A History of Korea: From "Land of the Morning Calm" to States in Conflict

By Jinwung Kim

A history of the divided region, from prehistoric times to present day, examining at political, social, cultural, economic, and diplomatic developments.

Contemporary North and South Korea are nations of radical contrasts: one a bellicose totalitarian state with a failing economy; the other a peaceful democracy with a strong economy. Yet their people share a common history that extends back more than three thousand years. In this comprehensive new history of Korea from the prehistoric era to the present day, Jinwung Kim recounts the rich and fascinating story of the political, social, cultural, economic, and diplomatic developments in Korea’s long march to the present. He provides a detailed account of the origins of the Korean people and language and the founding of the first walled-town states, along with the advanced civilization that existed in the ancient land of “Unified Silla.” Clarifying the often complex history of the Three Kingdoms Period, Kim chronicles the five-century long history of the Choson dynasty, which left a deep impression on Korean culture. From the beginning, China has loomed large in the history of Korea, from the earliest times when the tribes that would eventually make up the Korean nation roamed the vast plains of Manchuria and against whom Korea would soon define itself. Japan, too, has played an important role in Korean history, particularly in the 20th century; Kim tells this story as well, including the conflicts that led to the current divided state. The first detailed overview of Korean history in nearly a quarter century, this volume will enlighten a new generation of students eager to understand this contested region of Asia.

“Using the latest sources, including recently declassified Communist documents, Jinwung Kim’s book holds promise of becoming the textbook of choice. Benefiting from his direct and intimate knowledge of the country, he writes with great clarity, providing rich and interesting descriptions of political, social, cultural, economic, and diplomatic developments throughout the history of Korea.” —James I. Matray, California State University, Chico

“A clearly written, comprehensive, and impressively detailed work.” —Journal of Asian Studies

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 5, 2012
• ISBN: 9780253000781

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Introduction

Koreans, a branch of the Ural-Altaic family, began their long, rich history as small tribes entering Manchuria (Manzhou) and the Korean peninsula from the Asian mainland hundreds of thousands of years ago. The vast plains of Manchuria, which now belong to China, had been the main arena of activity for Koreans until AD 926, when the Korean kingdom of Parhae fell to Qidan (Khitan) Liao. At first the Korean people came together into a cluster of villages and tribal states, termed walled-town states. As stronger walled-town states subjugated weaker ones under their dominion, these walled-town states grew into confederated kingdoms, including Old Chosŏn, Puyŏ, Koguryŏ, Paekche, and Silla, as well as the Kaya confederation. Among these, the kingdoms of Koguryŏ, Paekche, and Silla developed into centralized kingdoms, opening the period of the Three Kingdoms. When Silla unified two rival kingdoms in 676, or certainly when Koryŏ ended the period of the Later Three Kingdoms in 936, Koreans finally came together into a single homogeneous nation that has kept its identity despite repeated invasions by surrounding countries and peoples.

During the Koryŏ and Chosŏn dynasties, Korea was an autonomous, unified state with a sophisticated central government for a millennium. When Japan annexed the Chosŏn kingdom in 1910, Koreans lost their independence and came under Japanese colonial rule. Koreans tenaciously resisted unrelenting pressure from the Japanese to annihilate their way of life, and they succeeded in preserving their own culture intact. Since liberation from the Japanese in 1945, and as a result of the Cold War, Korea came to be divided into two states, North and South. Despite this division, Koreans in each state have regarded those in the other as their brethren and have aspired to reunification.

In short, throughout their long history, Koreans have endured all kinds of trials to maintain an ethnic and cultural identity quite separate from that of China or Japan. Koreans all speak the same language and share the same culture, and clearly their language, alphabet (han’gŭl), arts, and customs are distinct from those of the Chinese and the Japanese.

Although it began as a small nation on the eastern tip of the Asian continent, Korea has had a long, important civilization. Korea’s extensive history has been characterized both by the persistent assertion of a distinctive Korean identity and by military, political, and cultural assaults from external sources. Korean historians note that, throughout its history, Korea has been invaded by foreign aggressors once every two years on average. Given Korea’s strategic location and the much greater power of its neighbors, first China, and then Japan and Russia, it is remarkable that the Korean nation has survived.

While establishing its national identity, the Korean nation has produced remarkable cultural achievements. Recently South Korea (Republic of Korea) has excelled from the standpoints of political and economic development. Indeed, it has been universally acclaimed as a political and economic success story. An internationally recognized middle power, South Korea is marked not only by a fully functioning modern democracy but also by a high-tech modern world economy. It has raised itself from the depths of devastation and poverty following the Korean War (1950–1953) and shaken off the shackles of authoritarian rule to become a fully democratic nation committed to human rights, the rule of law, and economic prosperity for its people. The history of South Korea is also one of the fastest socioeconomic growth stories in the world during the past six decades.¹ As of 2008 it was the 15th largest economy and the 12th most active trading nation among 186 countries. It has become a much more dynamic and creative society than it was 20 years ago. The country is now a leader in information technology, and its popular culture, known as hallyu, or the Korean wave, dominates much of Asia. South Korea’s full-fledged democracy and internationally oriented, prospering economy has earned it recognition as the legitimate government on the Korean peninsula.

Throughout its history the Korean nation has been influenced by the immense power and culture of China. Historically the Chinese were far more numerous and more powerful militarily than Koreans; their technology and culture were also more advanced. Before 1895 successive Chinese dynasties from the Han to the Qing empires exerted great power and influence on Korea. Koreans drew from the Chinese model in organizing its political institutions, and the Korean adoption of the Chinese political system extended to society and culture. But this adoption of Chinese institutions and culture was not an expression of submission. Rather, it was the indispensable condition of being civilized in the East Asian context. It did not obliterate the identity of the Korean people.

