A History of Korea (9 page)

The period ranging from the Paleolithic Age to the rise and development of confederated kingdoms, Old Chos
ŏ
n in particular, represents the “dawn” of the Korean nation. This early age witnessed the formation of the Korean race, the acceptance of advanced Bronze and Iron cultures, and the emergence of important Korean states, including Old Chos
ŏ
n, Puy
ŏ
, and Kogury
ŏ
. In a word, this era laid the groundwork for the development of all future Korean history.

Beginning as a small walled-town state before the second century
BC
, Kogury
ŏ
grew increasingly into a confederated kingdom after its expulsion of the Chinese commandery of Hy
ŏ
ndo in 75
BC
. At around that time there were five large tribal enclaves: Sono-bu (or Piryu-bu), Ch
ŏ
llo-bu (or Y
ŏ
nna-bu), Sunno-bu (or Hwanna-bu), Kwanno-bu (or Kwanna-bu), and Kyeru-bu. In 37
BC
Chumong and his Kyeru-bu people, the so-called horse-riding warriors, took political leadership in the confederated kingdom, heralding the beginning of “New Kogury
ŏ
.”

At first the Kogury
ŏ
people were a hunting tribe that had settled in the mountainous regions of southern Manchuria. Thus Kogury
ŏ
had to break out of these regions and make inroads into the south, with its vast stretches of plains. In
AD
3 Kogury
ŏ
transferred its capital from Cholbon (Hwanin) to Kungnae-s
ŏ
ng on the Yalu. Defended by Hwando-s
ŏ
ng in the rear and fronted by the Yalu River, the new capital was a natural stronghold.

By the first century
AD
Kogury
ŏ
was firmly established as a state power. King T’aejo (53–146?) vigorously expanded the Kogury
ŏ
territory through aggressive military activities allowing Kogury
ŏ
to exact tribute from its neighbors. T’aejo
subjugated Okch
ŏ
to secure a base in the rear and consolidate the material foundations by acquiring a tributary state. He also actively took the offensive against the Chinese, attacking the Liaodong region east of the Liao River and the Chinese commandery of Nangnang. T’aejo and his successors then absorbed the newly won resources and manpower into Kogury
ŏ
, thus continuing Kogury
ŏ
’s territorial expansion. Domestically T’aejo established the permanent right to the throne by the Ko house (clan) of the Kyeru-bu lineage, and thus he came to be called T’aejo, or the founder-king.

During the reign of King Kogukch’
ŏ
n (179–197) the monarch’s authority became further consolidated and the kingdom’s political structure became increasingly centralized. First, the five original tribal enclaves from the earlier, traditional society were reorganized into five centrally ruled districts termed
pu,
or provinces, and given names connoting the directions north, south, east, west, and center; these were the administrative units of the capital and its neighboring areas. Chieftains of the former enclaves were integrated into the central aristocracy. Second, royal succession changed from a brother-to-brother pattern to one of father to son, representing a growth in monarchical power. Third, it became established practice for queens to be taken from the My
ŏ
ngnim house of the Ch
ŏ
llo-bu (or Y
ŏ
nna-bu) lineage, which allowed the king to secure a permanent ally against potential political centers that might oppose the strengthening of royal power. Fourth, King Kogukch’
ŏ
n appointed as prime minister an obscure individual named
Ŭ
lp’aso to enforce the
chindaep
ŏ
p,
or relief loan law, which prevented poor peasants from becoming slaves of the aristocracy and enabled them to borrow grain from the state during the spring famine season and repay it at low interest after the autumn harvest.

As Kogury
ŏ
achieved domestic stability, it gained great momentum for waging military campaigns against the Chinese. Repeated Chinese counterattacks failed to crush the elusive warriors of Kogury
ŏ
, who were well protected in their mountainous habitat and highly mobile as a result of long experience with a hunting economy. In the first such campaign, in 242 King Tongch’
ŏ
n (227–248) attacked Xianping(S
ŏ
anp’y
ŏ
ng in Korean), a Chinese strategic county at the estuary of the Yalu, in order to cut off the land route linking China proper with its Nangnang Commandery. The Chinese Wei dynasty immediately retaliated. The Wei (222–280) was one of three dynasties that had been established in China after the Han empire fell in 220 and was the closest to Kogury
ŏ
. In 244, with the intention of succeeding the Han empire in Nangnang, Wei sent
an invading force led by Guanqiu Jian to Kogury
ŏ
, capturing Hwando-s
ŏ
ng near the capital of Kungnae-s
ŏ
ng. When Wei’s military forces, led by Wang Qi, invaded Kogury
ŏ
again the next year, King Tongch’
ŏ
n had to flee and seek refuge in Okch
ŏ
.

