Chapter 21 Chapter 7 A Hundred Years of Enmity

During the Han and Wei Dynasties, the northern part of the Korean Peninsula has always been under the jurisdiction of the Central Plains regime, and its direct administrative institutions are called the "three outer counties" - Xuantu, Lelang, and Daifang.The reason why it is called the Outer Three Commanderies is that they are all located on the outskirts of Liaodong, and they control from north to south: Changbai Mountain, Yalu River, Qingchuan River, Datong River and the area north of the Han River. After Goguryeo grew stronger, it gradually encroached on the Changbai Mountains and the upper and middle reaches of the Yalu River, and essentially occupied the old place of Xuantu County. Therefore, the Eastern Han Dynasty moved Xuantu County to the northeastern part of Liaodong, and failed to regain Xuantu from Goguryeo for hundreds of years. County Hometown.After Koguryo occupied Xuantu County, only the narrow lower reaches of the Yalu River remained between Liaodong and the two counties of Lelang and Daifang in the northern part of the peninsula.

Most of the Han people living in the two counties of Lelang and Daifang were immigrated or exiled from the Central Plains, and their proportion of the local population is not large. They may be able to occupy a dominant position in economy and culture, but facing the Goguryeo, which is becoming stronger in the north, and the Sanhan tribal alliance, which is gradually developing in the south (even a nascent country like Baekje), are in a very disadvantageous situation.Once the power of the Han nationality fades in the Liaodong area and Goguryeo takes the opportunity to occupy the mouth of the Yalu River, the two counties of Lelang and Daifang will become an enclave hanging overseas.

Some people also think that it is relatively easy to travel from the Shandong Peninsula to the Korean Peninsula by sea, and it is completely guaranteed technically.Although the words are good, but this is easy, we have to separate it: in peacetime, it is no problem to do business by sea and carry out a small amount of immigration activities; The army and supplies to go across the sea to support the second county? In the era of cold weapons where transportation and communications are underdeveloped, it is very dangerous to be alone overseas without national support.It was for this reason that South Korea was willing to give Shangdang to Zhao Guo; Mao Wenlong, a thousand years later, although the Dongjiang Economic Development Zone was booming, his core territory was actually only a small skin island.

AD 313 was an epoch-making year for Goguryeo. This year, in the Central Plains, Emperor Liu Cong of the Han Kingdom of the Huns killed Sima Chi, Emperor Huai of Jin, and Sima Ye, Emperor Min of Jin, was captured alive. In this year, on the Yangtze River, Zu Ti led more than a hundred tribes to travel on the boats and launched the Northern Expedition. In the Central Plains at that time, wars continued; in Liaodong at that time, Duanbu, Murongbu, and Yuwenbu were intertwined and disputed endlessly. The Goguryeo people's opportunity has come.The one who was in power at that time was King Mei Chuan of Goguryeo, the man who was later dragged out of the cemetery by Murong Han and used as a shield in front of the army.Seeing that the Central Plains were in turmoil and the Western Jin regime was out of reach, King Meichuan seized Xi'anping County (located on the north bank of the Yalu River Estuary today), cut off the land connection between Lelang and Daifang counties and Liaodong, and captured more than 2,000 people. famous people.

After cutting off the connection between Liaodong and the two counties of Lelang and Daifang, King Meichuan saw that the Western Jin Dynasty and the forces of various ethnic groups entrenched in Liaodong did not respond, so he came up with the idea of ​​Lelang and the two counties of Daifang, and continued to send troops south to nibble at Lelang. Lang County border.At the same time, in the southern part of the peninsula, Baekje also eyeed Daifang County on the north bank of the Han River, and often harassed the border of Daifang County. As a result, the lives of Le Lang and Dai Fang counties are very difficult, and they basically do not receive assistance from the Shandong Peninsula.

