-Three Kingdoms Period! Lasts until the 7th century AD.
-Gogoryeo
-Baekje
-Silla
-Gogoryeo- we learn about Gogoryeo from the Samguk Sagi (written in the 12th century) and the Samguk Yusa (written by a Buddhist monk in the 13th century).
-King Taejo ruled Gogoryeo until 146 AD. He was then replaced by his brother, King Chadae.
-For some reason, King Chadae started off his reign by killing King Taejo's sons and then exiling one of his other brothers, and then making another brother commit suicide. Whoa.
-In one version (the Samguk Sagi), he was a shitty king because Myeongnim Dap-bu, his minister, killed him and there was also lots of civil unrest during his reign.
-So, King Chadae was replaced by King Sindae, who was either King Chadae's exiled brother or (one of) his son(s), it's unclear.
-According to the Samguk Yusa, King Simdae had both King Chadae and King Taejo killed. Therefore, because of these conflicting accounts, it's unclear which (or if any of it) is true.
-Meanwhile, the Han Chinese began to attack Gogoryeo between 169-172 AD.
-172 AD- Gogoryeo fought the Han Chinese at the Battle of Jwa-won.
-Gogoryeo forces were led by Myeongnim Dap-bu.
-Gogoryeo only had about several thousand troops, but the Han had like 100,000 (yeah right).
-Somehow, Gogoryeo won, but these numbers definitely seemed questionable since it wasn't even recorded in the Chinese history records.
-Chinese forces were led by Geng Lin, and they were from Han China's Xuantu commanderie.
-Before the battle, the Han had besieged Gogoryeo at a fortress in their capital, Guknae. However, they couldnt' take the city, so they retreated and then Gogoryeo attacked them at Jwa-won.
-To retaliate against the Chinese, Gogoryeo had formed an alliance with some Mongolian hordes, and began to attack!
-King Sindae died in 179 AD, replaced by his son King Gogukcheon.
- 182 AD- China attacks again! This time from the Liaodong Peninsula.
-Fought back and forth over some territory with Gogoryeo for a few years.
-Many would argue that either the Koreans were extreme badasses for repelling the Chinese. Others would say that the Chinese just really sucked. Most accurate theory would probably be that Han China probably just didn't care that much about Korea at that time enough to truly make an effort.
-The Han had a huge territory to manage and defend, and invading Korea probably just wasn't a big enough priority for them.
-King Gogukcheon was nice and a wise ruler according to the Samguk Yusa.
-He cared about poor people by implementing the Jindaebup system, which allowed for the peasantry to borrow grain to eat in the spring-summer, and then pay it back to the government in October during the harvest.
-He successfully managed to fight off the Chinese.
-He implemented a meritocratic system for selecting government officials, which did away with corruption and incompetence (or at least attempted to).
-King Gogukcheon died in 197 AD, and his little brother, King Sansang, replaced him. This pissed off King Gogukcheon's older brother, Balgi, who led a rebellion against King Sansang and had the backing of Chinese troops.
-However, King Sansang was able to crush the rebellion, and poor ol' Balgi committed suicide.
-Unfortunately, all was still not well. Gogoryeo was under attack again by the Chinese commanderies!
-Luckily for Gogoryeo, by 220 the Han Dynasty was collapsing and thousands of Chinese were fleeing to Gogoryeo to escape turmoil. King Sansang welcomed them.
-The four commanderies were left to their own devices and soon overrun by Chinese warlords (belonging to the powerful Gongsun family).
-Lelang was too big, so it was split into the Lelang and Daifang commanderies, respectively.
-The collapse of the Han Dynasty resulted in the classic Chinese historical period known as the "Three Kingdoms Period", not to be confused with the Korean "Three Kingdoms Period".
-Wei (North)
-Shu (Southwest)
-Wu (Southeast)
-The Gongsun warlords allied themselves with Wei.
-Wu tried to persuade the Gongsun warlords to join with them instead, but the warlords decided to play it safe and stay loyal to Wei, executing the ambassadors from Wu.
