Asia In Ancient Times - Ancient Korea

ASIA IN ANCIENT TIMES HIST 1301 | History Ancient Korea Thirty thousand years ago, the first people made it to the Korean peninsula. The terrain is highly mountainous, and the mountains that border Manchuria in the north provide a barrier. The Han, Yalu, and Daedong are significant rivers. In the north, winters are chilly and covered in snow, while the summers in the south are scorching with downpours. Although 1300 BCE bronze weapons have been discovered by archaeologists, there is no concrete evidence that Korea was home to a Bronze Age civilization at that period. The oldest known recorded accounts of the first Koreans originate from China, where the Book of Documents describes how a Chinese noble known as Gija was granted the fief known as Joseon, which is situated in northern Korea. Subsequent accounts in Chinese records spanning from 200 BCE to 313 CE describe a number of little republics in parts of Manchuria and Korea. From the perspective of Chinese writers, the Han period in China, when the Korean peninsula was home to numerous tiny tribes, civilizations, and towns residing close to the Chinese empire's boundaries, is when our image of ancient Korea starts to take shape. The early Koreans were in continuous communication and exchange not just with the Chinese but also with immigrants in Japan and Inner Asian Steppe peoples like the Xiongnu, according to ancient Chinese records. As a result, ethnicity was quite flexible and subject to change in ancient Korea. Groups were assimilated and changed via invasion, traded, and made abundant use of cultural borrowing. The tale of Korea's evolution into a cohesive culture and civilization is riddled with pauses and turns. The story of Han dynasty historian Sima Qian, which describes the dynasty's attempts to subdue the Xiongnu by conquering northern Korea and building four garrisons there, from the Liao River to close to modern-day Seoul, is frequently the first one that historians start with. Chinese generals, soldiers, and settlers promoted trade with Korean peninsula communities, who then appropriated Chinese concepts for building materials, artwork, currency, seals, and mounded tomb construction. Chinese culture, which was embraced by aristocratic military families and tribal chieftains, supplied an abundance of resources required to establish the first Korean governments by gaining control over substantial portions of the northern half of the peninsula. In the absence of trade, Korean tribal societies imitated the Xiongnu, raiding Chinese villages to gather strength and establish their own fighting groups. Chinese sources from the north mention Buyeo, a Han ally on several occasions, Goguryeo, and Joseon as early Korean polities. Each of these Korean communities lost a significant ally as well as a source of riches, technology, and weaponry with the fall of the Han. All three of them battled to protect themselves against the Xianbei and other northern emerging forces in the fourth and fifth century CE. During approximately the same period, three groups known as the Three Han formed independent domains in the middle and southern regions of the Korean Peninsula, which were outside the purview of Chinese rule. These societies were ruled by aristocratic families that chose a chief and ruled over lower-ranking commoners, servants, and enslaved people. Chinese sources from the period refer to people in the southwest as the Mahan, those in the southeast as Jinhan, and the group in between them as the Byeonhan. The Three Han fought mostly on foot and lacked horses, making them a significantly less potent military force than their northern rivals. However, they demonstrated a great deal of cultural flexibility and neighbourly awareness. It is not unexpected that many Wa people in Jinhan had colourful tattoos on their bodies, emulating the Wa people who lived in Japan, considering how readily these groups travelled between Korea and Japan at this time. Korea's citizens visited Japan on occasion as traders and fishermen, and on other occasions as immigrants and long-term residents. Even though the Xianbei in the Inner Asian Steppe lived as a nomadic civilization centred on horseback, Mahan's clothes and hairstyles had similarities to their way of life. It seems that early Korean cultures borrowed quite sparingly after all. Inner Asian Steppe peoples frequently practiced customs like the levirate, in which a young man marries the widow of his elder brother, which were later adopted by several early Korean royal houses. Chieftains and prominent families in this era had a variety of alternatives and cultural choices to choose from when deciding whether to imitate the Chinese, Japanese, or other neighbours. An era known as the Three Kingdoms (313–668 CE) began as Chinese dominance began to weaken in the fourth century, unleashing a tide of refugees that proved crucial in accelerating Korea's state-building process. These three kingdoms were Silla, Baekje, and Goguryeo. Chinese immigrants who settled inside Korea's borders gave rise to a source of information on political strategies that consolidated elite authority and made them become kings. These rulers had enormous armies under their belts, and they built mounded graves that took a lot of labour and money to build. The kingdom of Goguryeo arose from the battles fought against northern tribes like the Khitan and Xianbei. Under the direction of King Gwanggaeto, this kingdom waged a series of expansionist wars in the late 4th century, driving its primary adversary, the Korean kingdom of Baekje, and its allies from Japan, the Wa, southward. By doing this, Goguryeo succeeded in reducing Silla, the third of