CHAPTER ONE - EARLY KOREAN CIVILIZATION
For a
number of weeks, we have been covering the emergence of important
characteristics of Western cultures as they developed through the late
BCE and early CE centuries. This Unit, we turn back to Asia;
we focus on introducing civilizations that emerged and defined their
distinctive characteristics during this same period.
In our discussion a number
of weeks ago about Asian civilizations and empires, we noted the continued
traditional focus in India
and China.
In particular, we addressed China's
ability to recover from a breakdown in central power, reestablishing a
powerful, unified state by 580 CE. China survived the turbulence of civil
war, reunited and achieved the cultural flowering that characterized the Sui,
Tang and Song dynasties. In large part because of this continuity, stability
and power, China was the
dominant civilization in Asian history; it was the cultural, economic and
religious center which significantly influenced neighboring civilizations in Korea, Southeast Asia, and Japan.
This influence was clear and evident in China's
relations with Korea and Japan. We
look closer at this East Asian civilizations in this Unit.
Recognize, East Asian
civilizations where manifestly traditional in their focus, however, significant
interaction and interchange did take place which significant impacted
developments in these traditional societies. China
was influenced by Buddhism adopted from India,
and was increasingly exposed to goods and technologies from the West due to Silk Road interchange. This week, as we look
briefly at early Korean and Japanese history, this pattern continues.
Both the Korean peninsula and the Japanese islands were fundamentally
traditional societies with strong native emphases; however, they also
benefited by borrowing from Chinese civilization. In fact, Korea and Japan are notable examples of the
ability to strike a successful balance between adhering to traditions, while
also exibiting the ability to absorb influential ideas and knowledge from other
cultures.
KOREA
Settlement in the Korean
peninsula dates back to the BCE period, however, civilization in this region reached
maturity in the early centuries of CE era. Korean developments were
powerfully influenced by geographic setting, in particular, its location.
Korea's
strategically important location played a critical role in its history, both in
its ancient formation and in recent times. Korea's history and
development was profoundly affected by the fact that it is situated between the
two powerful societies of China and Japan.(see map) Korea became a
crossroads territory - the cultural and physical link between China and Japan,
contributing to the richness in the development of Korean civilization, but
also resulted in long standing tensions and conflicts in Korean history.
The benefit of Korea's location is clearly that it was able to
engage in enriching interchange with both China
and Japan;
in particular, early in its development, Koreans were able to share in the
innovations and achievements of Chinese civilization. Korea then transmitted ideas from the Asian
mainland to Japan, providing
an important strategic link between Japan and Asian mainland
development. It was through Korea that Japanese civilization
was first exposed to ideologies and technology from the Asian mainland. Korea played an important role in the
cultivation and continued spread of ideas and knowledge learned from China such as
Confucianism and Buddhism. Korean civilization, then, was able to grow
and prosper due to its exposure to dynamic neighboring cultures, in particular China. It was
also able to play an influential role as the disseminator of ideas from the
mainland to later developing Japan.
The obvious disadvantage of
Korea's
geographic situation is that this civilization had to contend with the
aggressive growth of powers to the east and west. Throughout its entire
history, Korean civilization has had to maintain a complex relationship with
the Chinese state - the challenge was maintaining Korean independence in the
face of the expanding Chinese empire. Korean relations with Japan also became increasingly tense, especially
when Japan
achieved unification and greater power after the 16th century
CE. Korea's role
as a geographic pathway ultimately resulted in its conquest in the 19th century
by an industrialized Japan
as that civilization sought to take on a larger role in Asian politics,
including territorial expansion and empire building. A long and bitter
period of occupation followed. Korean history, then, dramatically reveals
the advantages and dilemmas of being a territorial and cultural pathway between
China and Japan. Given
these pressures, it is important to note that despite the constant threat from
these powerful neighbors, Korea
maintained its cultural distinctiveness, and even its political autonomy for
most of its history. This is an impressive and noteworthy achievement.
CHINA'S INFLUENCE
The growth of Korean
civilization, in particular in the early CE period, reflects a pattern later
seen even more dramatically in Japan.
Korean culture developed as a mix of Korean traditions that were strongly
maintained (for example spoken language) and other areas of the culture that
resulted from the merging of Korean traditions blended with the ideas
and knowledge borrowed from the older civilization of China. This
influential relationship is clearly evident in the first century CE.
During this period, Western regions in the Korean peninsula came under Han rule
and were increasingly exposed to the older and powerful traditions of China. Korea also was deeply influenced by China in the area of technology, absorbing
improved agricultural techniques and metals technologies from China. Ceramics techniques stand
out as an example of how Koreans took Chinese technological abilities and then
applied them, based on their distinctive cultural expressions, producing, for
example, the unique celadon
style of pottery.
A key Korean tradition was
a strong emphasis on family identity. Lineage, or family line, was a defining
feature of Korean life; the powerful land-owning elite held onto power through
firmly established family claims and connections. Clan identify and networks
were sustained through a focus on bloodline connections and knowledge of
genealogical history. The creation of large clans and clan loyalties was
in fact the traditional foundation for social structure and relations in Korean
society. This family-based focus included the practice of ancestor worship.
During the Han period, Confucian ideas spread from China into Korea from their neighbor to the
East. Confucianism, with its stress on family and tradition, resonated
and was readily adopted by Korea's
people, codifying and reinforcing already existing emphases on family
lines. (see explanation)
Existing Korean definitions of family identity and loyalty were thus reinforced
by the absorbed ideas of Confucian ideology, creating a blend which reinforced
the emphases on family name and obligations in Korean culture.
