Keynotes 9

Korea

Map of Korea: note the distribution of mountainous areas versus arable plains; most fertile land is located in the south (allowed for double cropping of rice); upland areas: cultivation of dry crops (barley, millet, wheat, ramie, later cotton)
Ramie

4000 B.C.E. neolithic settlements; population originates from north central Asia Manchuria; Siberia); Altai language

1000 B.C.E. State of Choson, capital: Pyongyang; comb marked pottery

Combmarked pottery vessel; characteristic is also the round bottom of the vessel

Houses are heated with the ondul heating system; flues underneath the floor warmed the rooms.

9th cent. BCE Chinese style state; bronze daggers used as funerary objects; matrilocal society

194 BCE defeated Chinese rebels flee to Korea and take over parts of the northern territory (states of Puyo, Koguryo, Choson); development of an extensive production of iron tools and weapons. In Koguryo widows are married to brothers of their deceased husbands (levirate). Other customs show distinctly Chinese influences: sacrifices to Heaven are performed; New Year celebrations.

The South is controlled by three confederations which consist of 74 chiefdoms. The chieftains were collectively called chega, their individual names were names of animals (shamanism).

108/109 BCE Han Wudi conquers two thirds of the northern part of Korea. The Chinese colony which flourishes until 313 CE introduces the Chinese script as the official writing system; it is soon used throughout Koguryo.

372 CE founding of a Confucian academy in Koguryo.

4th cent. Korean rebels overrun the Chinese garrisons; Korea becomes independent from the Chinese occupation; Buddhist monks are well versed in the Chinese Classics and the teachings of Daoism and Confucianism; monks are sent to Japan.

4th -7th cent. Division of the Three Kingdoms: Koguryu, Paekche, Silla

The Four Korean States

1. Koguryo: the northern state; capital (in 427) Pyongyang; the population consists of the members of five large clans and Chinese settlers from the Chinese occupation; regular agricultural tax collections of taxes in kind (cloth, salt, grain, fish);

Koguryo is the 'Confucian state': a national academy with Confucian curriculum is founded following the Chinese model; a granary system in accordance with the Chinese model is established; the law code follows the Chinese law code; the civil and military administration follow the Chinese pattern; Chinese style tombs; in 372 (Mahayana) Buddhism becomes the state religion; Koguryo is a tributary state to China

Tomb mural of Ji'an near Pyongyang, 6th to 7th century; "Tomb of the Hunters"

2. Paekche: the southwestern state; has strong ties to Japan; in the 4th cent. introduction of the Chinese script and Buddhism from China; rivalry with Koguryo; transmits Buddhism to Japan in 552

3. Silla: the southeastern state; severe rival of Koguryo; contacts with Japan but also with China (embassy to China in 381); the local monarchy accepts Buddhism in the 6th century as the state religion; creates a Chinese style bureaucracy with 15 ranks for officials of aristocratic descent (no schooling for non-aristocrats!!) + 2 top ranks for members of the aristocracy who did not have to pass exams; prominent are headdresses and jewelry made of gold and decorated with precious gems;

In the 6th cent. Silla and Paekche become allies against Koguryo; while Koguryo fights off Sui invaders from China, the alliance between Silla and Paekche breaks; Silla occupies Paekche territory and incorporates Kaya.

In the 7th cent. Silla uses its ties with China to ally against Paekche which - being cornered from both sides - is finally eliminated; Tang and Silla destroy Koguryo; Silla unifies Korea and in a ten year long war fights off Tang attempts to occupy the Korean peninsula; the tributary status to China remains relevant; capital: Kyongju

Crown from the tomb of King Munyong
While not in use in China or Japan, similar objects like this crown have been found in the mound shaped tombs of Shibarghan, Afghanistan

Tomb chamber

The earliest known printed scripture was produced in Silla. It is a 630 cm long sutra-scroll produced between 706 and 751 and was stored in a pagoda of Pulguksa Temple near Kyongju.
Chinese culture dominates Korean culture with regard to government structure and education (788: first Chinese state examinations based on the Confucian Classics); Korea is referred to as the "Little Tang" state; throughout Korean history the territory absorbs Chinese refugees

4. Kaya: the southern coastal league of clans; strong contacts to Japan; Mimana, a Japanese trade port and garrison on Kaya territory; in Kaya artisans develop a tunnel shaped kiln which allows to heat the kiln up to 1000 degrees Celsius: the production of waterproof ceramic becomes possible

780 revolts and uprisings especially in the former territory of Paekche and Koguryo finally revive the Three Kingdoms for a short period of time. The king of Silla is assassinated.

