Ch 1 - In the Beginning

Kingdoms of their Own

The Han Dynasty involves itself in Korea following the emergence of the Kingdom of Choson and the Samhan states, beginning a long-lasting relationship between the Korean and Chinese people.

Lu Guan, the King of Yen, initiated a revolt in the Liaodong military district of eastern Yen during the winter of 196-195 BC. After Emperor Gaozu's armies suppressed the rebellion, Lu Guan moved his family and troops beyond the "Great Wall" to seek shelter among the northern Xiungnu. One of Lu Guan's lieutenants, Wiman, and about one thousand of his followers escaped through the stockade along the Liao River frontier dressed as local nomads. They crossed the Yalu River into northwestern Korea, where they surrendered to Ki Chun, the ruler of Old Choson. The ambitious Wiman asked if he and his followers could live among the Chinese refugees settled in western Old Choson and would Ki Chun entrust him with the defense of the kingdom's border with Yen. Wiman must have left quite an impression on Ki Chun, who not only granted his request, but appointed him lord over a thirty-mile stretch of the western frontier.

Wiman developed a strong power base over the years, garnering support from among the thousands of Chinese refugees still moving into Old Choson. At one point, Wiman sent an urgent message to Ki Chun alleging that he was being attacked on all sides. He requested permission to return to the capital at Wang'gom-song (near Pyongyang) to guard the king. Following close on the heels of that message, Wiman marched a small army into the ancient capital, drove Ki Chun from the city, and proclaimed himself the new leader of Old Choson. Ki Chun and his retinue fled south down the peninsula where he established himself among the Mahan tribes and broke off all relations with his former kingdom.

Wiman soon created the kingdom of Choson, a new confederation that included many of the men from the Old Choson power structure and which bore all the hallmarks of the much stronger Han Chinese culture. With the Han Chinese preoccupied by internal politics and continuous threats from the Xiungnu, Wiman blocked any potential threat from China by reaching a defense agreement with the Chinese governor of Liaodong. No longer worried about attacks from the west, Wiman directed improvements to strengthen Choson's economy and military power. He used his newly developed strength to extend Choson's authority across the Korean peninsula. He pushed southward through the Chabiryong Pass to the Han River and subjugated the neighboring state of Chinbon. In the northeast, Wiman's forces conquered the Imdun tribes in the southern Hamgyong region. At its height, Wiman Choson controlled several hundred miles of territory across the waist of the Korean peninsula. With a new administrative structure in place and a reliance on the sophisticated knowledge of iron culture brought by migrant Chinese artisans, Wiman Choson began a period of rapid progress.

The death of the Han Emperor Jing in 141 BC, put the sixteen-year-old Emperor Wu on the Celestial Throne. The young ruler, tutored by a Confucian scholar, appointed three Confucianists to his top three government positions. The Emperor's grandmother, Dowager Empress Dou, was a devout Daoist and kept the Confucians under close scrutiny. Not until after her death in 135 BC did Confucianists achieve elevated status in the royal court. Shortly thereafter, an imperial university was established in Changan and the five traditional Confucian classics of Documents, Odes, Changes, Rites, and The Spring and Autumn Annals became the basis of examinations for all government officials.

Emperor Wu picked up right where his father left off in suppressing rebellious warlords, powerful clans and bandits by ordering military action against the more notorious groups, cutting off as many as ten thousand heads at a time. He promoted a number of aggressive and authoritarian officials to key posts in local law enforcement and within the central government, including Ning Zheng and Zhouyang You, the two most notorious kuli from his father's reign.  Emperor Wu's law enforcers quickly degenerated from men who honestly decided right and wrong to sycophants who enforced the harsh laws and regulations just to stay out of trouble themselves. When a new concealment law went into effect that called for the execution of officials who did not arrest reported criminals, local officials simply submitted false reports to escape being involved.

It was not a peaceful time in China. The young Han empire endured a constant struggle with the nomadic Xiungnu to the north, where twenty-four tribes had created a federation that extended their influence along a 1,500 mile front across southern Siberia, Mongolia, and parts of western Manchuria. During times of peace, the main body of the Xiungnu traded with Chinese villages for armor, weapons, agricultural products, and silk. In despearate times however, roving bands of mounted Xiungnu archers repeatedly harassed, raided and looted those same northern settlements. The growing Xiungnu threat along with Choson's growing power on the Korean peninsula kept China in a near constant state of alert. Irritated by Xiungnu raids, Emperor Wu, also known as Wu Di, "the Martial Emperor," rejected Emperor Wen's peace agreement of 162 BC, and replaced diplomatic gift-giving with a massive military campaign.

