Reconstructing Ancient Korean History by Stella Xu

Author:Stella Xu
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

Foreign Intervention: The Four Han Commanderies and Mimana

The Lelang Commandery along with the other three Han Commanderies was crucial not only to the history of Korea and the Sino-Korean relationship from the first century BCE to the fourth century CE, but also for premodern East Asian history. Lelang (K. Nangnang) Commandery was crucial to understanding the early history of Korea, which lasted from 108 BCE to 313 CE around the P’yǒngyang area. However, as a Han colony and given the exceptional attention by Japanese colonial scholars to argue in favor of the innate heteronomy of Koreans, post-1945 Korean scholars deliberately avoided Lelang.[164]

Although it has been long held that Lelang was located in the P’yǒngyang area, some extreme nationalist scholars contended that it was located as far as to the west of the Liao River rather than in P’yǒngyang, by attributing Lelang artefacts excavated around the P’yǒngyang area to an indigenous Korean state named Nangnangguk 樂浪國 rather than the Han Lelang Commandery.[165] The most recent studies on Lelang called for a more cultural and transnational perspective. Scholars argued that the installation of Lelang Commandery facilitated a wider and more convenient dissemination of Chinese characters, and simultaneously brought changes in the social and cultural dimension in the surrounding areas. Moreover, Lelang could be a case study of a regional development model, which could assist understanding of not only the 420 years of the Lelang Commandery, but also for a much longer period, about 700 years in terms of common understanding and recognition of Lelang power over the neighboring areas.[166]

There is little written and reliable archaeological evidence about the other two Han commanderies, i.e., Chinbǒn (C. Zhenfan) and Imdun (C. Lintun), mainly because these two commanderies lasted for only twenty-five years. The fourth one, Hyǒndo (C. Xuantu) Commandery has also been neglected, not only because of limited sources, but also because it moved westward twice and remained outside of the Korean Peninsula thereafter. However, the Hyǒndo Commandery was crucial because of its relationship with the Koguryŏ Kingdom. According to Hanshu, “After the Emperor Wu of the Han quashed Chaoxian, he made Gaogouli a county subject to Xuantu Commandery. Emperor Wu also invested musicians to Gaogouli.”[167]

However, there is scant information about the location, nature, and historical development of the Xuantu Commandery, not to mention its relationship with Gaogouli. This lacunae contributed to the present debate between Chinese and Korean scholars. Chinese scholars, especially the participants in the Northeast China Project insisted that because of the subjugation of Gaogouli to the Han Xuantu Commandery, Gaogouli had always been a Chinese vassal state.[168] In contrast, Korean scholars emphasized the independent formation of the Koguryŏ state, and the stiff resistance against the expansion and invasion of the Chinese dynasties contributed to making Koguryŏ one of the strongest empires in Northeast Asia. Despite its collapse in 668, Koguryŏ is remembered as one of the largest, most powerful, and most prosperous states in Korean history.

The most recent discovery of wooden tablets in North Korea shed new light on the history of Nangnang and Ko Chosŏn.

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