Wei’s attempt to punish Kogury
ŏ
was short-lived, however, as Wei itself was destroyed by the subsequent dynasty, the Jin, in 265. Jin was only able to achieve a brief reunification of China, as it, too, was soon overtaken by the nomadic peoples in 316. China was divided into the Northern and Southern dynasties until the Sui empire under Wendi achieved its unification in 589. Seizing upon the opportunity of China’s division and internal struggles, Kogury
ŏ
renewed its offensive against the Chinese territory east of the Liao River. Finally, in 313, King Mich’
ŏ
n (300–331) drove out the Chinese from their Nangnang Commandery in 313. Kogury
ŏ
’s control of the former domain of Old Chos
ŏ
n in the Taedong River valley laid the groundwork for its future growth.

With the Jin driven south into the Yangtze River valley, five “barbarians”— Xiongnu, Xianbei, Di, Jie, and Qiang—established 16 ephemeral kingdoms in northern China. Among the five nomadic peoples, the Xianbei people became firmly predominant. As their state of Earlier Yan, founded by the Murong tribe, advanced into Manchuria, Kogury
ŏ
was forced to engage in a fierce struggle with it for control of the Liao River basin. Kogury
ŏ
, under King Kogukw
ŏ
n (331–371), met with disaster when it was invaded by Murong Huang, king of the Earlier Yan, in 342. His forces stormed into the Kogury
ŏ
capital of Kungnaes
ŏ
ng, burned the royal palace to the ground, dug up the corpse of the previous king (Mich’
ŏ
n), and seized the queen mother and 50,000 other Kogury
ŏ
captives. A generation later, in 371, the Paekche king K
ŭ
nch’ogo, who pursued a policy to go north, sacked Pyongyang-s
ŏ
ng and killed King Kogukw
ŏ
n in battle.

Kogukw
ŏ
n’s successor, King Sosurim (371–384), to save his nation from a great crisis, embarked on reshaping the pattern of the nation’s institutions. He accepted Buddhism and established the T’aehak, or National Academy, for the teaching of Confucianism, in 372, and the next year drew up and promulgated the
yuly
ŏ
ng,
or code of administrative law. Buddhism would function as the instrument to spiritually unite the kingdom; the T’aehak would create a new officialdom loyal to the king; and the yuly
ŏ
ng would provide a systematic, legal structure for the state. Because of the defeats Kogury
ŏ
had suffered under the Earlier Yan and Paekche dynasties, King Sosurim also initiated military reform. With the aim of molding Kogury
ŏ
into a more advanced aristocratic nation, the
king also reorganized national institutions based on China’s advanced culture. These steps laid the groundwork for Kogury
ŏ
’s great territorial expansion that would ensue under King Kwanggaet’o (391–413).

Kogury
ŏ
reached its zenith in the fifth century, when King Kwanggaet’o and his son, King Changsu, expanded its territory into almost all of Manchuria and part of Inner Mongolia, and took the strategic Han River basin to the south from Paekche. During their reign the two kings virtually subdued Paekche and Silla, loosely unifying Korea.