After 1895, following its military defeat of China (the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895), Japan made political and economic inroads into Korea, which led to Korea’s 35 years of subjugation. No sooner was Korea liberated from Japan’s imperialistic rule at the end of World War II than Western influence arrived in two conflicting forms—the capitalistic, liberal-democratic tradition of the United States and the communism of the Soviet Union. Conflicting ideologies and a rivalry for power in what came to be known as the Cold War split the Korean nation into two hostile states.² Despite these formidable outside influences, it was the blood, sweat, and passion of its own people that basically shaped Korea’s long history and made Koreans stand out as the masters of their own history.

In the premodern era Korea suffered from a major problem. Compared to other nations, each of Korea’s dynasties lasted too long, much longer than in China or any other country, and fell into chronic corruption, stagnation, inertia, and lethargy. The dynastic cycle was so long in Korea that the reforms needed to meet changing domestic and international situations were absent. One reason may have been that Korea was a relatively small and culturally uniform country with fewer variables to bring about a rapid dynastic change. Another reason may have been Koreans’ unflagging adherence to the Confucian concepts of loyalty, which led them to cling to a dynasty, once it was established, much more faithfully than other peoples.

This book aims to provide foreign readers with a general survey of Korea’s long, rich history from ancient times to the present. To achieve this goal, it discusses Korea’s major political, economic, social, and cultural developments, as well as the dynamics underlying them. In history, the closer the past is to the present, the more important it seems to us. This book therefore devotes a great deal of space to the description of the post-Chosŏn period. In particular, it treats in detail the most recent developments, including the Hwang U-sŏk scandal and the spreading Korean wave of pop culture throughout Asia.

Like that of many other countries, Korean history is also full of different interpretations by individual historians. This work endeavors to suggest the most recent interpretations on every controversial issue in Korean history. The account in this book also generally reflects a coherent consensus of varying schools. For instance, on the origins of yangban (two orders or two sectors), the aristocratic class of the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910), this book takes the view that, from the beginning of the kingdom, the yangban and commoner classes were strictly differentiated.

New historical facts are also revealed in these chapters. Here I list just a few examples. First, the rank of the six ministries, yuk-pu in the Koryŏ dynasty and yuk-cho in the Chosŏn dynasty, was actually arranged in the order of Yi (Personnel), Pyŏng (Military), Ho (Taxation), Hyŏng (Punishment), Ye (Rites), and Kong (Engineering), instead of Yi, Ho, Ye, Pyŏng, Hyŏng, and Kong following the account in the Kyŏngguk taejŏn, or the Great Code of State Administration, which was perfected in 1470. Second, the Three Kingdoms of Koguryŏ, Paekche, and Silla all accepted Buddhism as a result of the proselytizing efforts of Indian Buddhist monks, some of whom suffered martyrdom in Korea. Third, in the late Chosŏn period, when the kingdom was the focus of a fierce power struggle between neighboring powers, it was not Hermann Budler, the German vice-consul to Chosŏn, but rather Paul Georg von Möllendorf, who came to Chosŏn in late 1882 as one of the special advisers on foreign affairs, who proposed that it become a neutral, unaligned nation. And finally, in 1895 Queen Min, the consort of the Chosŏn king Kojong, was not murdered in her bedroom. She was dragged to the courtyard of the Kyŏngbok-kung palace and then publicly hacked to death by the Japanese.

Character assessment occupies a prominent place in the study of history. This book endeavors to assess the major leaders in Korean history, especially those in post–World War II Korea, North as well as South, that is, Syngman Rhee and his successors in South Korea as well as North Korean leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il.

This book stresses, in particular, a history war, South Korea’s long-standing battle with China and Japan over historical records and territorial disputes. The Republic of Korea is now at odds with the People’s Republic of China over the recent Chinese attempt to include the histories of Korea’s ancient kingdoms of Old Chosŏn, Puyŏ, Koguryŏ, and Parhae into its own history. Specifically China has been making systematic attempts to portray the once mighty Koguryŏ kingdom, which ruled the northern part of the Korean peninsula and parts of present-day Manchuria between the first and seventh centuries, as ethnic Chinese rather than an independent Korean nation. Korea has also been at loggerheads with Japan over that country’s attempts to revise its secondary-school textbooks to omit discussions of the atrocities committed during its colonial rule (1910–1945) and the conflicting sovereignty claims over the Tok-to islets, known as Takeshima in Japan, in the East Sea.

THE MCCUNE-REISCHAUER SYSTEM

Regarding the form of the Korean names, this book generally follows the McCune-Reischauer system now internationally used, with the exception of such well-known names as Seoul (Sŏul), Pyongyang (P’yŏngyang), Syngman Rhee (Yi Sŭng-man), Kim Il-sung (Kim Il-sŏng), Park Chung-hee (Pak Chŏng-hŭi), and Kim Jong-il (Kim Chŏng-il). Family names precede personal names, which usually consist of two syllables and are hyphenated. This book also uses the pinyin rather than Wade-Giles spelling for Chinese names.

GEOGRAPHY

As with most other states, geography and climate have played key roles in Korean history. Korea is a peninsula situated at the northeastern rim of the Asian continent. The Korean peninsula and its adjacent islands, which have sustained the Korean people for hundreds of thousands of years, lie within the latitude range of 33° to 43° north and the longitude range of 124° to 131° east. This is almost equal to the distance between the states of South Carolina (Columbia) and Massachusetts (Boston). The Korean peninsula is 600 miles in length, but in width it varies from 200 miles at the broadest point to 90 miles at its narrow waist.

Shaped somewhat like a rabbit or a tiger and comprising a landed area about the size of the state of Minnesota, the total area of the Korean peninsula is some 85,000 square miles (221,000 square kilometers). Of this total, the part under administrative control of the Republic of Korea (ROK) takes up 38,000 square miles (99,000 square kilometers), or about 45 percent of the whole. The Korean peninsula is about two-thirds the size of the Japanese home islands and equal to the island of Great Britain. South Korea (ROK) is slightly larger than Portugal and Hungary or the state of Indiana. The shortest distance from the Korean peninsula’s west coast to the Chinese Shandong peninsula is about 119 miles (190 kilometers), and 129 miles (206 kilometers) from the east coast to the Japanese islands.

