The History of Korea (vol. 1 of 2)Hulbert, Homer B. (Homer Bezaleel)
History
The History of Korea (vol. 1 of 2)
Hulbert, Homer B. (Homer Bezaleel)
Korea -- History
The important matter of revenue received early attention. A novel method
was adopted. All arable land was divided into squares and each square
was subdivided into nine equal parts; eight squares about a central one.
Whoever cultivated the eight surrounding squares must also cultivate the
central one for the benefit of the government. The latter therefore
received a ninth part of the produce of the land. Prosperity was seen on
every side and the people called the Ta-dong River the Yellow River of
Korea.
As a sign that his kingdom was founded in peace and as a constant
reminder to his people he planted a long line of willows along the bank
of the river opposite the city, so P‘yung-yang is sometimes called The
Willow Capital.
It is contended by not a few that Ki-ja never came to Korea at all and
they base their belief upon the following facts. When the Han Emperor
Mu-je overcame northern Korea and divided it into four parts he called
the people savages, which could not be if Ki-ja civilized them. The
Chinese histories of the Tang dynasty affirm that Ki-ja’s kingdom was in
Liao-tung. The histories of the Kin dynasty and the Yuan or Mongol
dynasty say that Ki-ja had his capital at Kwang-nyŭng in Liao-tung, and
there is a Ki-ja well there today and a shrine to him. There was a
picture of him there but it was burned in the days of Emperor Se-jong of
the Ming dynasty. A Korean work entitled Sok-mun Heun-t’ong-go says that
Ki-ja’s capital was at Ham-pyŭng-no in Liao-tung. The Chinese work
Il-t’ong-ji of the time of the Ming dynasty says that the scholars of
Liao-tung compiled a work called Söng-gyŭng-ji which treated of this
question. That book said that Cho-sŭn included Sim-yang (Muk-den),
Pong-ch’ŭn-bu, Eui-ju and Kwang-nyŭng; so that half of Liao-tung
belonged to Cho-sun. The work entitled Kang-mok says that his capital
was at P’yŭng-yang and that the kingdom gradually broadened until the
scholar O Si-un said of it that it stretched from the Liao River to the
Han. This last is the commonly accepted theory and so far as Korean
evidence goes there seems to be little room for doubt.
Ki-ja was fifty-three years old when he came to Korea and he reigned
here forty years. His grave may be seen to-day at To-san near the city
which was the scene of his labors. Some other places that claim the
honor of containing Ki-ja’s tomb are Mong-hyŭn, Pak-sung and
Sang-gu-hyun in northern China.
It was not till thirty-six generations later that Ki-ja received the
posthumous title of T’ă-jo Mun-sŭng Tă-wang.
The details of the history of K-ja’s dynasty are very meager and can be
given here only in the most condensed form.[A]
Footnote A:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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