the Three Kingdoms, to a vassal state by the beginning of the fifth century. Beyond its aggressiveness, Goguryeo's expansion was distinguished by two other significant events. First, it deftly managed alliances and threats through regional politics and diplomacy, playing off factions inside and surrounding the Korean peninsula to maintain its dominance. The second was the adoption of Chinese writing, as shown by a stone slab dated 414 CE that listed King Gwanggaeto's achievements after his death. The nobles of Goguryeo also acquired the skill of decorating their enormous, mounded graves with vibrant paintings that showed the life of royals surrounded by slaves, attendants, and dancers from China. In other fresco scenes, depictions of massive wars, wrestling contests, and mythological animals like the phoenix allude to the rise of a prosperous courtly existence. When the Chinese writing system expanded throughout Korea during the Three Kingdoms period, it gave those who weren't part of noble families an opportunity to apply to become scribes. Reading Confucian literature or Buddhist sutras, or the Buddha's teachings, required literacy, which was an uncommon and highly prized ability. Understanding Chinese culture was also essential to living in the Korean courts, particularly once poetry writing became a popular past time for Korean aristocracy and producing a well-crafted stanza was seen as a mark of nobility and sophistication. Numerous countries sent nobles, merchants, intellectuals, monks, and royals to China as apprentices in order to gain knowledge and experience that they could return home with. These organisations left a lasting impression on early Korean society and culture, especially when Buddhism branched out and took on many sects and customs. Some Korean Buddhist monks went as far as India and central Asia, while others taught in the Three Kingdoms, where they influenced the development of new jewellery, painting, and sculpture techniques as well as the construction of the renowned Seokguram Grotto, a Buddhist monument from the first century. Baekje, the rival state of Gogoryeo, was similarly strengthened by these changes to the political, social, and spiritual environment of Korea. In 369, the kingdom of Baekje broke out from its base by the Liao River in Manchuria to subjugate and conquer the Mahan lands. In addition to maintaining a prosperous maritime commerce with China and Japan, Baekje's rulers established a Chinesestyle bureaucracy headed by a chief minister in order to solidify their dominance over the peninsula's southwest region. Buddhism, Chinese culture, and weaponry were in high demand in Japan, which gave Baekje prominence and influence. But Goguryeo and Silla's military loss in 475 kept Baekje confined below the Han River. Baekje thereafter focused its efforts on challenging the Goguryeo regime, which was Silla's master and protector, in an attempt to disturb the balance of power on the Korean peninsula. But in the end, Silla triumphed over all of these schemes to unite a greater portion of modern-day Korea than any previous kingdom. Located in the southeast corner of the peninsula, Silla was the smallest kingdom at the start of the era. It was dominated by strong families who, like their neighbours, eventually imitated Chinese patterns in order to maintain their position of authority. To further bolster their legitimacy and status, the kings of Silla established Chinese-style ministries and legal systems, as well as encouraged Buddhist practice. Later, maritime trade proved to be a means by which Silla united with a reunified China, first under the Sui and subsequently the Tang dynasties. The Goguryeo-Sui conflict started in the 590s and continued for several years. Later, the Tang replaced the Sui, reigniting Chinese hopes for supremacy on the Korean peninsula. By the 640s, Queen Seondeok of Silla had used her cunning diplomacy to turn the animosity between Goguryeo and the Chinese into a way to forge an alliance between Silla and the Tang. The ships of her realm were crucial in transporting Chinese forces into the peninsula for the purpose of conquest. Together, the Tang and Silla destroyed Goguryeo in the north after first subduing Baekje. Then, in Silla, Seondeok's rulers planned an eviction of the invaders with the vanquished armies of their competitors, while the Tang established bureaucracies to rule Korea. A new era of unified authority over a large portion of the peninsula began in 676 when the remains of the Baekje and Goguryeo's troops, headed by Silla, drove out Chinese invaders. This era lasted from 668 to 892 CE. Silla broke off contact with the Tang for a while, denying itself access to a vital resource that had allowed it to survive for ages. However, fresh dangers to the Tang and Silla had materialised in the north by the seventh century. Consequently, Silla paid homage to the Chinese once more in exchange for commerce and safety. A time of unparalleled female reign, during which new artistic forms arose and eventually became distinctively Korean customs, was part of Queen Seondeok's legacy. Rich women frequently held the positions of counsellors and regents in ancient Korea, when women ruled as royal princesses. However, Queen Seondeok's rule made it possible for Jindeok, Jinseong, and Silla's subsequent queens to succeed to the throne. With time, Chinese celadon ceramics—famous for their glossy green glaze—were passed down to Korean craftsmen, who used it to create beautiful bowls, vases, jugs, and even cushions with Buddhist themes like clouds and cranes. These creations aided in the development of a strong trading network that connected China, Korea, and Japan in subsequent centuries.