In 133 BC Emperor Wu created an enormous military machine that honed its skills in military expeditions ranging from Vietnam and Burma to Mongolia and Korea. The extensive military action soon proved the chariot to be a woefully inadequate weapon against Xiungnu cavalry in battle. Furthermore, the old strategy of creating economic and cultural dependency among China's neighbors failed. The emperor transformed Chinese military tactics and rearmed his military with iron and steel swords, plate or scale mail and crossbows. New cavalry units were built around highly skilled, experienced mercenaries led by talented generals. Chinese officials, settlers and artisans followed close behind Han victories and imposed cultural hegemony over the conquered territories. Nevertheless, even successful Han military campaigns proved to be very costly.

The Xiungnu's large and mobile armies could easily put over 100,000 horsemen into a major battle and their wars with the Han armies were deadly in the extreme. Both sides frequently fielded a combined strength of half a million men in a single campaign and bloody, ruthless fighting was the rule. Once the two armies joined the fight, there was no turning back. Few prisoners were taken on either side and fewer still were exchanged. Rarely did the Chinese enjoy an outright victory. One Chinese general who began with 60,000 troops returned from a "successful" campaign with fewer than 10,000 soldiers.

The fierce wars among the Xiungnu in Mongolia displaced many barbarian tribes, including the Yuezhi, who fled westward after failing to secure alliances with other tribes or Central Asian states. With no idea of where the Yuezhi had gone, Emperor Wu prepared a mission to seek an alliance with them. Zhangqian, an officer of the imperial bodyguard, set out in 138 BC with 100 retainers on a monumental 2,000 mile journey through rugged, unchartered territory patrolled by a highly mobile enemy. Ten years later, after traveling through several Central Asian states that expressed great interest in trade with the Han, Zhang finally reached the Yuezhi, settled in a region the Romans called Bactria (Ta Xia). Despite his best efforts, he could not convince the Yuezhi to return east to battle their old enemies.

Though he failed his primary mission, Zhangqian returned from his 12 year journey with invaluable political, economic and military intelligence on empires lying farther south and west, including northern India, Parthia and Syria, the eastern outpost of the Roman Empire. With a soldier's interest in horses, Zhang told the emperor about the horses he saw in the small state of Fergana. They were much larger and more beautiful than the sturdy Mongol horses and would make excellent cavalry mounts. He also spoke of Wu-sun, a former Xiungnu protectorate that might be persuaded to attack the Xiungnu to recover its tribal homelands. Zhang sincerely believed that China's destiny lay to the west and convinced Wu Di that such an alliance would clear the way for China to force other western states into submission. Emperor Wu saw great opportunity in Zhang's proposal and ordered him westward with 300 cavalry and an enormous treasure of silks, metals, livestock and other valuables. An alliance was established with Wusun, but the other western states enjoyed their independence and the benefits of trade with China and saw no reason for an alliance. Emperor Wu set out to change their minds.

In 119 BC, Emperor Wu laid plans to conquer the small Central Asian state of Fergana. Using the horses as a pretext for action, Han emissaries traveled to Fergana for a little "horse trading." Their requests were repeatedly refused. After several Chinese envoys were brutally killed during one particularly heated exchange, Emperor Wu sent a large army against Fergana to force the issue. Approximately 140,000 horses began the battle. When the fighting ended, a victorious Han cavalry general had some 40,000 enemy heads to show for his efforts, but fewer than 30,000 horses.

Ever mindful of the bloody price of conquest, China viewed any expansionist behavior of Choson with great alarm. Choson had become a refuge for hundreds of Chinese dissidents, particularly in the Liaodong River valley, and relations between the Changan court and King Ugo, Wiman's grandson, were not good. Elements within the Han court, worried that Choson would side with China's enemies at any moment, exerted ever-increasing pressure on Wu Di to remove the danger to the Liaodong region by asserting positive Chinese control over the Korean peninsula. The Han Emperor, troubled by a court in decline for some time, gradually came to fear the possibility of an alliance between Choson and the Xiungnu in the north.