-Some of the Wu ambassadors escaped, however, and fled to Gogoryeo!
-Meanwhile, in Gogoryeo, King Sansang died in 227 AD and was replaced by his son, King Dongcheon.
-King Dongcheon decided to imprison the Wu ambassadors just in case Wei got pissed off that they were harboring potential political refugees.
-Apparently though, King Dongcheon wasn't too worried about a Wu invasion because they were far across the Yellow Sea, which was notorious for being a pain in the ass to cross.
-King Dongcheon then decided to execute the Wu ambassador as a sign of good faith towards the Wei and Gongsun warlords.
-237- For whatever reason, Wei and the Gongsun warlords broke their alliance, and Wei invaded Gongsun territory.
-Gogoryeo actually allied itself with Wei to help with their invasion .
-Wei managed to take over the former commanderies of Lelang and Daifang.
-All of a sudden, Gogoryeo realized that the petty Gongsun family had now been replaced by Wei, and that Wei was now greedily eyeing Gogoryeo territory.
-242- Gogoreyo decided to strike first!
-244- Wei managed to crush Gogoryeo, but according to legend, Yu Yu the Patriot saved the day!
-Yu Yu was a Gogoryeo commander who used trickery to assassinate the Wei commander before dying himself.
-This suicide mission caused the Wei army to be confused and easily attacked by Gogoryeo forces, driving them off, and recovering the lost territory.
-After this, King Dongcheon attacked Silla for some reason in 245, but then made peace with them before dying in 248.
-King Jungcheon, his son, was appointed king.
-259- Wei attacked Gogoryeo again, but were driven off.
-270- King Jungcheon died, and his second son, King Seocheon, took over.
-280- Barbarian hordes from the north, known as the Sushen people (ancestors of the Jurchen/Manchu), invade Gogoryeo. However, Gogoryeo was able to repel them and captured many of them as slaves.
-Meanwhile, Buyeo was still chilling to the north of Gogoryeo.
-Considered an ally and sister kingdom of Gogoryeo, composed of mainly Yemaek people.
-However, Buyeo was also friendly towards the Chinese.
-285- Buyeo is ravaged by the Xianbei (proto-Mongol) hordes!
-The King of Buyeo killed himself for some reason.
-The Jin Dynasty, a new Chinese empire that emerged in the aftermath of the Chinese Three Kingdoms Period, was friendly with Buyeo and helped drive off the Xianbei hordes.
-However, both Jin and Gogoryeo began to dominate Buyeo.
-290- Jin Dynasty plunges into civil war, lost control of the commanderies.
-292- King Seocheon dies. Replaced by his eldest son, King Bongsang.
-King Bongsang was a noob- arrogant, paranoid, and jealous.
-293- The Xianbei invade Gogoryeo!
-They were driven off, but invaded again in 296, driven off again.
-However, due to King Bongsang's incompetence, he executed many perceived political enemies and the Gogoryeo people hated him.
-There was a famine during this time, and King Bongsang continued to just build additional crap to his palace and be a cunt.
-300- King Bongsang was finally killed by his ministers in a coup, replaced by his exiled son, King Micheon.
-King Micheon was a badass, one of Gorgoryeo's best kings.
-Decided to invade the Chinese commanderies, restoring the old territory that belonged to Gojoseon.
-302- King Micheon invades and conquers the Xuantu commandery.
-313- King Micheon invades and conquers the Lelang commandery, and soon after that invades and conquers the Daifang commandery.
-316- China- The War of the 8 Princes- the nation was weakened, so they completely retreated from the Northern frontier.
-Among other things, they weren't able to help protect Buyeo, and Buyeo was invaded by Xianbei hordes.
-Gorgoryeo conquering the Chinese commanderies would have a huge influence on Gogoryeo (and the other Korean kingdoms)- Chinese art, culture, spirituality, and political theory would soon infiltrate the three kingdoms and Korean cultural consciousness.
-Meanwhile, the Xianbei hordes fought Gogoryeo in the west, and Baekje and Silla began to eye Gogoryeo's territory hungrily.
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