A History of Korea by Jinwung Kim Read Free Book Online

Ye, who had been forced to yield to Wiman Chos ŏ n, defected to Han with his people, numbering 280,000. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Han sought to outflank Wiman Chos ŏ n by establishing the Canghai (Ch’anghae in Korean) Commandery in the Ye territory, located in the mid-Yalu and the Tongjia (present-day Hon) river basin. Two years later, in 126 BC , however, the fierce resistance of the Ye people dismantled the Chinese commandery, and the Han empire’s ambitious designs to weaken Wiman Chos ŏ n ended in failure. Around 110 BC King Ug ŏ of Wiman Chos ŏ n, who sought to profit as an intermediary in trade between Korean states and Han China, prevented the state of Chin, located south of the Han River, from direct contact with the Han empire.
    Bilateral negotiations failed to heal the breach between Wiman Chos ŏ n and the Han empire. At this critical moment a major crisis occurred. A Chinese envoy named Shehe, who had earlier been rewarded after killing a Wiman Chos ŏ n commander and fleeing back to China, was killed in retaliation by Chos ŏ n soldiers in 109 BC . The Han emperor Wudi, who had already engaged in aggressive military campaigns to crush Xiongnu’s threat, used this incident as an excuse to launch an armed attack on Wiman Chos ŏ n. 4 Wudi sought to neutralize Xiongnu’s power by conquering the Korean nation. In 109 BC he sent out 50,000 army troops and 7,000 naval forces to destroy Wiman Chos ŏ n. After suffering defeat at the beginning of the war, the Chinese sought to provoke internal strife within the Chos ŏ n ruling class. As a result, although Wiman Chos ŏ n fought hard against the Chinese invaders for a year, its resistance was weakened by internal dissension. Many high-ranking pacifists surrendered to Han, and one of them, Nigye-sang Sam, assassinated King Ug ŏ in 108 BC . Led by the high-level official S ŏ nggi, a hard-liner on the Chinese, the struggle continued for a time but could not be maintained indefinitely. Finally, after pacifists killed S ŏ nggi, Wangg ŏ m-s ŏ ng was taken by the Chinese. Wiman Chos ŏ n was devastated and replaced by four Chinese commanderies. For the first time in their history Koreans were placed under foreign domination. After Wiman Chos ŏ n was conquered by the Han empire, many members of its ruling class went south, greatly encouraging the development of the three Hanfederations. It appears that these refugees from Wiman Chos ŏ n established the Chinhan federation.
The Four Han Commanderies
    Immediately after destroying Wiman Chos ŏ n, the Han empire established administrative units to rule large territories in the northern Korean peninsula and southern Manchuria. In 108 BC it built three commanderies—Nangnang (Lelang in Chinese), Chinb ŏ n (Zhenfan in Chinese), and Imdun (Lintun in Chinese)—within the former domain of Wiman Chos ŏ n, and the next year it created Hy ŏ ndo (Xuantu in Chinese) in the former territory of Ye. The locations of these four Chinese commanderies have been interpreted differently, but one widely accepted version places them as follows: Nangnang in the Taedong River basin around Pyongyang; Chinb ŏ n in present-day Hwanghae province north of the Han River (the old Chinb ŏ n region); Imdun in today’s South Hamgy ŏ ng province (the former Imdun area); and Hy ŏ ndo in the middle reaches of the Yalu River.
    In the face of continuing hostility and stiff opposition on the part of the native Korean population, however, the Chinese conquerors soon found themselves overextended. A generation later the original four commanderies were reduced to just one, that of Nangnang. In 82 BC local opposition expelled Chinb ŏ n and Imdun, and the Han empire abolished both commanderies, attaching the areas under their jurisdiction to Nangnang and Hy ŏ ndo, respectively. Seven years later, in 75 BC , the newly emerging Korean kingdom of Kogury ŏ attacked the Hy ŏ ndo Commandery, expelling it far to the northwest, out of the