SHORT VERSION OF LOCAL AREA KOREAN HISTORY

Neo-lithic Age

Humans have inhabited the Korean peninsula from as early as the Pleistocene era, about 500,000 B.C. By the Neolithic period, beginning in about 7000 B.C., small settlements of hunters, fishers, and foragers are established near rivers or coastal areas. As in the case of other Neolithic cultures, pottery is one of the defining features of Korea's Neolithic period. The earliest pottery—handcrafted clay vessels fired in open or semi-open pits at a relatively low temperature of approximately 700ŗC—is used for preparing, serving, and storing food. The most typical Neolithic pottery in Korea is the so-called comb-pattern earthenware, which has a coniform or round base and is decorated with the distinctive incised or impressed linear patterns that give this ware its name. (Source: Met Time Line)



Stone Age Tools: Excavated May 1994 in Pyongtaek are (Puseong-myeon) (Pyeongtaek City)

Archeological Excavation (Seokcheong-ri and Han, Puseong-myeon) (Pyeongtaek City)
Various stone implements from axeheads to spear points were unearthed at Hungyeon-ri, Yeokeun, Puseong-myeon and various other sites throughout the area. (Source: Pyeongtaek History (CD), Pyeongtaek Si Sa)

Stone Age Tools: Arrow points, axe heads, and fired pottery shards excavated 1999-2000 Jijae-dong, Pyeongtaek City. Pottery is fired-cooking utensils of coniform design. Objects excavated on a hillside. (Pyeongtaek City) (Source: Pyeongtaek History (CD), Pyeongtaek Si Sa)

Stone Age Pottery: Excavation site Gae-Ri, Pusong-myeon. (Pyeongtaek City) (Source: Pyeongtaek History (CD), Pyeongtaek Si Sa) Traditional Korean sources present two different accounts of the origins of civilization on the peninsula. One credits this achievement to an indigenous demigod Tan'gun, whose legendary birth in 2333 B.C. is attributed to the union of a sky deity and bear-woman. Legend has it that Hwan-ung, the son of Hwan-in (who was the God of All and the ruler of Heaven), yearned to live on Earth among the valleys and the mountains. His father sent him and 3,000 helpers to rule Earth and provide humans with great happiness.

Hwan-ung descended to Mount T'aebaeksan on the border between Manchuria and what is now North Korea. He named the place Shinshi, City of God. Along with his ministers of clouds, rain, and wind, he instituted laws and moral codes and taught the humans various arts, medicine, and agriculture.

A tiger and a bear living in a cave together prayed to become human. Upon hearing their prayers, Hwan-ung called them to him and gave them 20 cloves of garlic and a bunch of mugwort. He then ordered them to only eat this sacred food and remain out of the sunlight for 100 days. The tiger shortly gave up and left the cave. However, the bear remained true and after 21 days was transformed into a woman.

The bear-woman was very grateful and made offerings to Hwan-ung. However, lacking a companion she soon became sad and praved beneath a sandalwood tree to be blessed with a child. Hwan-ung, moved by her prayers, took her for his wife and soon she gave birth to a handsome son. They named him Tan-gun, meaning "Altar Prince" or sandalwood.

Tan-gun developed into a wise and powerful leader and in 2333 BC moved to P'yongyang and established the Choson ("Land of the Morning Calm") Kingdom. Finally, at the age of 1,908, he returned to T'aebaeksan where he became a mountain god. (Source: Life in Korea)

(NOTE: Others explain this legend as being figurative for the integration of various tribes. In early Korean history, three major tribes of "Tonkin" people dwelled on the Korean peninsula. Ko-Choson rose on the banks of the Taedong River in the northwestern corner of the peninsula and prospered as a civilization possessing a code of law and a bronze culture. Leaders of Ko-Choson bore the title of "Tan'gun Wanggom." The name suggests a religious and political function combined in a single person. Ko-Choson combined with many other walled-town states to create a large confederation, the head of which was designated as king. (Source: Taekwondo History)

According to Kim (1986: 150-151), the so-called Eastern Barbarians in Old Choseon as well as in the Puyo area were collectively called Kuaimo (Yemaek) in ancient Chinese. The term Kuaimo “is synonymous with ‘kom,’ the Korean word for bear, from which the Japanese words ‘kuma’ (bear) and ‘kami’ (god) were also derived.” The first ancient kingdom of Korea was Old Choseon . It is recounted that the founder of Old Choseon was Tangun , who was the son of a heavenly prince and a female bear. Old Choseon occupied the northeastern part of the present-day Hebei province, the Liao-dong province of China (Liao-ning in the old days, which is the area of concentrated distribution of bipa-shaped daggers), and the northwestern part of the Korean peninsula (see Yoon, 1986: 385). In ancient times, the chief of a tribe was called Tangun [or Hwanung). (Source: SNU: KOREA DURING THE AGE OF SOSA-NO-WO)

The second account credits a Chinese noble and court minister, Jizi (Korean: Kija), who is believed to have emigrated to Korea with a large group of followers at the beginning of the Zhou dynasty (ca. 1046–256 B.C.). The contrast between these two traditions reveals a tension that long conditioned premodern Korean perceptions of their own culture: on the one hand, a proud awareness of cultural distinctiveness and, on the other, recognition of the extensive influence of Chinese civilization.

