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The people of Ko Choson or the oldest kingdom of Korea are recorded as Tong-i, "eastern bowmen" or "eastern barbarians." The propagated in Manchuria, the eastern littoral of China, areas north of the Yangtze River, and the Korean Peninsula. The eastern bowmen had a myth in which the legendary founder Tan-gun was born of a father of heavenly descent and a woman from a bear-totem tribe. He is said to have started to rule in 2333 B.C., and his descendants reigned in Choson, the "Land of Morning Calm," for more than a millennium.
When the Zhou people pushed the Yin, the eastern bowmen moved toward Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula for better climactic conditions.  They seem to have maintained unity, as China's great sages, Confucious and Mencius, praised their consangquineous order and the decorum of their society.
The eastern bowmen on the western coast of the Yellow Sea clashed with the Zhou people during China's period of warring states (475 B.C. - 221 B.C.). This led them to move toward southern Manchuria and the Korean Peninsula.
There were other tribes of eastern bowmen, the Yemaek on the Manchurian area and the Han on the Korean Peninsula, all of whom belonged to the Tungusic family and linguistically affiliated with the Altaic. When Yin collapsed, Kija, a subject of the Yin state, entered Tan-gun's domain and introduced the culture of Yin around the 11th century B.C.
Then came invasion of Yen in the northeastern sector of China, and Ko Choson lost the territories west of the Liao River in the third century B.C. By this time, iron culture was developing and the warring states pushed the refugees eastward.
Among the immigrants, Wiman entered the service of Ko Choson as military commander with a base on the Amnokkang (Yalu) river. He drove King Chun to the south and usurped power. But in 109 B.C. the Han emperor Wu-ti dispatched a massive invasion by land and sea to Ko Choson in the estuary of the Liao River. Ko Choson was defeated after two years and four Chinese provincial commands were set up in southern Manchuria and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Not long after the establishment of the four commanderies, however, the Korean attacks became fierce and the last of the commanderies, Lolang (Korean: Nangnang) was destroyed by Koguryo in 313.
Korea
10 things about "Korea" :
1 Korea.net : The official website of the Republic of Korea Portal site run by governmental agency, Korea Information Service (KOIS). Web directory, news, and facts about the country.2 Korea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Korea is a geographic area, civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. It borders China to the west and Russia to the north, with Japan ... 3 South Korea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often referred to as Korea (Korean: ????, IPA: [t??.han.min.?uk?], Hanja: ????), listen (help · info ... 4 Korea.net : The official website of the Republic of Korea Joseon painters bring crowds to Gansong Museum: Early into the second day of Gansong Art Museum's long-awaited fall exhibition, visitors continue to crowd the first and second ... 5 Korea.net : The official website of the Republic of Korea Seoul Marginal Theater Festival established as Korea's ... The 11th Seoul Marginal Theater Festival opened in Daehangno, Dongsung-dong, Seoul on Thursday (Nov. 6).7 Gateway to Korea Farmers pay hidden cost of subsidy scandal: GIMPO, Gyeonggi - On a recent autumn day, 45-year-old Jo Jong-dae, who has been farming for 27 years, showed no hesitation to rail at ...  ... 10 The Official Webpage of The Democratic People's Republic of Korea ... Official site of the Korean Friendship Association, offering brief information about North Korean society and culture. Other language versions of the site are available. ...
This article is about the Korean civilization. For the modern political entities, see North Korea and South Korea. For other uses, see Korea (disambiguation).
| Korea |
|
|
| Largest conurbation (population) |
Seoul |
| Official languages |
Korean (Hangul) |
| Area |
| - |
Total |
223,170 km² (84th if reunified)
85,020 sq mi |
| - |
Water (%) |
2.8 |
| Population |
| - |
2007 estimate |
72,014,000 (17th if reunified) |
| - |
Density |
328.48/km²
850.7/sq mi |
| Currency |
Won (â‚©) (N/S) |
| Time zone |
KST (UTC+9) |
Entrance to Gyeongbokgung
Joseon dynasty royal throne
Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. It borders China to the north-west and Russia to the east, with Mongolia situated farther to the west, and Japan to the east. The Korean Peninsula is divided into two separate states, North Korea and South Korea.
According to Samguk Yusa, the history of Korea began with the founding of Gojoseon in 2333 BC by the legendary Dangun. Limited linguistic evidence suggests probable Altaic origins of these people, whose northern Mongolian steppe culture absorbed migration and trade with the peoples of Manchuria and China. The adoption of the Chinese writing system ("Hanja" in Korean) in the 2nd century BC, and Buddhism in the 4th century AD, had profound effects on the Three Kingdoms of Korea. Baekje later passed on a modified version of these cultural advances to Japan.[1][2][3][4]
Since the Goryeo Dynasty, Korea was ruled by a single government and maintained political and cultural independence until the nineteenth century, despite the Mongol invasions of the Goryeo Dynasty in the 13th century and Japanese invasions of the Joseon Dynasty in the 16th century. In 1377, Korea produced the Jikji, the world's oldest existing document printed with movable metal type.[5] In the 15th century, the turtle ships, possibly the world's first ironclad warships, were deployed, and King Sejong the Great promulgated the Korean alphabet Hangul to increase literacy among his people who could neither read nor write Hanja (Chinese characters).
During the latter part of the Joseon Dynasty, Korea's isolationist policy earned it the Western nickname the "Hermit Kingdom". By the late 19th century, the country became the object of the colonial designs of Japan and Europe. In 1910, Korea was forcibly annexed by Japan and remained occupied until the end of World War II in August 1945.
In 1945, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed on the surrender and disarming of Japanese troops in Korea; the Soviet Union accepting the surrender of Japanese weaponry north of the 38th parallel and the United States taking the surrender south of it. This minor decision by allied armies soon became the basis for the division of Korea by the two superpowers, exacerbated by their inability to agree on the terms of Korean independence. The two Cold War rivals then established governments sympathetic to their own ideologies, leading to Korea's current division into two political entities: North Korea and South Korea.
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