Goguryeo

For roughly seven centuries, a warlike kingdom of the north held the mountains and river valleys on both sides of the Yalu, stretching at its height across most of Manchuria and much of the Korean Peninsula. Goguryeo, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea alongside Paekche and Silla, is traditionally dated from 37 BCE until its capital, Pyongyang, fell to a Silla–Tang alliance in 668 CE. Its shortened name, Goryeo, adopted in the 5th century, is the origin of the English word "Korea".

The name first appears in Chinese records as a county of the Han dynasty's Xuantu Commandery, set up after the fall of Gojoseon in the late 2nd century BCE. Local Yemaek tribes are credited with driving out that commandery in 75 BCE. Later Korean histories, the 12th-century Samguk sagi and the 13th-century Samguk yusa, tell of Jumong, a prince from Buyeo who fled his rivals and founded the kingdom in 37 BCE. Some historians doubt this date, since the stele of King Gwanggaeto and a Tang source describe Goguryeo as far older.

Goguryeo began as a federation of five tribes. Under King Taejo, in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE, these became centrally ruled districts, and the kingdom subdued the Okjeo and Dongye peoples and pressed against the Han commanderies. The 3rd and 4th centuries brought heavy setbacks: Cao Wei forces destroyed the capital at Hwando in 244, and the Former Yan sacked it again in 342. In between, King Micheon took Lelang in 313, ending Chinese commandery rule in the north of the peninsula. After King Gogukwon was killed by Paekche in 371, his successor Sosurim rebuilt the state, adopting Buddhism in 372 and founding a national academy.

Gwanggaeto the Great, who reigned from 391, campaigned in every direction. He is credited with taking 64 walled towns and 1,400 villages, seized Liaodong, absorbed much of Buyeo and made Silla a dependent. His son Jangsu reigned for 79 years, moved the capital to Pyongyang in 427 and pushed north towards the Songhua River. Society was strongly military: every man owed service, and at its height the kingdom could reportedly raise some 300,000 troops.

Internal strife from the 530s onwards, and the loss of the Han River valley to Paekche and Silla in the early 550s, weakened the kingdom. It nevertheless withstood repeated invasions by China's reunified Sui dynasty. In 612, Sui sent an enormous army; at the Battle of Salsu, the general Ŭlchi Mundŏk routed a column of about 305,000 men, of whom only 2,700 reportedly returned. These failures helped bring down the Sui. In 642 the noble Yŏn Kaesomun seized power in a coup, and the Tang campaigns that followed, including Emperor Taizong's failed siege of Ansi in 645, were beaten back.

Yŏn Kaesomun's death in 666 set his sons against each other, and one defected to Tang. Allied Tang and Silla armies besieged Pyongyang, and King Bojang surrendered in 668. Tang deported many inhabitants, but resistance continued. The northern successor state of Parhae, founded by Dae Jo-yeong, presented itself as Goguryeo's heir, as did Goryeo, founded in 918.

Goguryeo's surviving art lies mainly in painted tombs near Ji'an and Pyongyang, showing hunts, dances and warriors; in 2004 UNESCO inscribed sites in China and North Korea on its World Heritage List. Ancestor worship, an annual October festival, the Dongmaeng, Buddhism and Taoism all had a place in its religious life. In modern times China and Korea have disputed whether Goguryeo belongs to Chinese or Korean history. China's state-backed Northeast Project of 2002 to 2007 was criticised, especially in Korea, for treating it as part of China's past, while Korean scholars regard it as a Korean kingdom; in 2004 the two governments reached a diplomatic compromise.

Our maps show Goguryeo, labelled Koguryo, from 1 BCE through 700, beside Silla and the Northern Wei on the 500 map. The 700 map still draws it, although the kingdom had fallen in 668.