Rice Cultivation on the Peninsula

ca. 1200–900 B.C. Rice cultivation is introduced to Korea, most likely by agrarian populations moving onto the peninsula from China by way of Manchuria. Native grains, such as millet and barley, are also cultivated, and there is evidence of a growing reliance on animal husbandry. (Source: Met Time Line)

Bronze Age

During the first millennium B.C., bronze technology and then iron technology are introduced into the Korean peninsula, probably from the northern regions of the continental mainland, and are used to produce both utilitarian and ritual implements. Advances in metallurgy and a dependence on agriculture spur the development of a more complex social hierarchy, which is attested by increasingly elaborate burial practices. The migration of different populations into the peninsula from neighboring regions in Manchuria and Siberia during the Bronze Age also leads to regional variations in the material, form, and function of ceramic wares, including the appearance of painted wares. Ceramics of the Iron Age take even more diverse forms with the introduction of the potter's wheel. About 800-100 BC, wet rice agriculture replaced millet.

Scattered throughout Geumam-dong, Osan City, Kyonggi-do there exists a group of nine stone tombs of the Bronze Age. The size of the upper stones vary in size from 190 to 600cms, and are oval shaped. Stone tombs were very common in the Bronze Age. Both a table shaped tomb and a foundation stone tomb are found in this area, which makes it an important location for Bronze Age culture artifacts. Thus we know that there was inhabitants in the area in the Bronze age and because of the transitions to wet rice agriculture of the time and the ideal estuary-like conditions, it is most probable these inhabitants were involved in farming.



Bronze Age Graves: Seotan-myeon, Suwalam1-ri, Twitgaulumi village. The grave is the typical oval shape with a stone cap. (Pyeongtaek City) (Source: Pyeongtaek History (CD), Pyeongtaek Si Sa)

The first wall-towned states are formed on the peninsula during this period. The oldest and most advanced is Old Chosōn, situated in the basins of the Liao and Taedong rivers, just southeast of present-day Manchuria. At the end of the second century B.C., China's Han dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.), after conquering Wiman Chosōn (the successor state to Old Chosōn), establishes the first Chinese military commandaries on the Korean peninsula. The largest of these, Nangnong (Lelang), in the northwest, will for the next 400 years remain a Chinese colonial bastion, and have manifold cultural and political effects on the native population. In the first century B.C., powerful Korean tribal clans begin to coalese in what will eventually become centralized states. (Source: SNU: KOREA DURING THE AGE OF SOSA-NO-WO.)

The earliest written record of the Korean peninsula occurs in a Chinese history, the Shih-ching, circa 109 B.C. According to this, during the Zhou (Chou) dynasty, a Chinese prince was set up as lord of Chosen (Chao-hsien in Chinese). The name Chosen was in all probability applied vaguely to Chines colonies extablish along the north-west coast of the peninsula.Diuring the Chin and Han dynasties the number of Chinese immigrants increased, and under the Emperor Han Wu Ti the kindgdom of Chosen was conquered by the Chinese, the fronters of Han China extending to the northern part of Korea. However, Han rule had ended by the beginning of the first centrury A.D. (Source: Republic of Korea, W.E. Reeve, 1963, p11)

According to Chinese accounts, a Chinese noble and court minister, Jizi (Korean: Kija), who is believed to have emigrated to Korea with a large group of followers at the beginning of the Zhou dynasty (ca. 1046–256 B.C.). The contrast between these two traditions reveals a tension that long conditioned premodern Korean perceptions of their own culture: on the one hand, a proud awareness of cultural distinctiveness and, on the other, recognition of the extensive influence of Chinese civilization.

Yeoju: According to carbon dating of rice excavated from the river valleys of the South Han River in Heunam-ri, Jeomdong-myeon, Kyonggi-do (Yeoju), the rice dates back to 13-17 B.C. Yeoju City makes the claim that rice farming first began on the Korean peninsula in Yeoju-gun during the Bronze Age. (Source: Yeoju City)


Bronze Age Daggers (Kuknip Chunang Museum) (Pyeongtaek City)

However, in 1991, Korean archeologists found rice seeds carbon-dated 2100 B. C . and 2400 B. C. near the modern Seoul area (i.e., Kim-po and Il-san). According to Ecke rt, et al. (1990: 10), rice cultivation began to be practiced in Korea “as evidenced by the use of crescent-shaped stone knives for cutting rice stalks and grooved stones for hoeing. Since both these tools were used in the rice culture of China, it is thought that rice agriculture itself may have been transmitted to Korea from China.” Nevertheless, the bronze daggers shaped like bipa, twin-knobbed mirrors, and narrow bronze daggers found in Mongol plain (Manzhouli , Hailar), east of the Luan River, and in Liao-dong , extending all the way to the lower reaches of the Yalu River and the Puyeo area (, ) in southwestern Korea, are clearly of Scytho-Siberian origin; similar artifacts have not been found anywhere in the Yellow River basin of northern China.2 The Chinese used straight-edged daggers. Therefore, although the early Korean bronze articles reveal undeniable Chinese influences, one can still conclude that the essence of Old Korean culture originated outside China. Kim (1986: 345) notes that it was “the culture of a people whom the Chinese called by the generic name of Donghu, or Eastern Barbarians .” (Source: SNU: KOREA DURING THE AGE OF SOSA-NO-WO.)