Achieving the greatest expansion of Kogury
ŏ
territory, King Kwanggaet’o built and consolidated a great empire in Northeast Asia. As his name, which means “broad expander of domain,” implied, under his leadership Kogury
ŏ
grew in all directions. His exploits are recorded in detail on the huge memorial stele that today stands near Kungnae-s
ŏ
ng. According to the inscription, consisting of 1,775 Chinese characters, King Kwanggaet’o, in 397, occupied Later Yan’s important stronghold in Manchuria, the Liaodong fortress. From 400 to 406 Kogury
ŏ
ceaselessly struggled with Later Yan to take the Liaodong region and finally succeeded in integrating the whole Liaodong area into its territory. In 398 he subjugated the Sushen people, a Tungusic tribe on Kogury
ŏ
’s northeastern frontier. From 392 on, he attacked Paekche to the south, extending Kogury
ŏ
’s frontier into the Han River valley. In 396, he captured the Paekche capital of Hans
ŏ
ng (present-day Songp’a district of Seoul or Hanam city, Ky
ŏ
nggi province) and brought the Paekche king Asin to his knees. The Paekche king gave him 1,000 Paekche people and 1,000 bolts of silk cloth as a sign of submission and asked him to make peace with his kingdom. In 400, extending a helping hand to Silla, he sent 50,000 infantry and cavalry troops to crush an allied force comprised of Paekche, Kaya, and Wae (Wa) Japanese that had attacked Silla. The Kogury
ŏ
army completely annihilated the Paekche-Kaya-Wae forces in the Naktong River basin. In the entire course of his life he conquered a total of 64 fortress domains and some 1,400 villages. He created a great kingdom extending over two-thirds of the Korean peninsula and much of Manchuria. In particular, by conquering the Liaodong region, he recovered the former territory of Old Chos
ŏ
n, which had been lost to the Chinese Yan 700 years earlier. Based on his great confidence in his kingdom, he instituted his own era name,
Y
ŏ
ngnak,
or Eternal Rejoicing, thus heralding Kogury
ŏ
’s status of equality with the major Chinese dynasties.

In 413 King Kwanggaet’o was succeeded by his son, King Changsu (413–491), meaning “ long-lived.” During his long reign he continued his father’s campaign of conquest, and, under his rule, Kogury
ŏ
’s national strength attained its climax. China’s split into the Northern and Southern dynasties afforded him an opportunity to diplomatically maneuver these two bitterly contending forces to Kogury
ŏ
’s advantage. While continuing a fierce struggle with the nearby Northern dynasties, he sought diplomatic contact across the Yellow Sea with the Southern dynasties. In 427 King Changsu moved Kogury
ŏ
’s capital from Kungnae-s
ŏ
ng to Pyongyang, creating a new epicenter for the kingdom in the Taedong River basin. It was there that he built the Anhak-kung palace for his court. Because Pyongyang was located in the vast, fertile Taedong River basin and had been the center of advanced culture of Old Chos
ŏ
n and Nangnang, this move led Kogury
ŏ
to attain a high level of economic and cultural prosperity. But with this relocation of the capital from a region of narrow mountain valleys to a wide riverine plain, the Kogury
ŏ
people lost their inherent spirit of toughness, simplicity, and martial spirit, and increasingly indulged in luxury and pleasure.

Meanwhile, the transfer of Kogury
ŏ
’s capital far southward to Pyongyang posed a grave threat to its southern neighbors, Paekche and Silla. Thus Paekche forged an alliance with Silla in 433, and, in 472, sent an envoy to the Chinese Northern Wei dynasty to appeal for military assistance against Kogury
ŏ
’s southward advance. In 475, however, Kogury
ŏ
seized the Paekche capital, capturing King Kaero and beheading him in retaliation for the death of King Kogukw
ŏ
n a century earlier. Paekche was forced to move its capital south to Ungjin on the K
ŭ
m River, barely managing to preserve its national existence. Now Kogury
ŏ
embraced a vast new territory stretching far into Manchuria and the Korean peninsula. Its frontiers reached the Liao River to the west, the Maritime Province of Russia to the east, the Songhua River in Manchuria to the north, and the Sobaek and Ch’ary
ŏ
ng mountain ranges on the Korean peninsula to the south. In its heyday from the late fifth to the early sixth century, Kogury
ŏ
occupied some 90 percent of the entire territory of the Three Kingdoms. The Kogury
ŏ
people took pride in their country as a great kingdom and despised Silla, then their protectorate, as a state of the “eastern barbarians.” In short, Kogury
ŏ
established a great “empire” in Northeast Asia and, taking advantage of the division and confusion in China, held sway over vast territory in the region.