Korean traditional religion
was based on a polytheistic view of the world - a belief in many gods.
Connection to the gods was achieved through holy figures, shamans.
However, after the first century CE, connections with China resulted
in increased exposure to Buddhism, ensuring the continued spread of this
religion. Buddhism rapidly became an influential religion, and Korean-based
interpretations and schools of Buddhist practice emerged. (see discussion of Korean
religions) Daoist ideas also became an important import into Korea; these
beliefs co-existed and ultimately fused with already existing
"shamanistic" practices and beliefs, creating a new Korean blend of
nature-based religious beliefs. Koreans also borrowed knowledge in the
areas of Chinese medicine, cosmology and literature.
Culturally, the Confucianist attention to tradition and ritual became deeply
embedded in all aspects of Korean culture, for example as a foundation for the
Korean tradition of the "way of the tea".
The relationship between Korea and China established during the Han
period became even closer during the 6th and 7th
centuries. As China
re-established a powerful centralized state and enjoyed a cultural flowering
under the Tang and Song dynasties, Korean civilization shared in the economic
benefits of trade of the Silk Road and the vibrancy of this golden age in China. It was
during these centuries that the written language
of China was fully adopted
by Korea.
This was an extraordinary adoption (we see this again in Japan).
Instead of developing a written language that reflected their spoken
word, Koreans adopted - wholesale- the Chinese written character
system. This was in spite of the fact that the Korean spoken language is
very different from Chinese; Korean and Chinese are not products of the same
language family; Korean is not directly related to Chinese, it is a part of the
Ural-Altaic family of languages, a family line that includes Turkish, Finnish,
Mongolian and Japanese. So, Koreans maintained their distinctive spoken
language through oral tradition - their stories and songs - but used the
Chinese written language for their written records and works.
It is an indication of how
important a tool written language is, and how powerful and functional the
standardized Chinese script was, that the Koreans (and later the Japanese) were
willing to adopt this language, despite the difficulties of grafting a foreign written
language onto their spoken word. Korean civilization continued
to use Chinese characters as their written language until the 15th
century. Only then did they adapt a new written language that matched spoken Korean.
There is a very important
consequence of this diffusion of Chinese written language for Asian history.
Since Korean, Japanese and to some degree other Southeastern civilizations used
either the entire character system or parts of it, Chinese written language
became the "universal language" of East Asia,
providing a means of communication between all these societies for
centuries. Those who could not understand each other at the level of the
spoken word could, in a lyrical phrase, communicate through the "brush
language" of characters. To some degree, this cross-cultural
communication at the written level continues to the present day.
Another area where Chinese
influence was clearly seen was in Korean politics. By the 4th
century CE (300's), structured, centralized monarchies emerged in the Korean
peninsula which were modeled on the Chinese bureaucratic state. Between 300 -
668 CE, three prominent kingdoms emerged - Paekche, Koguryo and Shilla; in
addition, a confederation of smaller kingdoms existed in the south called
Kaya. By 676 CE, all of these kingdoms were unified under one the Shilla
leadership. (see
summary) Tang Dynasty leaders developed a complex foreign policy
with the emerging Korean state - in fact China
aided the Shilla leaders in their efforts to unify Korea. At the same time, China used
Korean political competition as an opportunity to annex some of its
territories. China,
always, was teacher, trading partner, and at the same time potential invader in
its relations with Korean society.
The creation of formalized
Korean monarchies, set in motion through contact with China, used bureaucratic elements directly
borrowed from China
including a Confucian basis of rule and ritual in government, a
university system based on the Chinese educational model, and even an examination
system emphasizing classical knowledge. Recognize, much of what was taught
in the adopted educational system and texts was Confucianism and Chinese
traditional material. The political state(s) that emerged, specifically
the kingdom of Shilla, did prove powerful enough to
stave off outright Chinese absorption and conquest, despite incursions by Tang
leaders. The emerging Korean state and kingdom was a tribute state to China, but
retained its political independence.
MAINTAINING A
BALANCE
A brief look at Korean
civilization reveals a society that was able to maintain important traditions
such as a social order based on lineage, as well as its own spoken language and
thus the oral traditions/literature rooted in this language. Cultural
integrity of traditional Korean society remained visible and intact in other
areas, such as music and artistic traditions such as ceramics. In the areas of
scholarship, religion and politics, however, the imprint of China is clear.
Korean civilization was impacted by the diffusion of Chinese
culture.
A major achievement of
Korean society was to be able to maintain centuries of independence and a
distinct cultural identity in a situation with tremendous potential and chronic
threat of invasion. Only in recent centuries did Korea finally fall under the rule/
domination of its more powerful neighbors. During the period we are
investigating in this course (up to 1500 CE), Korea remained free of outright
disruptive invasion and conquest. Despite the challenge of its geographic
position, it remained independent while at the same time benefiting from the
cultural network and interchange of Asian societies.
Korea's also played an historically
significant role as an avenue for the further expansion of Chinese culture and
influences. It was through Korea that the later developing
Japanese civilization was first introduced to Confucian ideas, Buddhism and the
Chinese written language. And, as we turn to Japan, we see a parallel example of
the attempt to reconcile tradition with the adoption of useful and attractive
foreign/Chinese ideas.
Interesting Related Web
Sites
Hidden Korea - PBS page
Korean History Project
Korean History -
Links
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