In far northern Korea, the Yalu (Amnok) and the Tumen (Tuman) rivers separate the Korean peninsula from China and Russia. The historic rivers have their sources on the slopes of Paektu-san, a border-straddling extinct volcano which, at 9,000 feet (2,744 meters), is Korea’s tallest peak and whose crater contains Lake Ch’ŏnji, or Heavenly Lake. Koreans have historically regarded this mountain as a sacred place. Thus Kim Il-sung, North Korea’s Great Leader, and his guerrilla band claimed an association with this mountain as part of the founding myth of North Korea. Also, the personality cult of its Dear Leader, Kim Jong-il, holds that he was born in a humble log cabin on the slope of the mountain (he was actually born in the village of Vyatskoye, near Khabarovsk, then in the Soviet Union). The upper reaches of the two rivers are usually shallow and completely frozen over during the winter months, allowing movement of human and animal cargoes over their icy surface. In the past the Korean people could easily wade across these frozen rivers to Manchuria, where they migrated in large numbers and established pioneer settlements. These gradually evolved into prosperous agricultural settlements, where their descendents have maintained a coherent ethnic and cultural unity up until the present.

Three bodies of water—the East Sea (Sea of Japan), the Yellow Sea, and the South Sea—enclose the Korean peninsula on three sides. Compared to the smooth coastline of the east coast, the west and south coasts are marked by an endless succession of bays, inlets, and peninsulas and have good natural harbors, including Pusan and Inch’ŏn.

Approximately 70 percent of the Korean peninsula is mountainous. Of the total land mass, elevations of more than 1,000 meters (3,300 feet) above sea level account for 10 percent. The higher mountains are located mostly in the northern and eastern parts of Korea. The peninsula is crisscrossed by several ranges of mountains; the dominant feature is the Nangnim and T’aebaek mountain ranges, which run down the east coast like a spine and cause most of Korea’s rivers to flow westward. These mountain ranges have historically inhibited communication and cultural homogeneity between various parts of the country. Regional isolation has also led to conflict throughout the country’s history, particularly between the Chŏlla and Kyŏngsang provinces in southern Korea and between the P’yŏngan and Hamgyŏng provinces in northern Korea. Mountains, steep hills, and streams command Korea’s landscape, which appears to have been a factor in shaping what is said to be one of Koreans’ peculiar characteristics, that of a quick temper.

Although relatively short and shallow, Korea’s rivers have played an important part in the nation’s history. The rivers running in an east-west direction have provided physical barriers against foreign invaders. More important, they have functioned as arteries of commerce, provided water for the irrigation of farmlands, and, in the twentieth century, served as sources of hydroelectric power. Stretches of plains appear intermittently along the rivers and streams, essentially isolated from one another by mountains and hills. Although comprising only 20 percent of the land area, these plains, which provide the bulk of the country’s agricultural products, have been essential, throughout the country’s history, in providing a means of livelihood for the majority of the Korean people. But because of the low fertility of Korea’s soil, life has never been easy for those untold millions who have toiled over the centuries on Korea’s plains and elsewhere in the country’s rural areas.

The Korean peninsula as a whole is only moderately endowed with natural resources. Most of the farm products, especially rice, have historically come from the southern part of the peninsula. Southern Korea, in fact, is considered the rice bowl of Korea. Throughout Korea’s history, rice has been the staple diet and has also functioned as currency. For these reasons, South Korea has always had a much greater population density than other parts of the country. On the other hand, the northern mountain ranges contain concentrations of mineral deposits. In fact, North Korea has most of the mineral resources of the peninsula. As of 2008 North Korea had $6.2 trillion worth of ample mineral resources, 24.1 times more than South Korea’s $257 billion. In addition, North Korea has 6 billion tons of magnesite (South Korea has none), 20.5 billion tons of coal, and 2,000 tons of gold, as well as important deposits of iron ore, lead, zinc, tungsten, barite, graphite, molybdenum, limestone, mica, fluorite, copper, nickel, silver, aluminum, and uranium. South Korea has overcome this disadvantage by producing a highly educated and motivated populace that has made that country one of the ten largest industrialized nations in the world. As of 2009 South Korea’s economy was 37.4 times larger than that of North Korea. Its nominal GNI stood at $837.2 billion in stark contrast to North Korea’s $22.4 billion. South Korea’s per-capita GNI, at $17,175, was 17.9 times larger than North Korea’s $960. Its total trade volume of $686.6 billion was 201.9 times greater than North Korea’s $3.4 billion.

Korea’s looming mountains are unevenly distributed in the eastern part of the peninsula, as are Japan’s highest mountains in the western part of the main island of Honshu. Therefore, whereas the Korean peninsula faces China, the Japanese islands face the Pacific, although the East Sea provides a few natural havens for ships. As a result, Korea has had a geographical affinity with China but, figuratively, turns its back on Japan.

In mountainous Korea the settlements that formed had mountains or hills in the rear and rivers or streams at the front. According to traditional geomantic theories, these areas were considered propitious sites. The Korean peninsula had many such favorable places where villages and cities were formed.