The strained relationship between China and Choson eventually ruptured;  not because of a military alliance with the Xiungnu, but because of a trade dispute. The State of Chin, isolated on the southern end of the Korean peninsula, had a strong desire to enjoy the benefits of Han China's new metal technologies. King Ugo regarded the southern peninsula as part of his domain and barred any direct contact between China and the smaller peninsula states. Since Choson straddled the only land connection with China, Choson effectively became the economic middleman on the Korean peninsula. King Ugo jealously guarded his trade connections with the Han Chinese and moved to increase the profitability of those connections and strengthen Choson in the process. Since Ki Chun had earlier cut off relations between the State of Chin and Choson, he decided to bypass Choson altogether and attempted to establish direct contact with the Han court in Changan. Choson frustrated any hope for direct trade by forcibly preventing the his envoys from ever reaching China.

Choson's interference with Chin's attempt to seek recognition from Changan became a source of real friction between Choson and Han China. Despite Emperor Wu's repeated attempts to negotiate a settlement with King Ugo, his personal envoys to Wang'gom-song had little impact on their strained relations. The Emperor even went so far as to attempt to divide the peninsula by exploiting cultural differences between the ruling aristocracy and the people in Choson and the provinces of the southern peninsula. In the spring of 109 BC, the Han court sent an envoy named She He to inform King Ugo of China's displeasure. During She He's return trip to China, he murdered his military escort and later boasted he had killed a Choson army general. The Han court rewarded She He for his action by appointing him commander of the eastern sector of Liaodong. The implication of that appointment did not go unnoticed in Wang'gom-song. Later that summer, a group of warriors dispatched from King Ugo's court exacted a measure of revenge by catching up with She He and brutally murdering him.

Border clashes between Choson and Han China escalated throughout the year. Using She He's death as a pretext for action, Emperor Wu dispatched two large armies against King Ugo's kingdom in the autumn of 109 BC. The first expedition, led by Yang Pu, crossed the Gulf of Bo Hai and landed on Korea's west coast. General Xun Zhi marched a second army into Korea from the Liaodong region. Choson's skill in metal culture was every bit as good as China's at the time and King Ugo commanded well-equipped armies. Choson troops engaged and soundly defeated Xun Zhi's army in Korea's northern mountain passes and routed Yang Pu's bogged down assault against Wang'gom-song in the south.

The Choson army's stiff resistance and the inability of generals Hsün and Yang to cooperate with each other prolonged open hostilities between Han China and Choson throughout the year. While the two Chinese armies pulled back to regroup and lick their wounds, Emperor Wu sent yet another envoy to Wang'gom-song in an attempt to overawe King Ugo. This time it appeared that a settlement would be reached. King Ugo agreed to send his own son to the Han court to affect an agreement. Trouble developed on the banks of the Yalu River however, when the young Choson Crown Prince refused to dismiss his armed guard before crossing into Chinese territory. Angered by the refusal, Chinese envoy Wei Shan refused him permission to proceed. When word of this ill-advised behavior reached China, Emperor Wu ordered Wei Shan's execution.

While Choson warriors successfully managed to hold off the Chinese in the north, internal dissension and chaos intensified among Choson's ruling class and the court at Wang'gom-song. During this troubled period a new flood of refugees left Choson. Some fled because they no longer accepted northern rule, while others departed for purely political reasons. Yok-kye, one of King Ugo's high ministers, could not persuade the king to drop the policies that eventually led to the break with China. When it became clear King Ugo would not change his position, Yok-kye reportedly fled south to the State of Chin with over two thousand households. Among the many refugees were skilled metallurgists, competent rice farmers and people experienced in the new Chinese arts of governing. Not only were they eagerly welcomed, but their new knowledge and skills played an important role in the future development of southern Korea.

Communities in southern Korea coalesced around new power centers, creating three new peninsula kingdoms known collectively as the Samhan States. In the T'ung-chia and Yalu River basin region, the Yemaek people consolidated their strength under the leadership of Lord Namnyo, who reportedly ruled a population of some 280,000 people.

Frustrated by the inability of his army to conquer Choson, Emperor Wu ordered an investigation of the military situation on the peninsula. The inquiry led to the arrest and decapitation of General Yang Pu and the transfer of his entire command to General Xun Zhi. General Xun received new orders for an all-out assault against Choson. In the summer of 108 BC, General Xun Zhi's army overran Choson. The increased fighting around Wang'gom-song triggered open dissension within the ruling class and intensified the activities of a peace faction within Choson's royal court. Once the court sensed that all was lost, Choson no longer had the heart to continue. The Choson army held off the Chinese for a time, but increasing defections gradually weakened their ranks and General Xun captured Wang'gom-song in a matter of days.