The cultivation of wet rice started along the major river systems of the peninsula. The largest is the Han River Basin which stretches from North Korea (Hwanghaenam-do) down to Seoul and Hanam (Kyonggi-do), encompassing the Suwon area (Kyonggi-do) down to Seosan (Chungcheongnam-do). The Han River basin covers about 10,000 square miles [25,900 square km]). In the southeast, the Naktong River basin has about 9,000 square miles of arable land [14,500 square km], and in the southwest the Yongsan River basin (Kwangju to Mokpo) has about 1,000 square miles [2,600 square km]. There is also the rich Honam Plains of Iksan-Kimje.)

Three Kingdoms Period

With the destruction of the Han Chinese military commandery Lelang in 313 A.D., and the division of the peninsula among the three kingdoms of Koguryō (27 B.C. - A.D. 668 in the north), Paekche (18 B.C. - A.D. 661 in the southwest), and Shilla (57 B.C. - A.D. 935 in the southeast), along with the small confederation of city-states known as the Kaya Federation (in the region between Paekche and Shilla), a critical new era in Korean history dawns. Over the next 350 years, the culturally and politically divided inhabitants of the Korean peninsula will be united, albeit at the cost of much bloodshed, into a single nation.

The era of the Three Kingdoms is not a time of tranquility. The peninsula's royal houses face formidable external and internal challenges to their authority. Externally, there is the constant threat of aggression from neighboring Korean states as well as the possibility of attack from Japan and, especially after the sixth century when the country is reunited under the Sui dynasty (581–618), from China. Internally, a ruler's power is dependent on the ability to command the respect and support of the aristocracy. The large numbers of embassies dispatched by the three Korean kingdoms to China during the latter part of this period indicate the importance peninsula rulers attach to sustaining diplomatic contacts with Chinese governments. It is the prestige of Chinese culture as much as political and commercial interests that prompts the rulers to maintain the steady flow of these missions. (Source: Met Time Line)


Three Kingdoms Period. (Pyeongtaek City) (Source: Pyeongtaek History (CD), Pyeongtaek Si Sa)

Peninsular geography shaped the political space of Paekche, Koguryō, and a third kingdom, Shilla. In the central part of Korea, the main mountain range, the T'aebaek, runs north to south along the edge of the Sea of Japan. Approximately three-fourths of the way down the peninsula, however, roughly at the thirty-seventh parallel, the mountain range veers to the southwest, dividing the peninsula almost in the middle. This southwest extension, the Sobaek Range, shielded peoples to the east of it from the Chinese-occupied portion of the peninsula, but placed no serious barrier in the way of expansion into or out of the southwestern portion of the peninsula -- Paekche's historical territory.

By the 4th century A.D., the Korean peninsula is divided among three independent polities, the kingdoms of Koguryō in the north, Paekche in the southwest, and Shilla in the southeast. A fourth political entity comprised of a group of small city-states, the Kaya Federation, is situated between Shilla and Paekche. During much of the Three Kingdoms period, China undergoes a period of political upheaval following the collapse of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.–220 A.D.) in the third century A.D. Vying for power on the peninsula, the rulers of Koguryō, Paekche, and Shilla seek to strengthen their position through alliances with the contending states on the Chinese mainland. International connections maintained by diplomatic missions serve as important conduits for the transmission of Chinese culture to Korea. Each of the three kingdoms eventually adopts elements of Chinese statecraft and Confucianism. Chinese writing, introduced to Korea between the first century B.C. and the second century A.D., is adapted to the Korean language using a system known as "idu." (The founding dates for each of the three kingdoms are traditional dates; archaeological evidence shows that these kingdoms had become independent entities by the fourth century.) (Source: Met Time Line)

Samhan Federation and Rise of Paekje Kingdom

In the southern part of Han river, the Samhan (Three Han) Federation (Mahan, Chinhan and Byeonhan) were established. Rice farming was very advanced in those areas. Byeokgolje at Kimje, Chollabuk-do is one example of a Samhan period reservoir for irrigation. Ma-han had 54 states, the large ones having about ten thousand households and the small ones having several thousand households (100,000 households all together).

Paekche was one of those Mahan states which later became stronger and stronger and absorbed many small states. By the 3rd Century AD, the Paekchae had assimilated the Mahan states as it expanded its boundaries.

Pyeongtaek: During the Samhan Federation period around 100 BC, the Pyeongtaek area was known as "Yeondaibugok." (Source: Pyeongtaek City.)

Songtan: During the Samhan Federation Period, Songtan was in Chin Han. Gin Han controlled the area from the Yeasung River to the Anseong-chon area. In the Songtan area, a tribal community named "Gwa buk hwal gook" existed. The tribe that came from the north side of the Seoul area made Chin Han. After the founder of Chin Han, King Chin, died the national power of the Chin Han was reduced so the Mahan attacked the Chin Han and the Songtan area was captured. (Source: Songtan.org: Songtan History: Hangul Translation).)

It was during the first three centuries after the beginning of the Christian era that iron smelting, along with effective rice cultivation, developed rapidly in the reaches of the Han and Naktong rivers where iron ore was abundant.

Ma-han was located in the region of modern Kyeonggi, Ch’ungcheong, and Cheolla provinces, Chin-han to the east of the Naktong River in Kyeongsang province, and Pyeon-han in Kyeongsang province to the west of the Naktong. According to Hou Han-shu, there were seventy-eight states in the Three Han area.