935 Wang Kon, a former merchant, comes to power in Koguryo with Chinese assistance and eliminates Silla and Paekche; after the victory he declares himself King of a new state Koryo (origin of the name Korea); Kaesong becomes the capital; Chan (Son) Buddhism becomes popular in Korea; it incorporates Shamanistic and Daoist elements

1010 The Liao invade Koryo and the capital;

1018 Koryo defeats the invaders from Manchuria and builds a defense wall across the northern border. Koryo remains a tributary state to the Liao empire; the Buddhist Canon (Tripitaka) is printed in movable types. Seladon-colored ceramics and landscape paintings become prominent in Korean artisan production;

Woodblock library of 80,000 blocks of the Tripitaka (13th cent.)
stored in Haein Temple near Taegu. The first edition of this work had been destroyed during the Mongol invasion in 1232.



Celadon vase; patterns were produced in the court academy of painting

1145 Kim Pu-sik writes the first History of Korea: The Three Kingdoms

1196 The military aristocracy replaces the civil government

1231-1273 Korea under Mongol control

1254 200.000 Koreans are enslaved by the Mongol occupation forces; Korean workers have to build the fleet for the Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274 and 1281;

1361 anti-Mongol Chinese troops occupy the capital Kaesong;

1368 after the Mongol rule in China is broken, resistance begins against the Chinese occupation of Korea.

1388 General Yi Song-gye who is ordered to fight against the Ming army realizes the superiority of the Chinese army; without beginning the war he turns around and marches against the aristocratic rulers in the capital;

1392-1910 Choson Dynasty

1392 General Yi Song-gye founds the Choson Dynasty which should last until 1910; Seoul becomes the capital; the Sinification process includes land reforms that go along with massive confiscations of land owned by Buddhist monasteries and provincial clans; the confiscated estates are turned into public land and distributed among the farmers; education (directed at aristocratic offspring exclusively) follows the Chinese model of Neo-Confucian contents; government schools are established on the provincial level, a national academy and a national university are established in Seoul; manuals for agricultural production are printed and circulated; the matriarchal system is replaced by a strict patriarchy; despite the Sinification food, clothing, folk customs (dance with masks), and secular architecture remain distinctively Korean





Korean gentleman-archer

 

1443 Invention of the phonetic alphabet Hangul ("the most accurate writing system in the world")

Hangul; developed 1443-1446

1485 A national law code is created; a Censorate in accordance with the Chinese bureaucratic model is installed; the Yangban system of military and civil rule (linked to hereditary landownership) develops;

Social structure: Imperial clan

Yangban: military and civil officials (like Chinese gentry, but members of the aristocracy)

Chungin: government workers etc. (privileged hereditary positions)

Yangmin: Commoners (serf-like status); merchants

Ch'onmin: Slaves (working in mines; working as butchers or in tanneries; actors, courtesans, acrobats etc.)

Factionalism between the ruling clan and the Yangban families develops; the Censorate imitates the behavior of Ming officials and creates divisions among government institutions; these faction fights weaken the finally ineffective government and lead to an unbearable conflict between individual clans which are named according to the location of their living estates within the capital Seoul.

1592 The Japanese warlord Hideyoshi attacks Korea with 160.000 troops; they occupy Seoul and from there subdue the country; Ming troops come to assist their tributary state; Admiral Yi Sun-sin builds his famous "turtle-ships" which attack Hideyoshi's supply lines like swimming tanks;

1598 Death of Hideyoshi: as the Japanese troops retreat, they are severely attacked by the turtle-ships; few Japanese boats return home

Turtle ship model

1627; 1637/38 Manchu invasions of Korea

18th cent. The Choson Dynasty sets up strong rules for a re-organized tax system; taxes are paid in cash; the population almost doubles from the mid 17th to the mid 18th century; while technological and agricultural innovations improve the situation of the population and trade develops with China and Japan, the government system deteriorates: official posts (yangban status) become available for money.

The first Christian missionaries come to Korea. In the beginning Chinese (Jesuit) converts, later French and American missionaries

1875 Japan attacks Korea which does not agree to open treaty ports for Japan; the traditional government collapses, reformers replace essential positions

1876 Queen Min is assassinated by Japanese forces when Korean troops open fire against Japanese warships; Japan forces Korea to sign an 'unequal treaty'; the ports of Pusan, Inchon (Seoul), Wonsan to Japanese trade

1885 Li Hongzhang (representing China) and Ito Hirobumi (representing Japan) agree to withdraw their troops from Korea; they agree to notify each other in case of a new deployment of troops

1888 The first embassy of Korea is established in Washington. Westernization is stressed in Korea by Chinese advisers and Korean reformers; the education system is reformed and concentrates on 'practical learning'

1894 Japan and China intervene when a rebellion breaks out

1895 Japanese occupation; Korean resistance is brutally suppressed (12.000 Koreans killed);

1905 Resident-general (gouvernor) Ito Hirobumi is assassinated

1908 new rebellion of resistance movement; 17.000 Koreans are killed by Japanese troops

1910 Korea is occupied by Japan ('Province of Choson')

 

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