At the beginning of 313 AD, Goguryeo scouts reported that a team of tens of thousands of people was marching northward from Lelang and Daifang counties, aiming at the Yalu River.King Meichuan was taken aback. Could it be that Zhang Tong, who was entrenched in the second county, came here with a large army to seize Xi'an Ping County?King Meichuan hurriedly assembled the army, and then sent scouts to investigate. Soon, the scouts reported that there were men and women in the team, not like an army, but a huge migration team.King Meichuan finally breathed a sigh of relief. It seems that the news he got before is true—the Han people occupying Lelang and leading the second county of Fangfang are finally leaving!

These Han people are the descendants of immigrants who moved to the Korean Peninsula for hundreds of years in the Qin, Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties. They could not bear to fight Goguryeo and Baekje alone for a long time. Only then had to give up the land cultivated for more than a hundred years. They could not cross the sea to return home, but could only go to Liaodong by land. In the history of China and even Northeast Asia, this migration is insignificant and even neglected, but its significance is comparable to that of the return of the Turghut tribe during the Qianlong period—their departure marked the The official withdrawal of Han forces from the Korean peninsula marks the end of centuries of Han dominance over the peninsula.The stronghold of the Han regime in the Central Plains to control Northeast Asia has been reduced from the original two - Liaodong and the northern part of the Korean Peninsula to only one in Liaodong.

This is the sorrow of the Central Plains regime, and even more the sorrow of the Chinese nation. During the hundreds of years of the Han and Wei Dynasties, the Han people continued to move to Liaodong, Lelang, Daifang and other places, which not only brought sufficient labor force and production technology, but also allowed the advanced culture of the Han people to spread on the Korean peninsula.The immigration and development of the Korean Peninsula by the Han and Wei Dynasties greatly promoted the economic and cultural exchanges between the Central Plains and the Korean Peninsula objectively, and accelerated the civilization of the Korean Peninsula.

Due to the special land and sea locations of Lelang and Daifang County, for hundreds of years, in addition to serving officials, stationed soldiers and a large number of immigrants, many merchants and farmers also crossed the sea to form a rich and colorful Lelang culture. . In recent years, archaeologists have unearthed a large number of official seals of the Han Dynasty and various vessels of different textures and shapes in the ruins of Hansi County on the Korean Peninsula. On the front, there are more than 2,000 Lelang tombs in total.Lelang Han tombs are mainly distributed in Pyongyang City, South Pyongan Province, North Hwanghae Province, and South Hwanghae Province, and sporadically found in North Pyongan Province and North Hamgyong Province.

Most of the Lelang tombs are in the shape of a square platform with soil, which is a typical shape of tombs in the Han Dynasty in China.There are mainly two types of tomb structures: wooden outer tombs and brick chamber tombs. The specific construction methods, styles, and even the subtle patterns on the bricks are very similar to those of the Han Dynasty tombs.The types of burial objects in the tomb are also very rich. Among them, a very exquisite lacquerware was unearthed, which was named "Lelang Lacquerware", showing distinct characteristics of Han culture. Therefore, the two counties of Lelang and Daifang were undoubtedly the economic and cultural centers of the Korean Peninsula at that time.Due to the great attraction of advanced culture itself, Han culture not only affects the production and life of the soldiers and civilians in Lelang and Daifang counties, but also affects the economic and cultural development of surrounding areas, attracting the conscious efforts of Goguryeo in the north and ethnic minorities in the south of the peninsula. , Take the initiative to move closer to the Lelang culture, and form close economic ties with the four Han counties.

