SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Information concerning the origin and early development of the mediaeval Korean kingdom of Koguryo is found in a variety of ancient sources, - brief accounts in the Chinese dynastic histories, occasional references in various other Chinese works, legendary material retold in Sino-Korean chronicles of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and a very few early inscriptions. So far, although much work has been done, notably by Japanese scholars from 1911 to the present day, in analysing individual aspects of this material or in examining particular sources no attempt has been made to write any kind of continuous history of the beginnings of Koguryo. The present study tries to remedy this deficiency, bringing together what is known or can be surmised concerning the early development of Koguryo until that kingdom succeeded in overrunning the last Chinese commanderies in Korea in 313 A.D. In the course of this synthesis, occupying chapters four to fifteen of the thesis, and dealing in roughly chronological order with various phases in the development of Koguryo, the ancient sources are compared and analysed, with the object of throwing new light on the early history of the kingdom. However, owing to the limitations of the available source material, it is still scarcely possible to do more than trace the changing relations of Koguryo with China; for other aspects of the early history of Koguryo - social, economic, cultural - nothing more can be done than to offer a few suggestions based on the rare indications of the Chinese sources. Three introductory chapters set the rise of Koguryo in perspective by listing the early sources and summarizing the historical background in Korea - the Chinese conquest of 108 B.C. and the establishment of the commaderies. These factors must inevitably be taken into consideration in any account of early Koguryo, which grew in power as the commanderies themselves declined.