The Korean peninsula served as a land bridge over which Chinese culture was diffused from China to Japan. At first Ural-Altaic tribes migrated eastward from Siberia toward the Korean peninsula and carried with them Neolithic culture and, later, Bronze Age skills. Through their intimate cultural contact with China, Koreans brought Buddhism and Confucianism into the peninsula and transmitted these to Japan. On the other hand, the peninsula has proved vulnerable to foreign invasion both from the sea and the continental mainland, having been invaded by the Chinese in the seventh century, Mongols in the thirteenth century, the Japanese in the sixteenth century, and Manchus in the seventeenth century. Korea’s geographical position also made it the focus of regional conflict in the Far East. At the turn of the twentieth century Korea was the object of two wars, as China and Japan in turn fought to maintain footholds on the peninsula, and then Japan fought to exclude a Russia keenly interested in Korea’s ice-free ports. Taking note of its contours and strategic locations, some Western observers have likened the Korean peninsula to a dagger or pistol pointed at the heart of the Japanese archipelago.

Like its landscape, Korea’s climate has also influenced the course of its history considerably. In Korea seasonal differences are striking, with the annual rainfall varying around 40 inches (1,000 millimeters) overall and concentrated in the summertime; indeed, two-thirds of Korea’s precipitation falls between June and September. This climatic condition is highly favorable for rice farming. Droughts appear one every eight years on average. Summers are hotter and winters colder in the Korean peninsula than along the western coast of the Eurasian continent at the same latitude. Although it has four distinct seasons, the Korean peninsula, reaching across a latitude of nearly 10°, experiences considerable variations in climate, particularly in winter. The climate at Korea’s extreme south is essentially a marine climate, and that at the extreme north is essentially continental. In spring, a powerful sandstorm, known as yellow dust, often hits the Korean peninsula from China.

TOK-TO

In the East Sea, about 47 nautical miles east of Ullŭng-do (Dagelet), stands the Korean island of Tok-to, formerly called Liancourt Rocks by the Occidentals. In the nineteenth century European sailors who explored the seas around Korea gave Western names to many Korean islands, including Tok-to, as their Korean names were unknown to the Europeans.

Tok-to, formed from volcanic rocks and composed of two main islets, is Korea’s easternmost island, situated in the middle of the East Sea, at latitude 37° north and longitude 131° east. In 512 the ancient Korean kingdom of Silla conquered Usan-guk (state), of which the main part was Ullŭng-do. Thereafter the Korean people have considered Tok-to to be part of Ullŭng-do and therefore their territory. Historically the subsequent Korean kingdoms of Koryŏ (918– 1392) and Chosŏn (1392–1910), as well as the Republic of Korea (since 1948), have exercised sovereignty over Tok-to.³

PEOPLE

As of July 2008 the Korean peninsula sustains a population of about 72 million, compared to approximately 20 million at the end of the nineteenth century and 28 million in 1945, at the end of World War II. Some 49 million of the peninsula’s population live in the Republic of Korea, and indeed South Korea is one of the most densely populated areas of the world.

In terms of race, Koreans are predominantly of Mongoloid stock. They trace their ancient origin to the Central Asian area. Although they bear some physical resemblance to the Chinese, their language is totally unlike Chinese; it has similarities, however, with Turkish, Mongolian, Japanese, and other Central Asian languages. Koreans are taller, on average, than most other East Asians and are distinctive in appearance.

Whereas the United States is a nation of immigrants, represented by multiculturalism and diversity, foreign observers tend to characterize Korea as a more uniform nation whose people are overtly nationalistic and patriotic. In fact, nationalism has historically been a dominant ideology in Korean society and has inspired the Korean people to strongly resist foreign intervention and the influx of foreign cultures.

Culturally and genetically Koreans are one of the most homogeneous peoples in the world. Many branches of the Tungusic people in Manchuria and Mongolia are racially mixed with one other and culturally assimilated with the Chinese, but Koreans have succeeded in maintaining their own ethnic and cultural identity. Despite frequent cultural exchanges, Koreans have rarely intermarried with the Chinese. Koreans all share a sense of destiny and a perception of themselves as a unique people, bound together by a common language, culture, and religion. The peninsula’s geographical conditions, including its remoteness from the Chinese mainland, enhanced a feeling of uniqueness among Koreans and encouraged strong nationalism and a desire to resist foreign domination. Indeed, Korean nationalism was strengthened because of successive foreign invasions. Korea, as a small country in a strategic location, has a deep sense of injustice about being manipulated by the great powers around it.

For most Koreans, the notion of motherland, and patriotism, overrides virtually everything. Since they have to defend their motherland as well as their own culture from the continent, Koreans have traditionally emphasized the importance of unity rather than diversity, to the point of sometimes antagonizing others. That explains, in part, why Koreans are rather poor at mingling with outsiders and are angry when insolvent Korean enterprises are taken over by foreign capital.

Besides being ultra-nationalistic and excessively patriotic, the Korean people are said to be quick-tempered, even impulsive. Instead of calculating possible outcomes calmly and rationally, Koreans are prone to emotional actions, reactions, and interactions. Occasionally they go to extremes, but consider such actions as demonstrations of manliness. The average Korean is often aroused to a state of sustained passion if the issue is an emotional one. The Korean idea of uri nara, or our country, exemplifies Koreans’ strong patriotism and nationalism, which may be demonstrated in such varied circumstances as a soccer game against Japan or during an anti-American flare-up.

A HISTORY OF KOREA

1

DAWN OF THE KOREAN NATION

THE PREHISTORIC AGE

The Paleolithic Age

As a nation, Korea has a long history. The archeological finds suggest that, at some point in the misty past, tiny bands of tribesmen inhabiting the lands along the Altai Mountains of Central Asia began making their way eastward in the eternal quest for the land of life (the East), moving into Manchuria and the Korean peninsula. The habitation of early men in the Korean peninsula started as early as 700,000 years ago. Some North Koreans claim that the peninsula may have been inhabited for a million years. Until now Paleolithic remains, dating about 700,000 to 8,000 years ago, have been excavated in various parts of the Korean peninsula, from the Tumen River basin to the north to Cheju-do Island to the south. The most important Paleolithic sites, amounting to more than a hundred, are mostly found at the sides of big rivers.

