Early Korea and Japan

Instructor Pacas

Korea

• The region we call Korea today, before the late 6th to early 7th century CE (the period of greatest consolidation), was composed of various independent kingdoms that had some interaction with China.

• Their early history, before 3rd century BCE is not well attested, but there was contact between Han Dynasty China and these kingdoms in the 3rd century BCE. With part of North Korea being a Han ‘colony.’

Creation Myth 2333 BCE

• Korean creation myth claims that the progenitor of the Korean people, Tan’gun, was born from a union of the presiding god that assumed human form and a bear transformed into a woman.

• Scholars believe that this creation myth sheds insight into early Korean religious beliefs that were most likely shamanistic.

Tan’gun

• Tan’gun ruled over the kingdom of Choson for 1500 years according to legend.

• He passed his kingdom to a refugee from the Zhou Dynasty in China called Kija.

• Scholars believe that these myths serve to champion Korean self identity, and although serving to credit Chinese influence on their culture, it also champions Korean ‘national’ autonomous identity.

The historical record

• For the most part, Korea and present day Manchuria were considered by the Chinese as limes, frontier zones, attempts at pacification and conquest often proved costly.

• The Han Dynasty Chinese eventually succeeded in establishing a garrison in Lelang to police this frontier zone.

Lelang

• The establishment of Han Lelang influenced the tribal confederations of Korea to begin a process of consolidation of power to effectively deal with a possible threat of expansion by the Han Chinese further into the peninsula.

• Eventually on the opposite side of Lelang, the kingdom of Koguryo with its capital city of Pyongyang, consolidated enough of its authority in the surrounding area and served as the head-quarter of Korean resistance to Han expansionism.

Korean kingdoms

The Fall of Lelang Commandery early 4th century CE

• The fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 CE left many of its former frontier garrison head-quarters on the defensive.

• Early in the 4th century CE the kingdom of Koguryo took advantage of the fall of the Han Dynasty and attacked and conquered the commandery of Lelang and extended its territorial possession.

Kingdom of Koguryo 4th century CE

• The power vacuum left by the fall of the Han Dynasty and the political instability suffered by China following the collapse of Han, left Koguryo in a position to expand its political and territorial power but it sought to extend it into Manchuria rather than south into the newly formed consolidated states of Paekche, Silla, and Kaya during this early phase.

Koguryo Hegemony

• Koguryo hegemony in the peninsula lasted until the 6th century CE.

• Often the kingdoms of the south petitioned Koguryo for assistance against Japanese incursions into the southeastern regions of the peninsula.

• Koguryo even sent embassies to Japan exporting Buddhism as well as elements of Koguryo culture such as art, architecture, etc. to Japan.

Paekche, Silla, and Kaya

• The three southern kingdoms although weary of Koguryo’s power and possible expansionary aspirations often enough engaged in wars against each other in the southern portion of the peninsula.

5th century CE northeast Asia

• By the end of 5th century CE northeast Asia was under the hegemony of Koguryo.

• China after the fall of Han, would suffer a period of close to 200 years of severe instability, losing much of its possessions to expanding kingdoms such as Koguryo.

• Internal struggles between competing dynasties made Chinese concentrate on these domestic issues instead of pursuing a process of consolidating their hold over former territories.

Koguryo Expansion: The Threat to the Paekche and Silla

• While China was concentrating on internal issues under the Toba (Wei) Dynasty 400’s CE, Koguryo saw this period as an opportune time to try to consolidate its hold over the peninsula.

• Wars with the southern kingdoms would define the history of present day Korea for the next 200 years.

Sui Dynasty attempts to conquer Koguryo 6th-7th century CE

• Once the Toba (Wei) were overthrown and replaced by Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE) the Chinese Sui Dynasty attempted to conquer Koguryo.

• This is the period that begins Korea’s historical annals.

Japan

Japan• Japan is divided into four main islands:

Hokkaido, Honshu (the main island), Shikoku, and Kyushu.

• Japan is about the size of the state of California.

• The climate is extremely diverse since Japan runs along a north-south directional range, from deep winter snows in Hokkaido to semitropical vegetation in Kyushu.

Japan

Yamato area of first centralized political region

Jomon Culture

• Scholars believe that Japan was settled by people as early as 30,000 BCE.

• These were hunter-gatherer communities of different ethnic stock – some Caucasoid (perhaps rise of Ainu people) and some Mongolic stock.

• Japanese language has some similarities with the Finno-Ugrian language of Central Asian Turkic tribes, Finland, and Hungary.

Jomon Culture

• By 10,000 BCE these people were producing sophisticated pottery and decorating using ropes to imprint designs on the wet clay (Jomon).

• Their pottery was fashioned by hand and not using a potter’s wheel.

Jomon cont’d

• By about 5,000 BCE the Jomon people began to adopt rudimentary cultivation, when the environment would permit, and started a revolutionary process in the island.

• Skeletal remains of these people have been analyzed to determine if they are the predecessor of modern Japanese people but the test have been inconclusive.

The Monsoon, Japan, and Rice

• The monsoon winds from the ocean give ample rain in the summer, permitting rice to grow.

• Wet rice farming became established in western Japan sometime after 500 BCE.

• The Japanese economy would be centered on rice production through the centuries until the 19th century CE.

Geological Japan

• Japan in antiquity had some mineral wealth particularly copper and silver.

• However, Japan was extremely poor in coal, iron, and other minerals.

• The island has traditionally had several active volcanoes which makes the island prone to violent seismic activities.

Community and Rice Cultivation

• Land in valley bottoms and coastal plains was drained, leveled, and irrigated in operations demanding communal effort.

• This allowed for denser population to be fed and concentrate in one place giving rise to villages.

• Contact with the China and Korea introduced Japan to bronze and iron which revolutionized Japanese civilization circa 250 BCE – 250 CE known as the Yayoi period.

Yayoi Culture

• These people seemed to have been heavily influenced by Han China and the ‘Korean’ kingdoms.

• They produced pottery using the potter’s wheel.

• Practiced sophisticated rice cultivation following a model that was probably imported from the continent using terracing.

Yamato Rulers

• Around the 4th century AD/CE the people of Japan became much more heavily influenced by the people from present day Korea and China (post Han Dynasty).

• There is a spike in material culture that shows that the Yamato rulers were a warrior aristocratic clan that most likely consolidated their power in the island.

Warrior Aristocracy of Yamato Japan

Rulers of Yamato Japan

• The Han court wrote that the rulers of the Land of Wa were sometimes men and other times women.

• Queen Himeko or Pimiko “Daughter of the Sun” was recorded as having been an extremely powerful and quite able ruler.

The State of Japan Myth

• The earliest written record of Japan’s history (dated to 712 AD/CE) claims that Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan, ascended the throne in 660 BCE in the Yamato region.

• However scholars think that although Yamato political supremacy was not consolidated until the late 3rd or early 4th century CE.