At this point, Hou Han-shu specifically mentions that Paekche was one of those states. No other names of states are listed. Paekche was in the northern Ma-han area around the Han River and, according to Samguk-sagi (Three Kingdoms History), was founded in 18 B.C. by Onjo and his followers, who had decided to leave Koguryeo and move southward. The rulers of Koguryeo and Paekche belonged to the same founding family -- that of Chumong-- which originated from the Puyeo area. Samguk-sagi records that King Onjo was a son of Chumong. Wei-shu and Zhou-shu record that Puyeo descendants founded Paekche.

Indeed, the family name of the Paekche royal family was recorded either as “Puyeo” or “Yeo.”6 According to Samguk-sagi, ancestral rites at the shrine dedicated to King Tongmyeong were conducted by the Paekche royal family throughout its history. The kingdom was also divided into five administrative districts as is the case of Koguryeo. Kim (1986: 140) notes that “[t]wo tombs of the early Paekche period were excavated in 1975 at Seock ch’ondong in eastern Seoul. They were cairn-type tombs derived from Koguryeo burials, confirming the recorded historical event that Paekche was founded in the Seoul area by a group of political refugees from Koguryeo.”

According to Samguk-sagi (Lee edition:15-16), the founder of Paekche, King Onjo, established his capital at Hanam Wirye-seong in B.C. 18 and then relocated the capital to the south of Han-su at the foot of Han-san in B.C. 5. In the same year, Onjo constructed a castle northwest of the Han River and settled a group of Han-seong people there. (There is another reference to the name Han-song in A.D. 7.) The boundary of Paekche reached Pai-ha to the north, Ung-cheon to the south, and the Sea to the west. (Source: SNU: KOREA DURING THE AGE OF SOSA-NO-WO)

Koguryo Kingdom

Koguryō ranged over a wild region of northeastern Korea and eastern Manchuria that was subjected to extremes of temperature and structured by towering mountain ranges, broad plains, and life-giving rivers; the highest peak, known as Paektu-san (White Head Mountain), is on the contemporary Sino-Korean border and has a beautiful, crystal-pure lake at its summit.

According to South Korean history, however, it was the glories of a third kingdom that were the most important elements. Shilla eventually became the repository of a rich and cultured ruling elite, with its capital at Kyongju in the southeast, north of the port of Pusan. Shilla evolved from a walled town called Saro. Shilla historians are said to have traced its origins to 57 B.C., but contemporary historians regard King Naemul (r. 356-402) as the ruler who first consolidated a large confederated kingdom and established a hereditary kingship. His domain was east of the Naktong River in present-day North Kyngsang Province, South Korea.

Shilla evolved out of Saro (one of the twelve states in the Chin-han area) by forming a confederated structure with the other states in the region . (Source: SNU: KOREA DURING THE AGE OF SOSA-NO-WO)

Koguryo Tomb Mural

Kaya League

A small number of states located along the south central tip of the peninsula facing the Korea Strait did not join either Shilla or Paekche, but instead formed a Kaya League (in the present Kimhae area) that maintained close ties with states in Japan. Kaya's possible linkage to Japan remains an issue of debate among historians in Korea, Japan, and elsewhere. There are references to the Minimana Grainary in Japanese historical records of this area in 391 and maintained until 562, when it was finally destroyed by the Shilla. There is no convincing evidence to definitively resolve the debate, and circumstantial historical archaeological evidence is inconclusive. The debate is significant since its outcome could influence views on the origin of the Japanese imperial family. The Kaya states eventually were absorbed by their neighbors in spite of an attack against Shilla in 399 by Wa forces from Japan, who had come to the aid of Kaya. Shilla repelled the Wa with help from Koguryō.

Shilla Kingdom

Centralized government probably emerged in Shilla in the last half of the fifth century, when the capital became both an administrative and a marketing center. In the early sixth century, Shilla's leaders introduced plowing by oxen and built extensive irrigation facilities. Increased agricultural output presumably ensued, allowing further political and cultural development that included an administrative code in 520, a class system of hereditary "bone-ranks" for choosing elites, and the adoption of Buddhism as the state religion around 535.

Militarily weaker than Koguryō, Shilla sought to fend the former off through an alliance with Paekche. By the beginning of the fifth century, however, Koguryō had achieved undisputed control of all of Manchuria east of the Liao River as well as the northern and central regions of the Korean Peninsula. At this time, Koguryō had a famous leader appropriately named King Kwanggaet'o (r. 391-412), a name that translates as "broad expander of territory." Reigning from the age of eighteen, he conquered sixty-five walled towns and 1,400 villages, in addition to assisting Shilla when the Wa forces attacked. As Koguryō's domain increased, it confronted China's Sui Dynasty (581-617) in the west and Shilla and Paekche to the south. (Source: Country Studies.)

In 475 A.D. the armies of Koguryō sweep into Paekche's Han River valley heartland, capture its capital, Hansōng (modern Seoul), and execute its reigning monarch, King Kaero (r. 455–75). Shilla dispatches troops to assist its ally Paekche, but they arrive too late to prevent the absorption of the entire lower Han River valley into Koguryō's domain. Surviving members of the Paekche court flee south to establish a new capital at Ungjin (modern Kongju). (Source: Met Time Line)

Pyeongtaek: In 475 A.D. (in the 63rd year of reign under King Jangsu of the Koguryeo Dynasty, the Pyeongtaek area was named "Busan-hyeon." (Source: Pyeongtaek City and Songtan.org: Songtan History: Hangul Translation.)