The best-known sites of the Early Paleolithic Age, which ended approximately 100,000 years ago, include those at Sangwŏn county (Kŏmŭnmoru cave and Yonggok-ni) in the Taedong River basin, at Yŏnch’ŏn county (Chŏn’gok-ni) in the Hant’an River basin, at Chech’ŏn city (Chŏmmal cave of P’ojŏn-ni) and Tanyang city (Kŭmgul cave) in the South Han River basin, and at P’aju county (Chuwŏl-ri and Kawŏl-ri) in the Imjin River basin. The sites of the Middle Paleolithic Age, dating about 100,000 to 40,000 years ago, include those at Unggi county (Kulp’o-ri) in the Tumen River basin, at Sangwŏn county (Yonggok-ni) and the Yŏkp’o area of Pyongyang in the Taedong River basin, at Tŏkch’ŏn county (Sŭngni-san) in the Ch’ŏngch’ŏn River basin, at Yanggu county (Sangmuryŏng-ni) in the North Han River basin, at Yŏnch’ŏn county (Namgye-ri), Yangp’yŏng county (Pyŏngsan-ni), Chech’ŏn city (Myŏngo-ri), and Tanyang city (Suyanggae cave) in the South Han River basin, and on Chejudo (Pile-mot pond). The sites of the Late Paleolithic Age, dating about 40,000 to 8,000 years ago, include those at Unggi county (Kulp’o-ri [the upper layer] and Pup’o-ri), Pyongyang (Mandal-ri) in the Taedong River basin, Kongju city (Sŏkchang-ni) and Ch’ŏngwŏn county (Turubong cave) in the Kŭm River basin, Hwasun county (Taejŏn-ni), Koksŏng county (Chewŏl-ri), and Sunch’ŏn city (Chungnae-ri) in the Sŏmjin River basin. Given the wide distribution of these sites, it is presumed that Paleolithic men lived in virtually every part of the Korean peninsula.

At the remains mentioned above, Paleolithic stone tools such as choppers, scrappers, hand axes, and cleavers have been unearthed. Choppers and scrappers were mainly used to take animal meat off the bones. Hand axes and cleavers were later produced for many purposes. At Sangwŏn county and Yonggokni, fossilized human bones were uncovered. Although North Koreans argue that these bones may date back to 500,000 to 1,000,000 years ago, interpretations have varied on the estimated dating.

In the Paleolithic Age the implements needed for hunting were fashioned by chipping stone. At first a lump of rock, flint stone in particular, was struck until a usable tool with sharp edges or points was produced. Later a number of pieces that had been broken off were also given additional edge or sharpness by chipping or flaking and then were utilized as implements. This improvement in tool-making methods allowed access to a wide range and amount of food sources, and was essential to the invention of bows and spear throwers. Bone implements made of animal bones and horns were also used for fishing.

Paleolithic men at first lived in caves, and later they began to build dugouts on level ground. Instances of the former are found at the Kŏmŭnmoru cave (Sangwŏn county) and at the Chŏmmal cave (P’ojŏn-ni, Chech’ŏn city), and the latter is illustrated by a dwelling site at Sŏkchang-ni. A hearth, together with animal figures of a bear, a dog, and a tortoise, radiocarbon-dated to 20,000 years old, has been unearthed at Sŏkchang-ni. The existence of a hearth demonstrates that fire was used both for heating and for cooking food.

These Paleolithic men were grouped together in small-scale societies such as bands and gained their subsistence from hunting wild animals as well as gathering fruit, berries, and edible plant roots. They also gathered firewood and materials for their tools, clothes, and shelters. The invention of harpoons allowed fish to become part of human diets. At Sangwŏn county, many fossilized fauna remains from the diet of early humans have been discovered. By the late Paleolithic period, beginning about 40,000 years ago, Paleolithic people had begun to carve animal images on the walls of caves, demonstrating their simple artistic activity.

Whether these Paleolithic people were the ancestors of present-day Koreans is difficult to know. The Paleolithic Age lasted for an extensive period, and presumably, upon experiencing a succession of glacial eras, Paleolithic men periodically perished and were replaced by newcomers or survivors migrated to other warmer areas.

The Neolithic Age

About 6,000 BC the tribes on the Korean peninsula began to pass from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic Age. It is presumed that the late Paleolithic people on the Korean peninsula evolved into the early Neolithic people, because when the Paleolithic evolved into the Neolithic Age the Korean peninsula experienced no rapid increase in population and pottery found in some areas of Korea predated pottery discovered in Siberia and Mongolia. These original natives were supplemented by Neolithic newcomers who migrated from Siberia. Numerous sites of the Neolithic period have been found on the Korean peninsula, particularly along the Taedong River near Pyongyang and the Han River near Seoul, and in the Naktong River estuary near Pusan. The best-known sites include those at Tongsam-dong on Yŏng-do Island off Pusan, Amsa-dong in Seoul, and Misa-ri in Kwangju city, in the Han River basin; Kulp’o-ri at Unggi county, in the Tumen River basin; and Kŭmt’an-ni and Ch’ŏngho-ri near Pyongyang, in the Taedong River basin.

Neolithic men were characterized by their ability to make polished stone tools and to manufacture and use pottery. By polishing stone, they produced sharp knives, spears, and arrowheads. They also manufactured a range of stone tools for farming. The polished stone axe, above all other tools, made forest clearance feasible on a large scale. As a result, Neolithic people were able to enjoy more conveniences in their lives than their Paleolithic predecessors. Their greatest technical invention was the use of pottery. At first they manufactured plain, round-bottomed pottery, and then, from sometime around 4000 BC, a new type of pottery called chŭlmun t’ogi (comb-pattern pottery) appeared on the Korean peninsula and became characteristic of Korea’s Neolithic Age. Comb-pattern pottery was gray in color with a V-shaped pointed bottom, and was distinguished by designs on the entire outer surface of parallel lines (comb-patterning, cord-wrapping decorations) that resembled markings made by a comb. The comb-pattern design was added to prevent cracks on the surface. Mainly used to store grains, this pottery has been found at numerous Neolithic sites throughout the Korean peninsula. The wide distribution of the pottery in Manchuria, Siberia, and Mongolia indicates that Neolithic men on the Korean peninsula bore cultural ties with the Ural-Altaic regions.

