A History of Korea (7 page)

Puy
ŏ
had existed for almost 1,000 years before Kogury
ŏ
finally annexed it in 494. In its heyday Puy
ŏ
extended its territory to the Heilong (Amur) River to the north, the Maritime Province of Russia to the east, Paektu-san to the south, and the upper reaches of the Liao River to the west. Since around the third century ad, however, it was reduced to a small state with a population of 80,000 households.

Puy
ŏ
not only had existed for an extended time but had long maintained friendly relations with China’s successive Han, Wei, and Jin dynasties. Because it lay between the nomadic Xianbei people on China’s northern frontier and Kogury
ŏ
to China’s northeast, both of whom posed a serious threat to China, Puy
ŏ
and China shared in common the need to check the expansion of these two powerful peoples. Unlike its good-neighbor relationship with China, Puy
ŏ
’s relations with Kogury
ŏ
to its south, as well as with the Xianbei people to the north, had long been antagonistic. China’s close, friendly ties with Puy
ŏ
had convinced the Chinese of the peaceful inclinations of the Puy
ŏ
people. The converging interests of the two nations revealed itself in a series of events.

Puy
ŏ
sent its first envoy to China in
AD
49, during the Later Han dynasty, and thereafter sent emissaries almost every year. At the end of the Later Han, the Gongsun clan, who as Chinese warlords controlled the Liadong region, forged marriage ties with Puy
ŏ
’s royal house. When Guanqiu Jian, a general of the Wei dynasty that succeeded the Later Han, invaded Kogury
ŏ
in 244, Puy
ŏ
supplied provisions to the invading Wei army, cementing its friendship with China. Such pro-China policy was fruitfully rewarded. When the Xianbei ruler Murong Wei invaded Puy
ŏ
in 285, its king
Ŭ
iry
ŏ
committed suicide and the king’s sons and brothers fled to Okch
ŏ
in the northeastern part of the Korean peninsula. Upon realizing that Puy
ŏ
’s existence was in serious jeopardy, the Chinese state of Jin, which had succeeded Wei, seated
Ŭ
ira, a member of Puy
ŏ
royalty, on the empty throne. Thereafter, with the help of the Chinese, Puy
ŏ
barely remained in existence.

Because successive Chinese states served as patrons of Puy
ŏ
against the incursions of the nomadic Xianbei people and Kogury
ŏ
, the decline of Chinese strength imperiled Puy
ŏ
’s survival. When Jin was driven south by the nomadic tribes from northern China in 316, Puy
ŏ
was completely isolated and exposed to foreign threats. When Puy
ŏ
was invaded in 347 by Murong Huang, the ruler of the Xianbei kingdom of the Earlier Yan, its king Hy
ŏ
n and more than 50,000 of his people were taken prisoner. Upon the extinction of the Xianbei kingdom by another nomadic state of the Earlier Jin in 370, Puy
ŏ
came under the influence
of Kogury
ŏ
. Finally, Puy
ŏ
was destroyed by the nomadic Mulgil (Malgal; Mohe in Chinese) people in January 494, and the next month its king voluntarily surrendered to the Kogury
ŏ
king Munja and his territory was annexed to Kogury
ŏ
. Puy
ŏ
, which had had a long history and was the root of several subsequent Korean states, finally left the scene of history.

In the confederated kingdom of Puy
ŏ
, the king was first among equals in his relations with powerful tribal heads called
ka,
or governor. The king ruled only the central part of his nation, and four governors controlled the eastern, western, southern, and northern parts of the kingdom. Their domains were termed
sa ch’ulto,
or four outlying provinces, which, along with the territory administered by the king, formed the “five-section system.” The king had his own officials called
taesaja,
or great retainer, and
saja,
or retainer. Local governors were also served by saja household retainers. This system demonstrates that original walled-town states united to form the confederated kingdom of Puy
ŏ
.

At first a council, which was comprised of ka governors and decided important national affairs, elected the king or dethroned him, greatly limiting the king’s authority. Later, however, with the introduction of the hereditary monarch system, royal authority grew increasingly strong.

