Download Chapter 11 (Early Korea and Vietnam)

Early Korea and Vietnam
Choson (“Land of Morning Calm”) – the earliest Korean kingdom
- The Korean people
descended from the hunting,
gathering, and fishing
peoples of Siberia and
Manchuria during the
Neolithic Age
- Choson (Old Joseon) was
the first major kingdom
-Choson was conquered by
the Han Chinese under the
Emperor Wudi in 109 B.C.E.
The Three Kingdoms Period
(37 B.C.E. – 676 C.E.)
• Emerged especially after
the decline of the Han in
the 3rd century C.E.
• The three kingdoms =
Koguryo (aka Goguryeo),
Silla, and Paekche
(aka Baekje)
• Kaya was a
confederation of citystates
Koguryo (aka Goguryeo)
-Tribal people of northern Korea and
southern Manchuria established an
independent kingdom no later than
37 B.C.E.
-Area was mountainous, with little
arable land
-Original tribes may have relied on
raids for food and other necessities
-Rulers early on adopted cultural
Sinification
-Sinification = extensive adaptation
of Chinese culture in non-Chinese
regions
-This kingdom eventually battled the
Southern states of Paekche (SW) and
Silla (SE); the Korguryo ruler failed to
form a Chinese-style state
United Silla Period (668-936 C.E.)
• Silla eventually formed an
alliance with Tang China to
defeat and conquer Koguryo
• While largely autonomous,
Silla became a vassal of Tang
China and paid tribute to it
• Silla’s capital, Kumsong, was
modeled on Chinese cities
• Buddhism became the state
religion
• Sinification only went so far;
because of aristocratic
opposition, Silla did not adopt
the Tang civil service exam
system nor did it redistribute
manorial lands to the poor
Koryo Dynasty (918-1392 C.E.)
-Chinese influence continued
-Founder of dynasty: Taejo Wang Kon (r.918-943)
-Wang Kon was able to reunite all of Korea in 935
C.E. (the Balhae people originally controlled area
north of the United Silla kingdom)
-Buddhism, then Confucianism played a major rule
in Korean culture
-Tripitaka, the three baskets of the Buddhist
canon, were first printed on wooden blocks in
Korea in the 11th century C.E.
-Unequal social structure; the chonmin, a class of
people at the bottom of society, included slaves,
artisans, and other specialized workers
-Civil service exam was introduced in 958 C.E.
Choson (Joseon) Dynasty, aka Yi Dynasty (1392-1910)
• The Mongols took over the northern part
of the Koryo kingdom in the 13th century
• General Yi Song-gye later seized power,
assumed the name Taejo (“Great
Progenitor”) and started a new dynasty
• Aristocratic dominance
• Official support for Confucianism
• Korean alphabet (Hangul or han’geul)
invented in the 15th century under rule of
King Sejong
• One of the biggest challenges: the Imjin
War (1592-1598), when Korea had to
fight off Japanese invasions directed by
Hideyosi Toyotomi
Early Vietnam
• According to legend, the
first kings, the Hung kings,
established a kingdom
called Van Lang (“Land of
the Tattooed Men”) in the
Red River delta in northern
Vietnam
• This society was
matriarchal and agricultural
in nature
• Some art (see e.g. bronze
mushroom drums)
Early Contacts with China
• The early Vietnamese peoples were subject to occasional
attacks from the north
• The Qin dynasty, e.g., raided Vietnam in the 220s B.C.E.
• The Han dynasty secured tribute from Vietnam; later, after
111 C.E., the Han conquered Vietnam and governed the
country directly
The Trung Sisters
-Leaders of a peasant rebellion in 39 C.E.
against Chinese rule
-Widows of nobles executed by the
Chinese, the Trung sisters were hostile to
the male-dominated Confucian codes and
family system
-The rebellion ultimately failed
-However, this rebellion inspired future
Vietnamese nationalists
-This rebellion also demonstrated the
importance of women in Vietnamese
society
Chinese and Indian influence and assimilation
•
•
•
•
•
For almost a thousand years the Chinese
ruled the Mekong Delta and the rest of
Vietnam, a land they referred to as
Annam (“the pacified South”)
By the early 10th century the Vietnamese
forced the Tang Chinese to grant them
control
Later, in 939 C.E., a new state was
established in the north, eventually
called Dai Viet (“Great Viet”); its main
city was Hanoi; its first main dynasty was
the Le dynasty (980-1009 C.E.); the Ly
and Tran dynasties followed
In the north, a bureaucracy modeled on
the Chinese system developed; however,
the Vietnamese scholar-gentry never
gained the power that that class held in
China
In the south, the kingdom of Champa
flourished; it was a trading society based
on Indian religious, political and cultural
traditions
Buddhist, Daoist and Confucian ideas
• Influence of Buddhist
monasteries strong
• Note also the “Temple of
Literature” (Van Mieu) –
a Confucian temple, it
was Vietnam’s first
university – founded in
Hanoi in 1076 C.E., it
lasted for over 700
years; aspiring
bureaucrats studied and
took a very difficult civil
service exam there
Political and military changes over the next few centuries
• By the 15th century
Champa had been defeated
by Dai Viet; Vietnam
expanded in the South
• Then, from the 16th
through the 18th centuries,
two separate ruling families
– the Trinh in the North
and the Nguyen in the
South, competed for power
• In 1802 Nguyen Anh and
the Nguyen family finally
triumphed
The Vietnamese language
-By the 15th century (if not
earlier), Chu Nom (“Southern
Characters”) or simply Nom, is
devised to provide a written
system for spoken Vietnamese;
it uses many Chinese characters
but is mainly used by
intellectuals; the peasantry
remains mostly illiterate
-Inasmuch as the Vietnamese
spoken language was unrelated
to Chinese, though, a new
written language using a Latin
script, Quoc Ngu, is created by
the 17th century; eventually this
syllabic script will replace Chu
Nom (see examples of Chu
Nom, Quoc Ngu, and English on
this slide to the right)
Social and Economic Life in Vietnam
• Women continue to have more
rights than elsewhere (see for
instance the law code of 1460)
• Bulk of population continues to
engage in agriculture, esp. ricegrowing
• Some urban development
occurs but community life is
mostly centered on the village
or hamlet