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Korean
History
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The roots of a nation's politics, economics, and society can often be seen as inexorably connected to culture. The culture of a people, society, or nation will affect it's behavior and reactions toward outside forces; seeing a situation or problem through the eyes of a certain culture can bring into existence certain options or answers which may be overlooked from another cultural perspective. Likewise, culture can often blind us to the possibility of certain courses of action. Korean history is about 5,000 years long. Each major period in Korean history is named and given a set of years. The major Korean periods are the Three Hans Period, the Three Kingdoms Period, the Unified Silla Period, the Goryeo Period, the Joseon Period and of course, the modern era. The Koreans are believed to have first inhabited the Korean peninsula around 18,000 BC - 13,000 BC. These prehistoric Koreans were hunter gatherers, meaning that they picked berries and plants and hunted animals for food. They constantly moved from place to place, which did not give them the opportunity to develop their own culture. They did, however, trade the the Japanese Jomons of Kyushu island (10,000 BC).
During Korea's bronze period, they began to develop agriculture. This helped the Koreans to settle down into communities. However, as communities settled, they were frequently invaded by other communities wishing to expand territory. Wars were constant during this period (1,000 BC) and during the Three Hans Period (named after Mahan, Jinhan, and Byeohan). However, there was some stability and the people began to develop their own culture, practices, particularly their ideas of beauty. A peculiar practice during the Byeohan Period was to take heavy iron blocks and to wear their on the forehead, flattening it. They also pulled out their adult teeth in ways they believed were beautiful. If the Three Han Period saw much war, the Three Kingdoms Period of Silla, Goguryeo, and Baekje saw even more war as kingdoms and rulers fought over territory and power. In spite of this, the Silla Period saw significant changes in thinking, politics, daily life. During this time, buildings with Korea's well-known tiled roofs were erected. Silla unified the Three Kingdoms around 600 AD. During this time Gyeongju was the capital. Gyeongju is still an ancient city that visitors can enjoy today. First introduced during the beginning of the Three Kingdoms Period, Buddhism flourished and became a mainstream religion and a major influence in Silla life (668-828 AD). It of course affected burial rites. At first, the Silla had cave-like stone chambers. The Tang Dynasty of China influenced burial grounds in that the people of the Silla built 12 stone animals, some kneeling and some standing, outside the tomb. However, with the influence of Buddhism, cremation became more popular. The Silla people would either toss the ashes over mountains, rivers or seas, or they would put them into a container and bury them.
This is a drawing of a royal ancenstral area. The royals are performing an ancestral ceremony. Click to enlarge. The ideology of 'Serving the Great,' was instrumental in shaping both Korea's political foreign policy and arguably Korean cultural identity. 'Serving the Great,' sought basically to pay tribute to China accordingly Korea's position in the relationship was in theory reduced to vassal status (in relative position but not in function). During the course of approximately 500 years of the Choson dynasty's history, many aspects of Chinese culture, such as Confucianism, and so on, were adopted or adapted into Korean society. But it would be wrong to say that Choson culture was not changing autonomously of China. Many specific styles of Choson thought were developed, as well as literature and arts. The former writing system, which used Chinese characters to represent sounds rather than ideas to form a very limited alphabet, was replaced with the invention of hangul, an alphabet which could perfectly transcribe all the sounds of the Korean language, whose creation was sponsored by King Sejong. With the fall of the Koryeo dynasty, the kol'pum, or bone rank class system disappeared and was replaced with an aristocratic lineage system known as Yangban . Only Yangban generally had the prerequisite education and knowledge to take and pass the Confucian examinations which led to official government positions. Thus, it was the Yangban elite which controlled most of Choson Korea's political, economic, and social policy. The Choson Dynasty had a varied and complex social fabric that kept intact centuries of Korean tradition. Class was largely hereditary in nature. Choson society was stratified by distinct social groups. At the very top of this social hierarchy were the Yangban who could be loosely classified as those who were eligible for high ranking government service due to passing civil service exams. They formed the elite of Choson society. The term 'yangban' was used to denote the dual role that the Yangban had in both the military and civil service. Yet, a dichotomy between Yangban families who specialized in between the munkwa or civil service exam and those who took the mukwa or military exam became pronounced. Under the yangban, were the class of translators, scientists, doctors, translators, administrative clerks, and so on. These, chungin formed the backbone of the bureaucracy with their technical expertise. These officials passed examinations on technical subjects known as the chapkwa. (C) Copyright 2006. All rights reserved. |
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