Puy
ŏ
encompassed the vast plains of the Songhua River basin and was a heavily agricultural and livestock-raising country. The raising of livestock was such a thriving practice that the names of domestic animals such as the horse (
ma-ga
), ox (u-ga), pig (
ch
ŏ
-ga
), and dog (
ku-ga
) were used to designate the four powerful governors of the kingdom. The wealth gained from the farming and livestock enterprises presumably led to peaceful inclinations among the Puy
ŏ
people, who were known to be skilled archers (called
chumong
) and horseback riders. Puy
ŏ
exported its special products such as horses, jewels, and furs to China.

Puy
ŏ
’s social strata included ka,
homin,
or wealthy people;
min,
or common people; and
haho,
or low households. The min and haho strata included mostly the farming population, and below them were a small number of slaves. These slaves, who were war prisoners, debtors, and the family members of murderers, were the possessions of the ka and homin people. When their masters died, slaves were buried alive with the dead, as noted earlier, sometimes as many as 100-plus slaves. When war came, it was members of the homin and min who took up arms to fight the enemy. The haho people were not allowed to take part in combat operations but supplied provisions to the combatants.

Puy
ŏ
had four legal provisions to protect the lives and property of the privileged and to ensure patriarchy and polygamy. In Puy
ŏ
a murderer was put to
death and members of the murderer’s family became slaves; a robber had to compensate his victim 12 times the amount stolen; a woman adulterer was put to death; and a jealous wife was also put to death, and the corpse was left to rot in the mountains south of the capital (the family of such a woman might claim the body by making a suitable payment in cattle or horses).

In the 12th lunar month of the year, a thanksgiving festival called
y
ŏ
nggo
or spirit evoking drums, was held in Puy
ŏ
, where the entire populace would throng together to perform a thanksgiving service to heaven, enjoy food and drink, and sing and dance. There the four ka governors would discuss important state affairs and would judge prisoners guilty or innocent. Also oracle bones, specifically oxen hooves, would be used to foretell a person’s good or ill fortune. The festival, presumably a survival of a tradition practiced in the primitive hunting society out of which Puy
ŏ
evolved, was a shamanic event celebrated on a national scale. The other Korean states of Kogury
ŏ
, Okch
ŏ
, Tongye, and Chin had similar thanksgiving festivals. For this reason, a third-century Chinese historian described Koreans as a people who loved singing and dancing.

According to legend, Kogury
ŏ
(meaning “head walled-town”) was founded in 37
BC
by Chumong and a band of his followers who fled south from Puy
ŏ
. Because there had been a prefecture named “Kogury
ŏ
” within the territory of the Chinese Hy
ŏ
ndo Commandery which was established in 107
BC
, one may infer that a small state of Kogury
ŏ
had already existed in the second century
BC
. Let us call it “Old Kogury
ŏ
.” Viewed in this light, Kogury
ŏ
was the first of the Three Kingdoms to be established.

This Old Kogury
ŏ
consolidated its strength in the mountainous region centered in the middle reaches of the Yalu River and the upper reaches of the Tongjia (Hon) River, a branch of the Yalu, in Manchuria. The Yemaek people in this region are believed to have already established their own political entity in the fourth century
BC
. In 128
BC
the Ye “lord” Namny
ŏ
, who exercised dominion over a population of 280,000, defected to the Han empire, seeking its support in his effort to resist domination by Wiman Chos
ŏ
n. This Yemaek society formed the basis of Kogury
ŏ
, and, in 75
BC
, the Kogury
ŏ
people were strong enough to expel the Hy
ŏ
ndo Commandery far to northwestern Manchuria.

After ousting the Chinese commandery, the Kogury
ŏ
people established a confederated kingdom consisting of walled-town states named
na
or
no.
In
this confederation, these small na (no) states were increasingly integrated into five larger entities: Sono-bu (enclave), Ch
ŏ
llo-bu, Sunno-bu, Kwanno-bu, and Kyeru-bu. At first the Sono-bu people, natives of the region, were the leaders of the confederated kingdom, and their chieftains claimed the throne. Later, however, the Kyeru-bu people, who had moved south from Puy
ŏ
, grew powerful and replaced the Sono-bu people as leaders of the confederation. The legend of Chumong, in which he was defeated in the struggle for power in Puy
ŏ
by Taeso, the son of the Puy
ŏ
king K
ŭ
mwa, and escaped the country for fear of being killed, suggests that the Kyeru-bu men wrested political leadership in the confederated kingdom of Kogury
ŏ
away from the Sono-bu men. Thus emerged the beginning of “New Kogury
ŏ
.”
⁵

