Gojoseon

Gojoseon, also written Old Chosŏn, is the name historians give to the earliest kingdom recorded in Korean history, which ruled parts of the northern Korean Peninsula and southern Manchuria until its conquest by the Chinese Han dynasty in 108 BCE. In its own time it was simply called Joseon; the prefix Go, "old", distinguishes it from the Joseon dynasty founded in 1392. Its origins are wrapped in legend, and its location, extent and early history remain among the most debated questions in early Korean history.

According to the Samguk yusa, a Korean history compiled in the thirteenth century, the kingdom was founded in 2333 BCE by Tan'gun. In the story, Hwanung, son of the lord of heaven, descended to Mount Baekdu; a bear and a tiger asked to become human, and the bear, which endured a hundred days in a cave eating only mugwort and garlic, became a woman, Ungnyeo, who bore Tan'gun. Scholars treat Tan'gun as a mythical figure, though some read the tale as a memory of real developments, such as the merging of a sky-worshipping and a bear-worshipping people. The legend became central to Korean national identity in the twentieth century, and the founding is celebrated as National Foundation Day in both North and South Korea.

Chinese texts tell of a second founder, Jizi, known in Korea as Kija, a Shang nobleman said to have moved east once the Shang had fallen to the Zhou and founded "Kija Chosŏn". Pre-modern Korean scholars long honoured Kija as a bringer of civilisation, and a tomb to him was built near Pyongyang in 1102. Many modern historians doubt his migration, noting that the earliest works to mention Kija do not say he went to Korea and that archaeology does not support the story.

Chinese sources first mention Joseon as a trading partner of the state of Qi and place it north of the Bohai Gulf. The historian Mark Byington has noted that although it clearly existed before the second century BCE, whether it was a state-level polity is unclear. Its location is itself contested: the traditional view puts it in northern Korea, while many South Korean scholars since the 1980s have placed its early centre in Manchuria, a view less accepted in China and Japan. Archaeologically, the region is associated with the Liaoning bronze culture, its distinctive "mandolin-shaped" daggers, and numerous dolmen tombs. By the fourth century BCE Joseon appears as a confederation whose ruler took the title of king and clashed with the neighbouring Chinese state of Yan. Around 300 BCE Yan seized a large western territory, and the centre seems to have shifted to the Pyongyang area, where the later capital, Wanggeom-seong, stood.

In 195 BCE King Jun gave a refugee from Yan, Wi Man, command of the frontier. A year later Wi Man seized the throne, and Jun fled south to the state of Jin. Under Wi Man's grandson, King Ugeo, relations with Han broke down: Ugeo blocked envoys travelling through his lands to the Han court, a Han envoy killed a Joseon prince, and Ugeo raided Liaodong. Some scholars add that Han feared an alliance between Joseon and the Xiongnu. Emperor Wu sent armies by land and sea in 109 BCE; after heavy losses, Wanggeom fell in 108 BCE.

Han set up four commanderies in the conquered lands. Three were lost to local resistance within decades, but the last, Nakrang, endured as a centre of Chinese trade and culture until Goguryeo destroyed it in 313 CE. Successor states including Buyeo, Okjeo and Dongye emerged across the former territory, while Jin in the south developed into the Samhan confederacies, forerunners of Baekje and Silla.

Our 400 BCE map labels this territory "Gojoseon", stretching across parts of north-eastern China, the Russian Far East and today's North Korea. Because the kingdom's location and borders are debated, the outline is a broad estimate.