Around 2000 BC a third pottery culture, originating in central China, spread into the Korean peninsula from Manchuria, and was characterized by painted designs marked by waves, lightning, and skeins on the outer surface and the flat bottom. Much of this newly introduced pottery has been found in the western and southern coastal regions and the river basins. Stone plowshares, stone sickles, and stone hoes have been discovered with carbonated millet at the remains of this new pottery culture, indicating that stone implements and harvested grains were stored in pottery.

Like previous Paleolithic settlers, these Neolithic people first lived by hunting, fishing, and gathering. By about 4000 BC, however, people had learned to plant grains, especially millet, using horn or stone hoes to dig and stone sickles to harvest. An incipient farming culture appeared in which small-scale shifting (slash-and-burn) cultivation was practiced in addition to various other subsistence strategies. Carbonated millet found at the remain at Chit’am-ni (Pongsan county in Hwanghae province) attests to this early farming culture. These Neolithic people practiced agriculture in a settled communal life, organized into familial clans. They also domesticated and raised livestock such as dogs and pigs. They used nets to catch fish and learned to fish with hook and line.

These Neolithic people turned animal skins to good account for clothing. They scraped away flesh for food with stone knives and then sewed skins together using bone needles made of deer horns. People later wove cloth from animal fur or plant fibers, especially hemp, with primitive spindles, and their clothes were often adorned with shells or beads.¹

Once they began farming, the growing need to spend more time and labor tending crops required more localized dwellings, and so Neolithic men increasingly moved from a nomadic to a sedentary existence. As a result, permanent or seasonally inhabited settlements appeared. Mainly living in pit dwellings, they built huts in round or rectangular dugouts, with posts set up to support a straw thatch covering to protect against the wind and the rain. The rough ground was covered by platforms, mats, and skins on which residents slept. One to several hearths were placed in the center of the floor of the dwelling and used for cooking and heating. Storage pits for storing grains and instruments were located beside the hearth or near the entrance, which faced south to benefit from the sunlight. Five or six family members inhabited a dwelling pit.

The basic unit of Neolithic society was the clan, which was bound together by its distinct bloodline. Economically independent and self-sufficient, each clan formed its own village. Economic activities within territories claimed by other clans were prohibited, and such a violation would incur either punishment or compensation. Despite this tight-knit economic life, exogamous marriage was common, and spouses were invariably sought from other clans. Neolithic society, in a word, was relatively simple and egalitarian.

Neolithic clans held totemic beliefs in which they worshiped objects in the natural world, namely certain animals or plants, as their ancestors. In its worship of a specific totemic object with which it closely identified, a clan differentiated itself from others. Neolithic men also had animistic beliefs, as they were convinced that every object in the natural world possessed a soul. They therefore worshiped mountains, rivers, and trees. Foremost among natural objects to be worshiped was the sun, considered the greatest being in the universe, which they called hanŭnim, or heavenly god. Man, too, was believed to have an immortal soul which would ultimately return to heaven where God resided. Thus, when a man died, he was said to return to nature and, in burying the man’s body, his corpse was laid with its head facing eastward, in the direction of the sunrise.

The cult of heaven and the spirits caused Neolithic men to look upon a shaman, who was believed to have the ability to link human beings with heavenly god and the spirits, as the greatest figure. Neolithic people believed that, by virtue of his authority and on behalf of God, a shaman could drive off evil spirits and evoke good spirits so as to produce positive results, such as fecundity, longevity, and the complete cure of diseases. It was these shamans who filled the roles of clan and tribal leader in the Neolithic and Bronze Ages. The Neolithic Age is worthy of examination, since men of this early period were the ancestors of present-day Koreans.

THE ORIGINS OF THE KOREAN PEOPLE

The Bronze Age

In the first millennium BC the tribal peoples of Korea passed from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. The Bronze Age began in Manchuria between approximately the fifteenth and thirteenth centuries BC and on the Korean peninsula in the tenth century BC. Because Korea’s Bronze culture was closely linked to the founding of Old Chosŏn, whose territory included southern Manchuria, the Bronze culture in Manchuria must be examined along with that on the Korean peninsula. By the tenth century BC people in Manchuria and the Korean peninsula had learned to fashion tools, utensils, and weapons of bronze. They also learned to cultivate rice, developed new forms of political and social organization, and constructed great tombs of stone. These were initiated by new settlers, who were differentiated from the native Neolithic people.

Toward the end of the Neolithic Age a new wave of migration from the north arrived in Manchuria and the Korean peninsula, increasing the region’s population and bringing with them Bronze Age technology and undecorated pottery. Numerous Bronze sites have been found in southern Manchuria and throughout the Korean peninsula, particularly in the southern tip of the Liaodong peninsula and the river basins of the Tumen, Taedong, Imjin, Han, Kŭm, Yŏngsan, and Naktong rivers.

Two typical instruments representing Korea’s Bronze culture are the mandolin-shaped copper dagger and the multi-knobbed coarse-patterned mirror, neither of which have not been discovered outside southern Manchuria and the Korean peninsula. In the fourth century BC the mandolin-shaped copper dagger, used mainly for rites, evolved into a more sophisticated finely wrought bronze dagger, and the multi-knobbed coarse-patterned mirror, also used in rituals, developed into a more polished multi-knobbed fine-patterned mirror. Still using comb-pattern pottery, Bronze Age men also manufactured a new type of pottery, mumun t’ogi, or undecorated pottery. Far more refined than comb-pattern pottery, this type of pottery has thicker walls and displays a wider variety of shapes, indicating improvements in kiln technology. This new un-decorated pottery represents Korea’s Bronze Age pottery. It has been unearthed only in southern Manchuria and the Korean peninsula.