The transmission to Korea from China of Confucian ideals of government, which promote the ideal of the supreme authority of the ruler exercised through a bureaucratic hierarchy of well-educated officials, provides Korean monarchs with a defense, although never wholly successful, against aristocratic encroachment on royal prerogatives. Buddhism, first transmitted to Koguryō from China in 372 A.D., will be adopted as the state religion in all three kingdoms by 528. Patronized by the court and aristocracy, Buddhism, despite its foreign roots, will have a profound religious, cultural, and political influence in Korea for centuries to come. (Source: Met Time Line)

Unified Shilla Period

Through a series of military and political moves, the kingdom of Shilla (57 B.C–668 A.D.) achieves dominance over most of the Korean peninsula by the end of the seventh century. Its campaign of unification begins with the defeat of the Kaya Federation in 562; after an alliance with the Chinese Tang (618–907) court, it succeeds in conquering the kingdoms of Paekche in 660 and Koguryō in 668. By 676, Shilla forces Chinese troops to withdraw into Manchuria, and for the first time in history the peninsula comes under the sway of a single Korean government. In the succeeding Unified Shilla dynasty (668–935), Korean culture flourishes, creating a political and cultural legacy that will be handed down to subsequent rulers of the country.

In 553, Paekche's armies culminate a long campaign to regain the Han River valley—lost to Koguryō almost eighty years earlier, in 475—with victories in a series of costly assaults on Koguryō fortifications. Shilla troops, arriving on the pretense of offering assistance, attack the exhausted Paekche army and take possession of the entire Han River valley. Incensed by this betrayal, Paekche's King Sōong in the following year launches a retaliatory strike against Shilla's western border, but is captured and killed in the resulting melee.

In 562, Shilla's seizure of the Han River valley is followed nine years later, in 562, by its forceful annexation of all the remaining territory of the Kaya Federation. A series of successful expeditions against Koguryō also brings a vast area along Korea's northeastern coast under Shilla's control. Possession of the Han River valley provides Shilla with unhindered access to the Yellow Sea and thus to China for the first time in the kingdom's history. Shilla begins to dispatch frequent embassies to the Chinese courts. Initially, while China remains politically divided between its own contending northern and southern regimes, these missions serve largely cultural ends. After the Sui dynasty's (581–618) unification of China in 589, however, the significance of diplomacy for all northeastern Asian states changes abruptly, since the rulers of both the Sui regime and the succeeding Tang dynasty (618–906) are eager to take advantage of intrapeninsular rivalries. Korean solicitations for Chinese military assistance provide the rulers of unified China with a convenient pretext for attacks that are, in fact, motivated by the desire for Chinese territorial expansion.

Between 598–614 with the encouragement of Shilla and Paekche, the Chinese Sui dynasty mounts four massive but unsuccessful assaults upon Koguryō's borders.

In 660 the Tang court and its Shilla ally launch a coordinated invasion of Paekche, the Shilla army advancing by land from the east and the Tang force striking by sea from the west. Paekche's defenses are quickly overwhelmed, and its reigning monarch is captured and taken to China.

In 668 the Tang-Shilla allies, having spent the preceding eight years consolidating their hold over Paekche's domain, invade Koguryō. The campaign proves irresistible, and the northern kingdom, weakened by the earlier Sui and Tang assaults and by internal political dissension, is swiftly vanquished.

In 676 the broad-based peninsular effort under Shilla's leadership to prevent Chinese domination of Korea succeeds in forcing Chinese troops to withdraw into Manchuria, in northeast China. For the first time in history, all of the Korean peninsula—excepting a narrow band in the north—comes under the sway of a single Korean government, known as the Unified Shilla dynasty.


Unified Shilla Period. (Pyeongtaek City) (Source: Pyeongtaek History (CD), Pyeongtaek Si Sa)

The largely conciliatory policies of Unified Shilla's first kings toward their former foes, the defeated states of Paekche and Koguryō, and the establishment of an administrative structure for governing the whole country brings about a "golden age" of prosperity and peace, which lasts for nearly a century (ca. 675–765). The new government maintains close relations with Tang China and Japan through trade as well as diplomatic and scholarly exchanges. The peace that characterizes Unified Shilla's external relations nurtures general prosperity throughout the country and the remarkable affluence of the capital, Kyōngju. Korean Buddhism, supported by the government as the state religion and lavishly patronized by the wealthy aristocracy, enters a phase of unparalleled institutional development, societal expansion, and scholarly achievement. Some of the most refined and sophisticated Buddhist art and architecture in East Asia is produced in Korea during the Unified Shilla period.

In 698 a former Koguryō general establishes the new kingdom of Parhae (Chinese: Bohai), which encompasses most of the former Koguryō Kingdom's holdings in Manchuria. Although the relationship between the Parhae and Unified Shilla courts is merely cordial at best, armed hostilities are avoided and the peninsula is spared any serious threat of aggression from the north until after Parhae's destruction by the Khitan, a seminomadic people of Manchuria, in 926.

Jinwi: In 757 (in the 16th year of reign under King Gyenogdeok of the Shilla Dynasty, the Pyeongtaek area named "Jinwi-hyeon." (Source: Pyeongtaek City and Songtan.org: Songtan History: Hangul Translation.)

Pyeongtaek: In 940 (in the 23rd year of reign under King Taejo of the Koryeo Dynasty, the Pyeongtaek area named "Pyeongtaek" by incorporating Jinwihyeon into Sujumnae (Source: Pyeongtaek City.)

