Buyeo, Kingdom of

The northern region of the Korean peninsula and Manchuria had been occupied by the nascent states of Buyeo, Goguryeo, Okjeo, Dongye, and other minor statelets after the defeat of Gojoseon by China's Han dynasty of China in 108 BCE.

Goguryeo's traditional founding date is 37 BCE, but it is mentioned in Chinese records as early as 75 BCE, or possibly even the second century BCE.

The little-understood state of Jin in the southern part of the Korean peninsula has given rise to the loose confederacies Jinhan, Byeonhan, and Mahan, or collectively, Samhan.

Jinhan, like the other Samhan confederacies, had arisen out of the confusion and migration following the fall of Gojoseon in 108 BCE.

Major agrarian rebellion movements against Wang Mang's Xin Dynasty, initially active in the modern Shandong and northern Jiangsu region, eventually lead to Wang Mang's downfall by draining his resources; this allows the leader of the other movement (the Lülin), Liu Xuan (Emperor Gengshi) to overthrow Wang and temporarily establish an incarnation of the Han Dynasty under him.

Chimei forces eventually overthrow Emperor Gengshi and place their own Han descendant puppet, Emperor Liu Penzi, on the throne, but briefly: the Chimei leaders' incompetence in ruling the territories under their control, which matches their brilliance on the battlefield, causes the people to rebel against them, forcing them to try to withdraw homeward.

They surrender to Liu Xiu's (Emperor Guangwu’s) newly established Eastern Han regime when he blocks their path.

The state of Goguryeo had been free to raid Han's Korean prefectures during the widespread rebellion against Wang Mang;  the Han dynasty does not reaffirm its control over the region until CE 30.

The rebellion led by the Trung Sisters of Vietnam is crushed after a few years.

Wang Mang had renewed hostilities against the Xiongnu, who are estranged from Han until their leader, a rival claimant to the throne against his cousin, submits to Han as a tributary vassal in 50.

This creates two rival Xiongnu states: the Southern Xiongnu led by a Han ally, and the Northern Xiongnu led by a Han enemy.

During the turbulent reign of Wang Mang, Han had lost control over the Tarim Basin, which is conquered by the Northern Xiongnu in 63 and used as a base to invade Han's Hexi Corridor in Gansu.

After the Northern Xiongnu defeat and flight into the Ili River valley in 91, the nomadic Xianbei occupy the area from the borders of the Buyeo Kingdom in Manchuria to the Ili River of the Wusun people.

The reign of Emperor Zhang, from 75–88, will come to be viewed by later Eastern Han scholars as the high point of the dynastic house.

Subsequent reigns will be increasingly marked by eunuch intervention in court politics and their involvement in the violent power struggles of the imperial consort clans.

Another of the loosely organized Korean tribal federations emerges, in 37, as the kingdom of Goguryeo, or Koguryo, based in southeast Manchuria in a region called Jolbon Buyeo, usually thought to be located in the middle Yalu and T'ung-chia river basin, overlapping the current China-North Korea border.

The Samguk Sagi, a twelfth century CE Goryeo text, indicates that Goguryeo was founded in 37 BCE by Jumong, a prince from Buyeo, although there is archaeological and textual evidence that suggests Goguryeo culture was in existence since the second century BCE around the fall of Gojoseon, an earlier kingdom that also occupied southern Manchuria and northern Korea.

The establishment of the Korean kingdom of Baekje in 18 BCE heralds the beginning of the Three Kingdoms period.

According to the Samguk Sagi, the founder of Baekje is Onjo, the third son of Goguryeo's founder Jumong and So Seo-no, who leads a group of people from Goguryeo south to the Han River basin.

According to the Chinese record San Guo Zhi, during the Samhan period, one of the chiefdoms of the Mahan confederacy was called Baekje.

According to the detailed account in the Samguk Sagi, Jumong had left his son Yuri in Buyeo when he left that kingdom to establish the new kingdom of Goguryeo.

Becoming King Dongmyeongseong, Jumong had two more sons with So Seo-no, Onjo and Biryu.

When Yuri later arrived in Goguryeo, Jumong promptly made him the crown prince.

Realizing Yuri would become the next king, So Seo-no left Goguryeo, taking her two sons Biryu and Onjo south to found their own kingdoms with their people, along with ten vassals.

She is remembered as a key figure in the founding of both Goguryeo and Baekje.

Onjo settles in Wiryeseong (present-day Hanam), and calls his country Sipje (meaning "Ten Vassals"), while Biryu settleds in Michuhol (present-day Incheon), against the vassals' advice.

The salty water and marshes in Michuhol make settlement difficult, while the people of Wiryeseong live prosperously.

Biryu then goes to his brother Onjo, asking for the throne of Sipje.

When Onjo refuses, Biryu declares war, but loses.

In shame, Biryu commits suicide, and his people move to Wiryeseong, where King Onjo welcomes them and renames his country Baekje ("Hundred Vassals”).

Under pressure from other Mahan states, King Onjo moves the capital from the south to the north of the Han river, and then south again, probably all within present Seoul.