Based on their outstanding skills at horseback riding and archery, the people of Chumong and Kyeru-bu integrated neighboring walled-town states into Kogury
ŏ
and constructed fortresses, royal chambers, and shrines at Cholbon (Hwanin), their capital. In
AD
3 Kogury
ŏ
transferred its capital to Kungnaes
ŏ
ng on the Yalu, not far from and south of Hwanin. By the beginning of the first century
AD
Kogury
ŏ
had adopted the Chinese title
wang
for its ruler.

Kogury
ŏ
, because of its location in a mountainous region with narrow plains, endured economic hardship and could only compensate for its inadequate resources through warfare. To enrich themselves, the Kogury
ŏ
people had to rely on tributes of grain and other necessities of life from their conquered territories. Simply put, Kogyry
ŏ
was an economy based on plunder and the spoils of war. Thus, unlike the people of Puy
ŏ
, the Kogury
ŏ
people frequently conflicted with the Chinese and impressed them as vigorous and warlike, eager to attack their neighbors.

Despite poor agricultural production, the Kogury
ŏ
people held a thanksgiving service to heaven called
tongmaeng
or
tongmy
ŏ
ng,
or worship of Chumong. At this harvest festival held in the tenth lunar month of the year, all the Kogury
ŏ
people came together to eat, drink, and dance. Kogury
ŏ
had an unusual custom called
s
ŏ
ok,
or son-in-law chamber. According to the custom, the groom went to the bride’s home after marriage and lived with his wife in the son-in-law chamber until receiving the formal consent of her parents to bring her back to his clan. Permission to do so was given only after the couple’s children had reached a certain age. This Kogury
ŏ
custom of matriarchy dated back to the Neolithic period.

In the course of armed struggle with the Chinese, Kogury
ŏ
became a powerful kingdom. It directed its territorial expansion toward the Liao River basin to
the southwest, the Songhua River basin to the northwest, the Taedong River basin to the south, and the plains along the northeast coast of the Korean peninsula. Because all these areas were either directly administered by the Chinese or within their sphere of influence, warfare between Kogury
ŏ
and China was inevitable. In the early first century ad, in particular, Kogury
ŏ
came into violent conflict with Wang Mang’s Xin (ad 8–23). When Wang Mang enlisted Kogury
ŏ
forces in a campaign against the Xiongnu people in
AD
12, the Kogury
ŏ
contingents refused to join the battle and killed the commander of the Chinese Xin forces. Wang Mang, who was enraged by the action but could not retaliate against Kogury
ŏ
, had to console himself with his extraordinary decree that the king of Ko (“high”) gury
ŏ
was to be degraded to the title lord of Ha (“low”) gury
ŏ
. Thereafter Kogury
ŏ
forces frequently violated Xin’s frontiers.

In the reign of King T’aejo (ad 53–146?) Kogury
ŏ
territory included present-day Hamgy
ŏ
ng province in northeastern Korea, regions north of the Ch’
ŏ
ngch’
ŏ
n River on the Korean peninsula, the Maritime Province of Russia, and the upper reaches of the Tongjia (Hon) River in Manchuria. In extending its territory, Kogury
ŏ
annexed more than ten walled-town states including Haengin-guk (state), Okch
ŏ
, S
ŏ
nbi, Yangmaek, Kaema-guk, Kuda-guk, Nangnang-guk, Kalsa-guk, and Chuna-guk. Kogury
ŏ
under King T’aejo and his successors continued to mount attacks on the Chinese in the Liao River basin. Thus the history of Kogury
ŏ
’s territorial expansion was characterized by ceaseless struggles with the Chinese. Kogury
ŏ
’s growth depended, in particular, on the expulsion of Chinese commanderies from Korean territory. Already in this early period Kogury
ŏ
’s standing in Korean history was marked by its resistance to Chinese expansionism into Korea.