Transcript Korea and Japan

Early Korea and Japan
Instructor Pacas
Korea
• The region we call Korea today, before the late
6th to early 7th century CE (the period of greatest
consolidation), was composed of various
independent kingdoms that had some interaction
with China.
• Their early history, before 3rd century BCE is not
well attested, but there was contact between
Han Dynasty China and these kingdoms in the
3rd century BCE. With part of North Korea being
a Han ‘colony.’
Creation Myth 2333 BCE
• Korean creation myth claims that the
progenitor of the Korean people, Tan’gun,
was born from a union of the presiding god
that assumed human form and a bear
transformed into a woman.
• Scholars believe that this creation myth
sheds insight into early Korean religious
beliefs that were most likely shamanistic.
Tan’gun
• Tan’gun ruled over the kingdom of Choson for
1500 years according to legend.
• He passed his kingdom to a refugee from the
Zhou Dynasty in China called Kija.
• Scholars believe that these myths serve to
champion Korean self identity, and although
serving to credit Chinese influence on their
culture, it also champions Korean ‘national’
autonomous identity.
The historical record
• For the most part, Korea and present day
Manchuria were considered by the
Chinese as limes, frontier zones, attempts
at pacification and conquest often proved
costly.
• The Han Dynasty Chinese eventually
succeeded in establishing a garrison in
Lelang to police this frontier zone.
Lelang
• The establishment of Han Lelang influenced the
tribal confederations of Korea to begin a process
of consolidation of power to effectively deal with
a possible threat of expansion by the Han
Chinese further into the peninsula.
• Eventually on the opposite side of Lelang, the
kingdom of Koguryo with its capital city of
Pyongyang, consolidated enough of its authority
in the surrounding area and served as the headquarter of Korean resistance to Han
expansionism.
Korean kingdoms
The Fall of Lelang Commandery
early 4th century CE
• The fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 CE left
many of its former frontier garrison headquarters on the defensive.
• Early in the 4th century CE the kingdom of
Koguryo took advantage of the fall of the
Han Dynasty and attacked and conquered
the commandery of Lelang and extended
its territorial possession.
Kingdom of Koguryo 4th century CE
• The power vacuum left by the fall of the
Han Dynasty and the political instability
suffered by China following the collapse of
Han, left Koguryo in a position to expand
its political and territorial power but it
sought to extend it into Manchuria rather
than south into the newly formed
consolidated states of Paekche, Silla, and
Kaya during this early phase.
Koguryo Hegemony
• Koguryo hegemony in the peninsula lasted until
the 6th century CE.
• Often the kingdoms of the south petitioned
Koguryo for assistance against Japanese
incursions into the southeastern regions of the
peninsula.
• Koguryo even sent embassies to Japan
exporting Buddhism as well as elements of
Koguryo culture such as art, architecture, etc. to
Japan.
Paekche, Silla, and Kaya
• The three southern kingdoms although
weary of Koguryo’s power and possible
expansionary aspirations often enough
engaged in wars against each other in the
southern portion of the peninsula.
5th century CE northeast Asia
• By the end of 5th century CE northeast Asia was
under the hegemony of Koguryo.
• China after the fall of Han, would suffer a period
of close to 200 years of severe instability, losing
much of its possessions to expanding kingdoms
such as Koguryo.
• Internal struggles between competing dynasties
made Chinese concentrate on these domestic
issues instead of pursuing a process of
consolidating their hold over former territories.
Koguryo Expansion: The Threat to
the Paekche and Silla
• While China was concentrating on internal
issues under the Toba (Wei) Dynasty
400’s CE, Koguryo saw this period as an
opportune time to try to consolidate its
hold over the peninsula.
• Wars with the southern kingdoms would
define the history of present day Korea for
the next 200 years.
Sui Dynasty attempts to conquer
Koguryo 6th-7th century CE
• Once the Toba (Wei) were overthrown and
replaced by Sui Dynasty (581-618 CE) the
Chinese Sui Dynasty attempted to
conquer Koguryo.
• This is the period that begins Korea’s
historical annals.
Japan
Japan
• Japan is divided into four main islands:
Hokkaido, Honshu (the main island),
Shikoku, and Kyushu.
• Japan is about the size of the state of
California.
• The climate is extremely diverse since
Japan runs along a north-south directional
range, from deep winter snows in
Hokkaido to semitropical vegetation in
Kyushu.
Japan
Yamato area of first centralized
political region
Jomon Culture
• Scholars believe that Japan was settled by
people as early as 30,000 BCE.
• These were hunter-gatherer communities of
different ethnic stock – some Caucasoid
(perhaps rise of Ainu people) and some
Mongolic stock.
• Japanese language has some similarities with
the Finno-Ugrian language of Central Asian
Turkic tribes, Finland, and Hungary.
Jomon Culture
• By 10,000 BCE these people were
producing sophisticated pottery and
decorating using ropes to imprint designs
on the wet clay (Jomon).
• Their pottery was fashioned by hand and
not using a potter’s wheel.
Jomon cont’d
• By about 5,000 BCE the Jomon people
began to adopt rudimentary cultivation,
when the environment would permit, and
started a revolutionary process in the
island.
• Skeletal remains of these people have
been analyzed to determine if they are the
predecessor of modern Japanese people
but the test have been inconclusive.
The Monsoon, Japan, and Rice
• The monsoon winds from the ocean give
ample rain in the summer, permitting rice
to grow.
• Wet rice farming became established in
western Japan sometime after 500 BCE.
• The Japanese economy would be
centered on rice production through the
centuries until the 19th century CE.
Geological Japan
• Japan in antiquity had some mineral
wealth particularly copper and silver.
• However, Japan was extremely poor in
coal, iron, and other minerals.
• The island has traditionally had several
active volcanoes which makes the island
prone to violent seismic activities.
Community and Rice Cultivation
• Land in valley bottoms and coastal plains was
drained, leveled, and irrigated in operations
demanding communal effort.
• This allowed for denser population to be fed and
concentrate in one place giving rise to villages.
• Contact with the China and Korea introduced
Japan to bronze and iron which revolutionized
Japanese civilization circa 250 BCE – 250 CE
known as the Yayoi period.
Yayoi Culture
• These people seemed to have been
heavily influenced by Han China and the
‘Korean’ kingdoms.
• They produced pottery using the potter’s
wheel.
• Practiced sophisticated rice cultivation
following a model that was probably
imported from the continent using
terracing.
Yamato Rulers
• Around the 4th century AD/CE the people
of Japan became much more heavily
influenced by the people from present day
Korea and China (post Han Dynasty).
• There is a spike in material culture that
shows that the Yamato rulers were a
warrior aristocratic clan that most likely
consolidated their power in the island.
Warrior Aristocracy of Yamato Japan
Rulers of Yamato Japan
• The Han court wrote that the rulers of the
Land of Wa were sometimes men and
other times women.
• Queen Himeko or Pimiko “Daughter of the
Sun” was recorded as having been an
extremely powerful and quite able ruler.
The State of Japan Myth
• The earliest written record of Japan’s
history (dated to 712 AD/CE) claims that
Jimmu, the first emperor of Japan,
ascended the throne in 660 BCE in the
Yamato region.
• However scholars think that although
Yamato political supremacy was not
consolidated until the late 3rd or early 4th
century CE.