Consolidation of the three kingdoms under a single absolute ruler leads to an increase in the wealth of the aristocracy, whose status is secured by a rigid hereditary class system. Kyōngju, the capital of Unified Shilla, is a prosperous metropolis with magnificent palaces and imposing Buddhist temples. Officially sanctioned as the state religion, Buddhism exerts a profound influence on the arts; some of the most refined and sophisticated Buddhist art and architecture in East Asia is produced in Korea during this period. The Unified Shilla court maintains close relations with Tang China through trade and diplomatic exchanges. Throughout this period, Korea continues to play a crucial role in the transmission of technology and ideas to Japan.

Koryo Dynasty

Beset by power struggles between the court and the aristocracy, Unified Shilla declines in the late eighth century. The rise of local military garrisons and landed gentry, coupled with increasing unrest among the common people, lead to a deterioration of the social fabric and the establishment of competing regional states. In 918, Wang Kōn (877–943), a high-ranking military official, reunites the country under the new Koryō dynasty (918–1392).

Having assumed control of his former master's northern domain, Wang (also known by the posthumous title of T'aejo, or Grand Founder; r. 918–43) is proclaimed king of the new Koryō dynasty and establishes the capital at Songdo (modern Kaesōng, North Korea). He succeeds in reunifying the peninsula by engineering the voluntary submission of the last of the Unified Shilla monarchs in 935 and conquering Later Paekche in 936. (Source: Met Time Line)

Songtan: After capturing the area in 934, the Shilla consolidated its control. King Songjong in 995 divided the country into 10 provinces (do). Songtan was in "Gwannae-do," but was on the outskirts of the administrative area. (Nowadays, Gwannae-do would extend from about Hwangnae-do to Kyonggi-do.) (Source: Songtan.org: Songtan History: Hangul Translation)

Koryo

The founder of Koryo and his heirs consolidated control over the peninsula and strengthened its political and economic foundations by more closely following the bureaucratic and landgrant systems of Tang China. The rise of the Kitan Liao tribe in the north, however, threatened the new dynasty. The Liao invaded was in 1010 and Koryo was engulfed in devastating wars for a decade.

Pyeongtaek: King Yejong in 1106 split the country into new administrative divisions. The Kyeonggi-Chuncheong area was called "Yang Kwang Chuncheong." (Source: Songtan.org: Songtan History: Hangul Translation)

After peace was restored, Koryo's inhabitants witnessed nearly a century of thriving commercial, intellectual, and artistic activities parallel to those taking place under the Song Dynasty (960-1279) in China. The Koryo leaders actively sought to imitate the Song's advanced culture and technology. In turn, the Song looked upon Koryo as a potential ally against the tribal invaders to whom it had been forced to abandon northern China in 1127. Stimulated by the rise of printing in Song China, Koryo also made great headway in printing and publication, leading to the invention of movable metal type in 1234, two centuries before the introduction of movable type in Europe.(Source: Geographic.com)

Some of the most outstanding achievements in Korean art and culture date to the Koryō dynasty (918–1392), which rules the peninsula for nearly 500 years. Buddhism, even more lavishly patronized by the court and aristocracy during this period than in the preceding Unified Shilla dynasty (668–935), is a major creative force in the arts, exemplified in part by the proliferation of temple complexes in the new capital Songdo (modern Kaesōng) and elsewhere in the peninsula, with their elaborate stone pagodas, exquisite paintings, stone and gilt bronze sculptures, and refined ritual objects in lacquer, ceramic, and bronze. The production of elegant green-glazed ceramic ware, highly praised by contemporaneous Chinese and later known and appreciated in the West as celadon ware, represents the outstanding achievement of Koryō potters. The invention and use of cast-metal movable type in Korea in the early thirteenth century predates by two centuries Gutenberg's invention of metal movable type in Europe.

Buddhism continues to flourish under the patronage of the Koryō court and aristocracy. Temples increase in number, landholdings, and wealth, as well as political influence, over the course of the dynasty. Elaborate Buddhist rituals are regularly performed at public expense for the welfare of the state and at the behest of wealthy private devotees. The elegant, refined lifestyle of the court and upper classes is clearly reflected in the arts of the period. Exquisitely crafted bronzes, lacquerware, and celadon ceramic wares intended as devotional objects also reflect the increasingly personal nature of Buddhist religious expression. The production of Buddhist paintings and illustrated sutras reaches the highest level of artistic achievement in response to the demand of the court and aristocracy for images to serve as objects of worship.

Frequent official exchanges and trade with China, especially in the early part of the Koryō period, offer Korean artisans a rich array of new technologies and motifs, which they adapt and refine to accommodate native tastes. Early Koryō trade missions export gold, silver, ginseng, paper, brushes, ink, and fans to China, and import silk, ceramics, books, musical instruments, spices, and medicine. Further stimulus is provided by interaction with countries beyond East Asia, facilitated by the travels of Buddhist monks to and from India and the arrival of merchant seamen from the Middle East. Similarly, many Buddhist monks travel to China for lengthy periods to study religious doctrines and texts, which they bring back to Korea upon their return. Korean intellectuals pride themselves on their knowledge of China's classical literature and their ability to write and compose poetry in Chinese. (Source: Met Time Line)

Shimbok-sa Temple (Dokmok-ri, Hyeondeok-myeon, Pyeongtaek City)

Seated Stone Vairocana Buddha of Simboksa (National Treasure #565) (Pyeongtaek City)

Relations between the Koryō court and the mainland were not always friendly. In the northern part of the peninsula, Koryō engages in border struggles with northern China's conquerors, the Khitan and Jurchen tribes. From 993–1018, the Khitan—the seminomadic tribe who founded the Liao dynasty (907–1125) and whose domain extends into northern China—organize three major invasions of the peninsula.

