A History of Korea Read Online Free PDF Page B

by the Qin and Han empires in the late third century BC , a majority of the dongyi people in eastern China had become assimilated and converted to Chinese. But many among the ruling classes chose to go into exile in southern Manchuria and the Korean peninsula. For instance, Wiman, a refugee from the Yan dynasty, which then existed around present-day Beijing, led his band of more than 1,000 followers into exile in Old Chos ŏ n in the early second century BC . To summarize, in the course of China’s unification, the dongyi people were squeezed out of their territories in eastern China and forced to move to southern Manchuria east of the Liao River and the Korean peninsula. Thus Korea’s Bronze Age people, Neolithic natives, and the dongyi who had migrated from eastern China all merged together to become the ancestors of the Korean race.
OLD CHOS Ŏ N
The Myth of Tan’gun
    According to legend, Korea received its birth as a nation-state in 2333 BC , when a king named Tan’gun, “the Lord of the Pakdal [sandalwood] tree,” founded “(Old) Chos ŏ n,” usually translated as “Land of the Morning Calm.” As the legend goes, a divine spirit named Hwanung, a son of Hwanin, the sun god, who yearned to live on the earth among the people, descended from heaven to Mount T’aebaek (present-day Paektu-san), with 3 divine stamps and 3,000 followers, and proclaimed himself king of the universe. Hwanung constructed a holy city just below the divine sandalwood tree at the summit of the mountain and administered 360-odd human affairs, including crops, diseases, punishments, and good and evil, with the help of his vassals
p’ungbaek,
or god of the wind;
ubaek,
or god of the rain; and
unsa,
or god of the clouds. He instituted laws and moral codes, and taught the people arts, medicine, and agriculture. His son was Tan’gun. The story of Tan’gun’s birth appears in one of the oldest extant history texts,
Samguk yusa,
or Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, written by the Buddhist monk Iry ŏ n in 1285:
    In those days there lived a she-bear and a tigress in the same cave. They prayed to Hwanung to be blessed with incarnation as human beings. The king took pityon them and gave each a bunch of mugwort and 20 pieces of garlic, saying, “If you eat this holy food and do not see the sunlight for 100 days, you will become human beings.”
    The she-bear and tigress took the food and retired into the cave. There, eating the food, they were to spend 100 days. In 21 days, the she-bear, who had faithfully observed the king’s instructions, became a woman. But the tigress, who had disobeyed them and stepped out of the cave in a few days, remained in her original form.
    The bear-woman could find no husband, so she prayed under the divine sandalwood tree to be blessed with a child. Hwanung heard her pray and took her for his wife. She conceived and bore a son who was called Tan’gun Wangg ŏ m. 2
    Every year, on 3 October, the day that Tan’gun (“Lord of Sandalwood”) founded Chos ŏ n in 2333, is celebrated in South Korea as
Kaech’ ŏ nj ŏ l,
or Foundation Day. Holding his court at Asadal (Pyongyang), Tan’gun reigned with unparalleled wisdom until 1122 BC . In present-day South Korea, one may observe shrines to his memory. Another legend holds that a noted sage named Kija (Jizi in Chinese) became disheartened with the lawless state of China and migrated to Tan’gun’s Chos ŏ n with 5,000 followers. In 1122 BC Tan’gun abdicated the throne in favor of Kija to become a mountain god.
    The myth of Tan’gun is symbolic on several levels. First, Hwanung and his followers, numbering 3,000, who descended from heaven, symbolize newcomers with a highly advanced Bronze culture. The animals, the she-bear and the tigress, represent ancient tribal totem symbols. Early Korean or Tungusic tribes were usually represented by totem symbols of animals. Specifically a bear was worshiped throughout Northeast Asia, and a tiger frequently figured in Korean