Remains of Korea’s Bronze culture are predominantly found on higher ground overlooking wide and fertile flatlands along river courses, which suggests that the Bronze Age settlers mainly engaged in agriculture. These people plowed fields with stone plowshares, hoes, and wooden plows, cultivating millet, Indian millet, barnyard millet, barley, and beans. By the eighth century BC rice cultivation had begun in some warm regions. A large amount of carbonated rice, excavated at Hunam-ni in Yŏju city in the South Han River basin, at Songgung-ni in Puyŏ county in the Kŭm River basin, and in shell heaps in Kimhae city in the lower reaches of the Naktong River, suggests that rice was brought into Korea’s southern and western coastal areas from China’s Yangtze River valley. Crescent-shaped stone knives seem to have been used at harvest time to cut rice stalks, and grooved stone axes served to cut down trees and turn over the soil preparatory to planting.

In the Bronze Age round pit dwellings, or dugouts, gradually went out of use and were replaced by huts. The huts, rectangular in shape and built on stone foundations with supporting pillars, were partitioned into rooms serving different purposes. Dwelling sites were grouped into settlements. A cluster of dwelling sites has been found in a single location, suggesting that settlements increasingly grew.

Bronze Age men used delicately polished stone swords and arrowheads as well as bronze swords and spears to hunt animals or conduct wars. The existence of these bronze weapons implies that conquest by warfare was common in this period and that Bronze Age people could presumably gain easy ascendancy over Neolithic men who were armed with stone weapons. At the same time, as a small number of influential individuals monopolized bronze farming implements and weapons, they were able to produce more plentiful agricultural products and seize greater spoils from war. In these ways they commanded greater power and wealth, and gradually emerged as chieftains. These chieftains were armed with bronze spears and mounted horses decorated with bronze ornaments. To demonstrate their authority, these privileged individuals were ornamented with mandolin-shaped copper daggers, multi-knobbed coarse-patterned mirrors, and bronze bells. These articles, which lent prestige and authority to the personages who wielded great power, were used as ritual symbols of authority for the chieftains, who fancied themselves as the sons of heaven.

When these chieftains died, their bodies were buried in megalithic tombs such as dolmens or in stone cists, which were underground burial chambers lined with stones. Because these tombs were reserved for the ruling class, burial practices reflected increasing social stratification. Dolmens, which have been found in great numbers in almost every part of the Korean peninsula, are mainly constructed in two basic forms—the table style and the board style. The table style, often called the northern style because of its distribution predominantly in the areas north of the Han River, was constructed by placing several upright stones in a rough square to support a flat capstone. The board style, often known as the southern style because of its widespread discovery in areas south of the Han River, employed a large boulder as a capstone placed atop several smaller rocks. A third type of dolmen tomb, distributed throughout the Korean peninsula in larger numbers, has no supporting stones, and the capstone is placed directly atop the underground burial chamber. Corpses were buried in dolmen tombs together with bronze daggers and pottery that the men had used during their lifetime.

Along with numerous menhir, or large upright stone monuments, these dolmen tombs represent the megalithic culture in Korea. Some dolmen tombs weigh dozens or even hundreds of tons. The individuals who were buried in these gigantic tombs clearly wielded great authority to command the labor services of vast numbers of people to construct the tombs, and are therefore considered to have been tribal chieftains.

The appearance of dolmen tombs is unique. The round, flat capstone presumably symbolized heaven and the square upright stones represented the earth; people at the time believed that the souls of their chieftains reposed where heaven and earth met. The Bronze Age chieftains, who, as noted, believed they were the sons of heaven, dominated their people with the mandate of heaven.

Small-scale states, dominated by these chieftains, emerged in various parts of the Korean peninsula and southern Manchuria during the Bronze Age. The rulers of these petty states built the earthen fortifications begirded with moats on hillside plateaus and controlled the agricultural population that farmed the plains beyond the fortifications. Because of their physical appearance, these political units have been generally termed sŏngŭp kukka, or walled-town states. Although the states were tribal in character, they were also territorial in that they controlled populations beyond their own tribal domains. Walled-town states were the earliest form of state structure in Korea. The Bronze Age may be considered particularly important in Korean history, as the Korean people, during this period, developed more advanced technology and implements, practiced rice farming, and witnessed the appearance of the first political units.

Korean Roots

The possibility of a biological link between Paleolithic people and present-day Koreans has not yet been clearly explored, partly because both archeological and anthropological evidence is lacking. Scholars do agree, however, that modern Koreans do not descend directly from Paleolithic men but instead from the Neolithic people who succeeded them. The ethnic stock of these Neolithic men has continued unbroken to form one element of the later Korean race. It is believed that in the course of a long historical process these Neolithic people merged with one another and, together with new ethnic settlers of Korea’s Bronze Age, eventually constituted Koreans of today.

Because the population increased so rapidly at the point when the Neolithic Age became the Bronze Age, Bronze Age settlers in southern Manchuria and the Korean peninsula are also believed to have constituted the Korean race. In fact, these Bronze Age men, who had migrated on a large scale and subjugated Neolithic natives, were to become the mainstream of the Korean people.

The ancient Chinese thought that these Korean ancestors belonged to dongyi (tongi in Korean), or eastern barbarians, and often divided them into two groups: the northern people, called Ye, Maek, or Yemaek, and the southern people, called Han. This classification is meaningless, however, as these two branches of the Korean people all spoke the same language, Korean, and shared the same culture and customs. For several thousand years they joined forces to create unified Korean kingdoms.