Powerful aristocratic families contended with the throne for political control, and the Dongbei Jurchen (Jin) dynasty added pressure from outside, provoking divisive responses from a now uncertain leadership. In 1170, the military, chafing under discrimination, threw out the civilian officials and turned the kings into puppets, thus beginning a period of internal strife. (Source: Encarta: MSN.)

Pyeongtaek: King Myung Jong in 1171 changed the name of the area back to "Gwannaedo." (Source: Songtan.org: Songtan History: Hangul Translation)

Mongol Yuan Invasion

Between 1231 and 1257, Korea is ravaged by invasions by the Mongols, who will rule China under the Yuan dynasty (1279–1368). Under the Mongols the Korean kings recovered their leading position.

As China's nominal "vassal" to the Yuan dyin the sense that tribute was sent and its rulers were invested by China, although otherwise local autonomy was almost complete, Koreayo became part of the Mongol empoire in 1218. The murder of a Monglol envoy in Korea, however, provoked the first Mongol invasion in 1231. A second invasion took place in 1241 after the Koreans had rebelled and killed Mongol prefects, launching a series of wars that ended with their conquest of Koryo in 1259. Heavy tribute was exacted and many Koreans were impressed in the unsuccessful armada sent by Kublai Kahan against Japan in 1281.

In 1231, Ogodei, third son of Ghengis Khan, sent an army to police Korean defiance of an agreement made in 1218 to pay annual tribute. In 1232, the Koreans rebelled and a struggle ensued that was to last for decades. The Koryo armies put up fierce resistance but were no match for the highly organized mounted troops from the north, whose forces swept most of the Eurasian continent during this period. The Mongol Empire under Khubilai Khan enlisted Koryo in its expeditions against Japan, mustering thousands of Korean men and ships for ill-fated invasions in 1274 and 1281.

Ogodei also sent his armies against the Jurzhen, and in 1234 his armies completed the conquest of northern China. In the mid-thirties Ogodei sent armies against Slavic principalities in Eastern Europe, but resistance by the Asiatic tribes between the Volga and Ural rivers was greater than he had expected, delaying his plans of conquest west of the Ural Mountains. Finally, in 1237, his army pushed against the Russians, conquering the cities of Vladimir, Kolmna and Moscow in 1238. In 1240, his army destroyed the city of Kiev. At Liegnitz (in what is now Poland), although outnumbered, his army destroyed a German army of heavily armored knights. His army pushed through Hungary, and in 1241 it reached the outskirts of Vienna. Then, mysteriously to Europeans, the Mongols pulled back from Vienna To the Europeans it seemed as though they were saved by a miracle. To the Mongols it was something different. The Mongol retreat from central Europe was in response to Ogodei's death. High ranking army leaders believed they had to return to confirm the selecting of a new ruler.

Ogodei's widow, Toregene, began administering Ogodei's estate, as regent for her eldest son. Fighting began among men in the extended family. In 1246, one of them, Guyug, was able to buy support and win selection as Ogodei's successor. His reign was short 1246-1247 dying under mysterious circumstances amid royal family squabbling. The selection of the new Great Khan went in 1251 to another of Genghis Khan's grandsons: Mongke. Mongke sent his brother on the westward expansion into Baghdad. He concentrated on the expansion into China. In 1258, Mongols defeated the Koryo rulers.


Yuan China

After two years of preparation, Mongke's army had invaded China's Sichuan province. There, in 1259, Mongke died in battle, and he was to be the last of the great khans ruling from Karakorum and the last to exercise authority over the entire Mongol empire. Another fight ensued over who was to become the Great Khan. Succeeding Mongke was one of his brothers, who would be known as Khubilai Khan -- a 41-year-old grandson of Genghis Khan who had been fighting alongside Mongke in China. Others in the west, wishing to be the Great Khan declared themselves as the great khan and established independent kingdoms, bringing the division that plagued other empires.

Khubilai tried to persuade the Song emperor to subjugate himself peacefully, and when this did not happen he drove his army of various ethnicities (including Chinese and Persians) deeper into China, while his navy, manned by Jurzhen and Koreans, sailed south along China's coast. The drive took sixteen years, the conquest ending around 1276 -- the year after a tradesman from Venice, Marco Polo, arrived at Beijing.

Khubilai Khan, interfered little in China's economy, and Confucianists were left without much influence, giving Chinese merchants a temporary break with which to pursue trade. The Mongols assimilated little with the Chinese, Khubilai not wishing to see his army of occupation becoming Chinese. Nevertheless, a little mixing between conquerors and the conquered took place -- mainly Mongol soldiers taking Chinese wives.

