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
Swords, arrows and spears were their common weapons. A widow usually
became the wife of her dead husband’s brother. When a great man died it
was common to bury one or more men alive with his body. The statement
that sometimes as many as a hundred were killed is probably an
exaggeration. These characteristics were those of the Nang-nang people
as well as of the rest of Ko-gu-ryŭ. The highest official grades were
called Sang-ga-dă, No-p’ă, Ko-ju-dă. Some say their official grades were
called by the names of animals, as the “horse grade” the “dog grade” the
“cow grade.” There were special court garments of silk embroidered with
gold and silver. The court hat was something like the present _kwan_ or
skull-cap. There were few prisoners. If a man committed a crime he was
summarily tried and executed, and his wife and children became slaves.
Thieves restored twelve-fold. Marriage always took place at the bride’s
house. The dead were wrapped in silks and interred, and commonly the
entire fortune of the deceased was exhausted in the funeral ceremony.
The bodies of criminals were left unburied. The people were fierce and
violent and thieving was common. They rapidly corrupted the simpler and
cleaner people of the Ye-măk and Ok-jŭ tribes.
No sooner had Chu-mong become firmly established in his new capital than
he began to extend the limits of his kingdom. In 35 B.C. he began a
series of conquests which resulted in the establishment of a kingdom
destined to defy the power of China for three quarters of a millennium.
His first operations were against the wild people to the east of him.
The first year he took Pu-ryu on the Ya-lu, then in 29 B.C. he took
Hăng-in, a district near the present Myo-hyang San. In 27 B.C. he took
Ok-jŭ, thus extending his kingdom to the shore of eastern Korea. In 23
B.C. he learned that his mother had died in far off Pu-yŭ and he sent an
embassy thither to do honor to her.
The year 18 B.C. beheld the founding of the third of the great kingdoms
which held the triple sceptre of Korea, and we must therefore turn
southward and examine the events which led up to the founding of the
kingdom of Păk-je.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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