The Bronze culture on the Korean peninsula shared many things in common with the cultures of southern Manchuria and eastern China. For example, the dolmen tombs, the undecorated pottery, and the mandolin-shaped copper dagger have been unearthed only in these areas. It is not accidental, therefore, that from ancient times the Chinese have called the populations of these regions dongyi and distinguished these people from themselves. According to tradition, the Chinese and the dongyi people had fiercely competed for supremacy in central China before the Qin and Han empires unified China in the late third century BC. China’s Yin (Shang) dynasty (1751–1122 BC) is known to have been founded and ruled by the dongyi people. As the Zhou dynasty, founded in the Wei River valley, began to wield influence over eastern China in the twelfth century BC, the dongyi people in the region massively migrated eastward to southern Manchuria and the Korean peninsula. When Yin fell to Zhou in 1122 BC, a group of the dynasty’s ruling class came to the east and became the ruling elite because of their advanced culture. Thus the legend of Jizi, in which Jizi, a member of royalty of the Yin dynasty, came to Old Chosŏn to found Jizi Chosŏn, has been handed down through the generations.

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 Chosŏn 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.

OLD CHOSŎN

The Myth of Tan’gun

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) Chosŏn, 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 Iryŏn 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 Wanggŏm.²

Every year, on 3 October, the day that Tan’gun (Lord of Sandalwood) founded Chosŏn in 2333, is celebrated in South Korea as Kaech’ŏnjŏl, 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 Chosŏn 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 "ungnyŏ, 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 Chosŏn."

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

Tan’gun Chosŏn and Kija Chosŏn

There is no archeological or anthropological evidence to support the legend that Tan’gun Chosŏn (Old Chosŏn) 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 Chosŏn, 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 Chosŏn, suggesting that Old Chosŏn was an internationally known, commanding state. Then, in the sixth century BC, Chosŏn was so well known among the Chinese that the famous sage Confucius was said to have wished to go to Chosŏn to lead a life there. This tale indicates that the ancient Chinese saw Chosŏn 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 Chosŏn 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 Chosŏn 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 Chosŏn, this legend of Kija Chosŏn suggests that not Jizi himself but his descendants might have come to Chosŏn in succession in the fifth and fourth centuries BC. Wielding highly advanced iron implements, these people became the new ruling class in Chosŏn, which was still then in the Bronze culture. These Yin people also migrated to Chosŏn, as Chosŏn 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 Chosŏn, Chinese historians embellished Jizi as the progenitor of Old Chosŏn.

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 Chosŏn, 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 Sŏnu.

With the advent of Bronze culture, several walled-town states began to appear in Manchuria and the Korean peninsula. Around 450 BC Puyŏ arose in the upper reaches of the Songhua River in Manchuria, Ye (Yemaek) along the middle reaches of the Yalu, Imdun in the Hamhŭng plain on the northeast seacoast of the Korean peninsula, and Chinbŏn 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 Chosŏn, established before the eighth century BC at the latest. Originally Old Chosŏn 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 Chosŏn was entitled to be called a confederated kingdom.

Old Chosŏn 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 Chosŏn was located west of the Liao River, was then transferred east of the river as the Chinese forced Old Chosŏn 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 Chosŏn 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 Chosŏn planned a counterattack. As the two states confronted each other, Old Chosŏn’s commanding posture caused the Yan people to criticize the Korean nation as arrogant and cruel. There is no doubt, in short, that Old Chosŏn exhibited formidable strength at that time as an independent power in Northeast Asia.

The Coming of the Iron Age

During the Old Chosŏn 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 Chosŏn’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 Chosŏn) 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.

MAP 1.1. Old Chosŏn

Wiman Chosŏn

In the fourth century BC Old Chosŏn was bordered on the west, far beyond the Liao River, by the northern Chinese dynasty of Yan. Thereafter, under heavy pressure from the Yan, it entered a period of gradual decline. In the early third century BC Old Chosŏn was invaded by Yan forces, commanded by their general Qinkai, and lost its territory in the Liao River basin to the Chinese kingdom. At the same time, Old Chosŏn may have transferred its capital to Pyongyang, called Wanggŏm-sŏng at the time, in northern Korea.

From the mid-third century BC Old Chosŏn experienced a long period of civil turbulence in neighboring China, having gone through the late Warring States Period. By the late third century BC China had become a unified empire under the Qin and Han dynasties. As opposing dynasties wrestled for supremacy in China, small bands of refugees periodically made their way into Old Chosŏn. Leading one of these refugee bands was a warrior known as Wiman, a native of Yan. Wiman and his followers, numbering more than 1,000, submitted themselves to King Chun of Old Chosŏn, who in turn assigned them to guard the state’s western frontier. But Wiman gathered additional refugees from China, armed them with weapons fashioned from iron, and, after marching to the capital under the pretext of protecting the king against Chinese invaders, seized the throne in 194 BC. At the time relations between Old Chosŏn and Han were strained because of a struggle for suzerainty over Korean states and populations. The dethroned king Chun is said to have taken a ship to the southern state of Chin to become its king (Han King).

Although Wiman came from the former Chinese Yan dynasty, when he sought refuge in Old Chosŏn, he is said to have styled his hair in a topknot resembling that of the Old Chosŏn people and to have dressed in the Chosŏn style. He also continued to use Chosŏn for the name of his kingdom. These considerations suggest that Wiman might be a dongyi man.

For the next 86 years (194–108 BC), under Wiman and his heirs, Chosŏn enjoyed peace and prosperity. Wiman Chosŏn embraced the native elite of Old Chosŏn society, and some members of that elite were given the highest government position of sang. Possessed of highly advanced Iron culture, Wiman Chosŏn expanded its territory and subjugated its neighboring states to the north, east, and south. In about 190 BC Chinbŏn in today’s Hwanghae province and Imdun in present-day South Hamgyŏng province, both now situated in North Korea, were forced to submit to Wiman Chosŏn. China’s Han empire was concerned about the threat posed by a possible alliance between Wiman Chosŏn and the nomadic Xiongnu