power, was relocated in present-day Pyongyang in its last years.

By the late fourth century
BC
the northern Chinese state of Yan had begun to use the term
wang,
or king, upon the decline of the suzerain Zhou kingdom. Old Chos
ŏ
n assumed the same title for its ruler and firmly maintained equal relations with China’s regional lords in the Warring States Period (403–221
BC
). In about 320
BC
, when Yan attempted to invade its territory, Old Chos
ŏ
n planned a counterattack. As the two states confronted each other, Old Chos
ŏ
n’s commanding posture caused the Yan people to criticize the Korean nation as “arrogant and cruel.” There is no doubt, in short, that Old Chos
ŏ
n exhibited formidable strength at that time as an independent power in Northeast Asia.

During the Old Chos
ŏ
n period the Bronze Age was fated to pass. In the early fourth century
BC
commodities fashioned from iron began to enter southern
Manchuria and the Korean peninsula from China, and by 300
BC
iron implements had widely come into use.

Iron culture was first introduced to southern Manchuria and northwestern Korea, Old Chos
ŏ
n’s territory, and from there it soon spread in all directions. At the same time another Bronze culture of Scytho-Siberian origin took root in Manchuria and the Korean peninsula. As iron implements came into use, the mode of life in Korea underwent profound changes. First of all, with the use of hoeing implements made of iron and sophisticated iron farming tools such as plowshares and sickles, agriculture experienced remarkable development. Food production markedly increased compared to that of the Bronze Age. The increased output, however, was not shared equally by the whole society but was monopolized by a ruling class. Thus the rulers wielded even greater authority than before.

Iron culture also influenced weaponry. Iron weapons such as daggers and spear points as well as bronze daggers, spear points, and spears have been excavated from Iron Age remains in large numbers. These sharp weapons fashioned from hard metal were monopolized by a small number among the ruling elite. Members of the ruling class also mounted on horseback or rode horse-drawn vehicles in imposing their authority on the rest of the people. These horse-riding warriors were the undisputed masters of Iron Age society.

People in the Iron Age who lived in pit dwellings or huts began to use
ondol,
the traditional Korean underground heating device in which the stone that constituted the room floor was heated by hot air circulating beneath it. This unique heating system led Koreans to adopt a “sitting culture.” The prevailing forms of burial at the time were earthen tombs, into which corpses were directly placed, and jar-coffin interments which utilized two large urns laid mouth to mouth to contain the body. A new type of pottery, a hard, iron-rich, and more highly fired Chinese-style gray stoneware, appeared, characterized by a smooth, lustrous surface.

China’s deep influence on this new development of Iron culture in Korea is apparent, attested by the discovery of the Chinese coins
mingdaoqian,
or crescent knife coins, at many Iron Age excavation sites. But the transmission of Chinese Iron culture to Korea (Old Chos
ŏ
n) did not lead to the extension of Chinese political domination over the Korean people.
³
The introduction of Chinese Iron culture only contributed to the rapid development of the Korean nation.