The people of Gojoseon or the oldest kingdom of Korea are
recorded as Dong-i, "eastern bowmen." They propagated in Manchuria, the eastern
littoral of China, areas north of the Yangtze River, and the Korean Peninsula.
The eastern bowmen had a myth in which the legendary founder Dangun was born
of a father of heavenly descent and a woman from a bear-totem tribe. He is said
to have started to rule in 2333 B.C., and his descendants reigned in Gojoseon,
the "Land of Morning Calm," for more than a millennium.
When the Zhou people pushed the Yin, the eastern bowmen moved toward Manchuria
and the Korean Peninsula for better climatic conditions. They seem to have maintained
unity, as China's great sages, Confucius and Mencius, praised their consanguineous
order and the decorum of their society.
The eastern bowmen on the western coast of the Yellow Sea clashed with the Zhou
people during China's period of warring states (475 B.C.-221 B.C.). This led
them to move toward southern Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula.
There were other tribes of eastern bowmen, the Yemaek in the Manchurian area
and the Han on the Korean Peninsula, all of whom belonged to the Tungusic family
and linguistically affiliated with the Altaic. When Yin collapsed, Gija, a subject
of the Yin state, entered Dangun's domain and introduced the culture of Yin
around the 11th century B.C.
Then came the invasion of Yen in the northeastern sector of China, and Gojoseon
lost the territories west of the Liao River in the third century B.C. By this
time, iron culture was developing and the warring states pushed the refugees
eastward.
Among the immigrants, Wiman entered the service of Gojoseon as military commander
with a base on the Amnokgang (Yalu) river. He drove King Jun to the south and
usurped power. But in 109 B.C. the Han emperor Wu-ti dispatched a massive invasion
by land and sea to Gojoseon in the estuary of the Liao River. Gojoseon was defeated
after two years and four Chinese provincial commands were set up in southern
Manchuria and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Not long after the
establishment of the four commanderies, however, the Korean attacks became fierce
and the last of the commanderies, Lolang (Korean: Nangnang) was destroyed by
Goguryeo in 313. |