After consolidating his rule in China, Khubilai Khan sent envoys to demand tribute from Japan and threatened reprisals if they did not. From the palace at Kyoto the Japanese answered, claiming as other rulers did that their nation had divine origins. Therefore, they argued, Japan was not to be subject to anyone, and they began preparing a defense. Khubilai believed that he could not permit the appearance of Japan defying him. In 1274, from southern Korea, he launched an assault -- a Mongol, Chinese and Korean force, with 600 to 900 ships, 23,000 troops, catapults, combustible missiles, bows and arrows. The armada demolished Tsushima and Iki islands and arrived at Hakata Bay on November 18th. On the following day, the troops landed on the bay and fought the Japanese defense on land. The Japanese were no match for the Mongol’s cavalry tactics and weaponry including their small explosive bombs, which the Japanese had never encountered before. The Japanese defense had no choice but to retreat to a fortress near Dazaifu. Bad weather compelled the invasion force to return from Japan's southern-most major island: Kyushu. In the summer of 1281, Khubilai Khan tried again, this time sending some 4000 ships. For fifty-three days the Japanese held the invaders to a narrow beachhead on Kyushu. Then a hurricane struck. The Mongols withdrew again, only half of his force making it back to China. The Japanese interpreted the hurricane as a god wind -- kami-kaze. Khubilai was finding the limits that Hulegu had found in the Middle East. (Source: World History: Mongol.)

Pyeongtaek: King Choongsook in 1314 changed changed "Chungcheong, Hanam-do" to "Yangwang-do." At this time, Pyeongtaek was part of Chungcheong-do. (Source: Songtan.org: Songtan History: Hangul Translation)

Korea, in the meantime, was completely under Mongol domination. Koryo kings married Mongol princesses. Koryo was able to drive out the Mongols in 1356, but it was unable in the long run to restore its institutions or to contain the new political forces it encountered.

Jinwi: During the reign of King Gongmin in 1356, "Yanggwang-do" included the "Suju district" to include 27 guns. The name of the province was changed to "Chungcheong-do" and split to 75 hyeons -- of which "Jinwi-hyeon" was one. (Source: Songtan.org: Songtan History: Hangul Translation)

In 1359 and 1361, however, Koryo suffered invasions by a large number of Chinese rebel armies, known as the Red Banner Bandits, who sacked and burned the capital at Kaesong, just north of the mouth of the Han River. The country was left in ruins. (Source: Geographic.com)

By the mid-fourteenth century, the Mongol Yuan dynasty began to lose control in China, and in 1368 was ousted by the Chinese rebel leader Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Only then did Koryo regain its independence. (For an account of the Mongol invasions of Korea in English, see W. E. Henthorn, Korea: the Mongol Invasions (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1963).


Ming Empire

Choson Dynasty

In 1388, a weakened and divided Koryō court sends a military expedition to invade Manchuria, in response to a Ming government declaration that it intended to claim Koryō's northeastern territory. As the Mongols retreated to the north and the Ming established a garrison in the northeastern part of the Korean Peninsula, the Koryo court was torn between pro-Ming and pro-Mongol factions. General Yi Song-gye (1335–1408), who had been sent to attack the Ming forces in the Liaodong region of Manchuria, revolted at the Yalu and turned his army against his own capital. Yi Sōng-gye, who favored a pro-Ming policy, leads his troops back to the capital and seizes control of the government. (Source: Met Time Line)

Supposedly in the last days of the Koryo Dynasty, King Kongmin, the 31st King of Koryo (1351-1374) lost his beloved mistress to the Mongol Emperor. He gave little thought to the welfare of his people and the government became corrupted beyond imagination. Known for his resourcefulness, Yi Songgye was well liked by the people and in the end he won King Konmin's favor. Yi Songgye led the army forces to the northern border to drive the enemy away but ambition changed his mind. He raised the standard of revolt against the Koryo king. He detroned King Kongmin and put the crown on the head of King Woo, 32nd King of Koryo (1374-1388), who was followed by King Chang (1388-1389). Other tales relate of King Kongyang, 34th and last king of the Koryo Dynasty (1389-1392), where the weak king was warned of Yi Songgye's ambition to become king by his loyal minister, but could not prevent it and the minister was assassinated by Yi Songgye's son. (Source: Traditional Tales of Old Korea, p261-272, Compilation)

Not long after that Yi Songgye dethroned the new puppet king, King Kongyang, and founded the Yi Dynasty. King Yi Songgye rewarded his subjects according to their deeds and gave them appropriate positions. He was loyal to Toong Duran, his sworn brother, to the end. He gave him the name of Yi Jiran because was of Chinese descent and needed a Korean name. Yi Jiran called himself Chonghae Yi because his title originated from Chonghae. This was the origin of the Chonghae Yi family.

Choson Dynasty

After the last Koryō monarch is deposed in 1392, Yi Sōng-gye is proclaimed king of the new Chosōn dynasty (1392–1910) and the capital is moved to the site of modern Seoul -- at that time called "Hanyang" in 1395. The change in dynasty spurs major social and cultural transformations. Yi (like the first Koryō king, known by the posthumous title of T'aejo, or Grand Founder; r. 1392–98) and his immediate successors move aggressively to augment the power of the royal government. Particularly noteworthy are their efforts to reduce the wealth and influence of both the Buddhist establishment and the noble families that had been prominent at the Koryō court, and their adoption of Neo-Confucianism as the new official state ideology. (Source: Met Time Line)

Pyeongtaek: After the rise of the Chosun Dynasty, the Kyonggi-do administrative area was made larger. Chungceong-do's areas were moved to Kyonggi-do's administrative control. These areas included: Yang-ju; Kwangju; Hangju; Kimpo; and Chauin (now Yongin). (Source: Songtan.org: Songtan History: Hangul Translation; and Pyeongtaek History, Pyeongtaek Si Sa.)

Jinwi: After three years in 1398 (King Taejon's 7th year of reign), Jinwi was moved under the administrative control of Kyonggi-do. (Source: Songtan.org: Songtan History: Hangul Translation)