Han Chinese soldiers conquered adjacent lands in southern Korea and southern Manchuria, meeting only token resistance. In a desperate move to end the bloodshed, a secretive group of Choson court ministers, some of whom were Chinese, brutally assassinated King Ugo and formally surrendered the kingdom to China. The Chinese handsomely rewarded collaborators in Ugo's court who switched sides at the last moment, ensuring their families would continue to enjoy high social status. Others were not so fortunate. Many fled the country. Some even sailed south to Japan. The once ambitious Korean kingdom did to itself what Emperor Wu's armies could not. Wiman Choson perished.

To ensure that Choson would not again become a source of trouble, Emperor Wu ordered the creation of four great military districts known as the Four Chinese Commanderies. Lolang, a newly-constructed walled-city on the south bank of the broad Taedong River near Wang'gom-song, became the seat of power for China's colonial policy in Choson.

The Chinese enjoyed a rich life as colonial overlords in Lolang, living and working among themselves, apart from the local populace. Lolang's new residents brought new concepts and techniques in art, philosophy, architecture, and government administration. The district governor, his staff and other government officials moved about the city in their canopied chariots on streets paved with brick. The Chinese nobility adorned itself with delicate gold jewelry inlaid with semi-precious stones and dined on excellent lacquerware brought from China. Chinese merchants, artisans, and craftsmen made and sold a variety of iron and bronze products including military weapons, chariot fittings, agricultural tools, textiles, and ceramic ware. As the Chinese colonists settled into their new life in a new land, Lolang became an important trade center, carefully watched over by the district military commander and his troops. For the first time in its history, Korea fell victim to subjugation by a powerful outside presence.

The efforts of the Chinese colonial administration in each military district to bring newly occupied lands under the Celestial Empire's growing influence had a substantial impact on native life in Choson and a lasting effect on the Korean people. In ancient China, streets would be emptied for the passage of ranking officials and imperial tours. Townspeople gave way whenever Chinese officials were around, and it was regarded as unusual when someone failed to do so. When high Chinese officials exercised their influence over the common people in their neighborhood, they neither expected nor endured any challenge. The Han nobility, particularly the powerful nobles, preferred using their influence and diplomacy rather than resorting to force. The major source of Han influence came from active collusion with local government officials at various levels for whom they could arrange things to their favor. Local government needed powerful, influential families in the area to fulfill such duties as collecting taxes and conscripting labor. The powerful families needed the backing, more often the tacit permission, of local government to legitimize their own activities. This symbiotic power-sharing relationship was crucial for any powerful and wealthy individual or family that wanted to maintain influence over the common people. The relationship worked so long as neither side alienated the other.

In order to disrupt the process of unification in Korea, the Chinese commanderies established diplomatic ties with each of the peninsula's walled-town states individually. This divisive policy had the added effect of hindering the development of native self-rule. The Korean people did not bear the weight of their new landlords well and despite the splendor of their surroundings, the Chinese found little tranquillity in their colonial outposts. After twenty-five years of determined opposition by local populations, China abolished the Chen-fan and Lin-t'un military districts. By 82 BC, the areas under their jurisdiction were transferred to the administrative rule of Lolang and Xuantu. Just seven years later, continued resistance from local populations forced the Xuantu Commandery to move from former Yemaek territory to an area in east central Manchuria.

In 57 BC, the six clan chieftains of the King's Council met in the village of Kyongju, capital of the small walled-town state of Saro. They formed a new political alliance among the several smaller tribal states in the old Chinhan territory east of the Naktong River and chose Pak Hyokkose of the Kumnyang clan as their first leader. By consolidation and outright conquest, the walled-town state of Saro linked itself with other walled-town states in the area, gradually expanded its frontier beyond the confines of the Kyongju plain, and evolved into the rather large confederated kingdom of Silla.

Chinese institutions and the Chinese way of life dominated each military district, yet the Chinese had no connection to the Korean people. Gradually, inexorably, Chinese culture penetrated the basic fabric of Korean society, progressively weakening people's faith in traditional Korean values. For example, Korea's tribal origins gave people no sense of private property and they never developed the habit of keeping their goods secure from thieves. Chinese merchants took advantage of this characteristic and enriched themselves by continuous stealing. Although Chinese colonial policies were not repressive, the basic cultural differences between the Chinese and Koreans and their close cultural contact set in motion a disintegrative social process in Korea.