The Xianbei reach their peak under Tanshihuai Khan (reigned 156-181) who expands the vast, but short lived, Xianbei Empire.

Tanshihuai was born in 141.

According to the Hou Hanshu, his father Touluhou had been serving in the Southern Xiongnu army for three years.

Returning from his military duties, Touluhou was furious to discover that his wife had become pregnant and given birth to a son.

He ordered the child put to death.

His wife replied: “When I was walking through the open steppe a huge storm developed with much lightning and thunder. As I was looking upward a piece of hail fell into my mouth, which I unknowingly swallowed. I soon found out I had gotten pregnant. After ten months this son was born. This must be a child of wonder. It is better to wait and see what happens.”

Touluhou did not heed her words, however, so Tanshihuai had been brought up secretly in the ger (yurt) of relatives.

When Tanshihuai was around fourteen or fifteen years old, he had become brave and sturdy, showing talent and ability.

Once, when people from another tribe robbed his maternal grandparent’s herds, Tanshihuai pursued them alone, fought the robbers and managed to retrieve all the lost herds.

His fame spread rapidly among the Xianbei tribes and many came to respect and trust him.

He then placed some laws and regulations in force, which none dared violate, and decided between litigants.

Because of this, he was elected supreme leader of the Xianbei tribes at the age of fifteen and established his ordo (palace) at Mount Darkhan.

He has defeated the Dingling to the north (around Lake Baikal), the Kingdom of Buyeo to the east (north of Korea), and the Wusun to the west (Xinjiang and Ili River).

His empire stretches seven thousand kilometers and includes all the lands of the former Xiongnu.

Tanshihuai according to the Records of the Three Kingdoms, regarded as the official and authoritative historical text on the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history covering the years 184-280 CE, divided his territory into three sections: the eastern, the middle and the western.

Uneasiness at the Han court about this development of a new power on the steppes finally results in a campaign on the northern border to annihilate the confederacy.

Tthirty thousand Han cavalry in 177 attack the confederacy.

The Han commanders are Xia Yu, Tian Yan, and Zang Min, each of whom had commanded units sent respectively against the Wuhuan, the Qiang, and the Southern Xiongnu before the current campaign.

Each military officer commands ten thousand cavalrymen and advances north on three different routes, aiming at each of the three federations.

Xianbei cavalry units commanded by chieftains of each of the three federations almost annihilate the invading forces.

Eighty percent of the troops are killed and the three officers, who bring only tens of men safely back from the front, are stripped of their commands.

Two other powerful states had meanwhile emerged north of the peninsula around the time of Christ—Buyeo in the Sungari River Basin in Manchuria, and Goguryeo, Buyeo's frequent enemy to its south, near the Yalu River.

Goguryeo, which also exercises a lasting influence on Korean history, develops in confrontation with the Chinese.

Puyo is weaker and seeks alliances with China to counter Goguryeo but eventually succumbs around 312.

Goguryeo is expanding in all directions, in particular toward the Liao River in the west and toward the Taedong River in the south.

In 313 Goguryeo occupies the territory of Lelang and comes into conflict with Baekje.

Peninsular geography shapes the political space of Baekje and Goguryeo, and a third kingdom, Silla.

In the central part of Korea, the main mountain range, the T'aebaek, runs north to south along the edge of the Sea of Japan (or, as Koreans prefer, the East Sea).

Approximately three-quarters of the way down the peninsula, however, roughly at the thirty-seventh parallel, the mountain range veers to the southwest, dividing the peninsula almost in the middle. This southwest extension, the Sobaek Range, shields peoples to the east of it from the Chinese-occupied portion of the peninsula but places no serious barrier in the way of expansion into or out of the southwestern portion of the peninsula.

This is Baekje's historical territory.

Goguryeo, however, extends over a wild region of northwestern Korea and eastern Manchuria subjected to extremes of temperature and structured by towering mountain ranges, broad plains, and life-giving rivers.

The highest peak, known as Paektu-san (Mount Paektu, or White Head Mountain), is situated on the contemporary North Korea-China border and has a beautiful, crystal-pure lake at its summit.

Kim II Sung and his guerrilla band will utilize associations with this mountain as part of the founding myth of North Korea, just as Kim Jong II will be said to have been born on the slopes of the mountain in 1942.

Unsurprisingly, North Korea will claim the Goguryeo legacy as the mainstream of Korean history.

According to South Korean historiography, however, it is the glories of a third kingdom that are most important in founding the nation.

Silla eventually becomes the repository of a rich and cultured ruling elite, with its capital at Kyongju in the southeast, north of the modern port of Pusan.

The military men who will rule South Korea, either as dictators or elected leaders beginning in 1961, will all come from this region, and most South Korean historians will consider Silla's historical lineage as predominant.

It is the Baekje legacy that will suffer in divided Korea, as Koreans of other regions and historians in both North Korea and South Korea discriminate against the people of the Cholla provinces in the southwest of the peninsula, but taken together, the Three Kingdoms will continue to influence Korean history and political culture.

Koreans will often assume that regional traits that they like or dislike have their origins in the Three Kingdoms period.