The economic foundation determines the superstructure. The leaders of the Sanhan tribe admired the Lelang culture, and then had great longing for the Han and Wei regimes.They traveled thousands of miles to the Central Plains to pay tribute to the Han and Wei dynasties.At the same time, the Lelang culture also drove the north-south exchanges of the Korean peninsula—the Goguryeo and Buyeo people from the north went south, and the Sanhan people from the south went north, realizing the exchange and integration of ethnic groups.Some tribes in the south are even directly mixed tribes formed by the northern residents who migrated south and mixed with the local aborigines. Although the Han culture still has a huge influence on the various ethnic groups in Northeast Asia, from that moment on, the Korean Peninsula, in the administrative sense, left the embrace of China.Whether it is Goguryeo or other indigenous peoples living on the Korean peninsula, since then, they no longer think that the Han people are the masters of this land. This migrating team finally came to the west of Liaoning, was accepted by the leader of the Murong tribe, Murong Xin, and finally became a subject of Yan State.Murongxin also specially set up Lelang County in western Liaoning to accommodate the people who moved back to Liaodong from Lelang and Daifang counties one after another.However, there are still some Han people who did not move back to Liaodong, but stubbornly stayed in the northern part of the peninsula, and continued to regard the Eastern Jin Dynasty as orthodox. King Meichuan did not prevent the Han people from returning to the country, but leniently let them all go.He knows that from now on, the Korean Peninsula will be Goguryeo's backyard, and the small countries in the south will submit to Goguryeo sooner or later. Occupying the mouth of the Yalu River, without the resistance of the Han army and civilians, Goguryeo's power control area suddenly expanded from the Changbai Mountains to both sides of the Yalu River and the rich Datong River Basin.From then on, Goguryeo used the homeland of Xuantu County as its base camp to encroach on Liaodong step by step, while operating the northern part of the peninsula, and began to advance to the southern part of the peninsula, gradually completing the transformation from an inland country to a peninsula country. At the same time that Goguryeo shifted its strategic focus, the tribal alliance of the Three Hans, which had survived and multiplied in the southern part of the peninsula, also made great progress.On the one hand, its development was influenced by Lelang culture, and it learned advanced production technology and cultural system from Han immigrants; Therefore, the development sequence of the Korean peninsula should be the central part (direct transplantation of Han culture) - north (mainly Koguryo culture) - south (slow development influenced by Lelang culture).This is in stark contrast to the level of economic and cultural development on the Korean peninsula today.I don't mean to belittle South Korea, but I think that the most important thing for a nation is to face itself, not to confuse right and wrong. With the development of Sanhan, three larger small countries gradually formed in the south of the peninsula (larger, compared to other tribes in the south of the peninsula; but in terms of area and national strength, they are still at the level of small countries), namely: 100 Ji - from the annexation of Mahan; Silla - developed from Chenhan; Renna - the earliest colony in Northeast Asia.Between the three small countries, there are also large and small city-states such as Gaya (Korea now has Gaya University), forming a buffer zone between them. According to the records of "Three Kingdoms", Gaya is an alliance of six tribes developed by the Bianhan tribe at the end of the 3rd century AD, centered on Jinguan Gaya.Qi Shu of the Southern Dynasties called it "Gara Kingdom, the Three Hans." Many ancient books divided the Gaya Union into several parts. "Koryo History" divides Gaya into Jinguan Gaya, Gunning Gaya, Feihuo Gaya, Alakaya and Xingshan Gaya.These Gaya tribes formed a federal political entity around the center of Jinguan Gaya, which is now Gimhae City, South Korea. Gaya is located in the rich Nakdong River Basin, connected to the sea and rich in iron ore resources.The Gaya people make their living mainly from agriculture, fishing, iron casting and trade.Both Gaya and Bianhan are famous for ironware.Gaya exported a large amount of iron ore, iron helmets and iron weapons to Baekje and Japan. He was the main exporter of Japanese technology and culture at that time, and maintained a good relationship with Baekje and Japan. Between AD 391 and 412, the Gaya Alliance collapsed under pressure from Goguryeo.However, the remainder of the Gaya Union remains politically independent.The Gaya Alliance centered on Dae Gaya (now Goryeong County, South Korea), and achieved a certain revival.As Gaya and Baekje jointly attacked Silla, Silla annexed the remaining city-states of Gaya in 562 AD in retaliation.Some Gaya survivors fled to Japan. Gaya's political and economic relationship with Japan is considered a contentious issue. In the 20th century, some Japanese used the controversial "Nihon Shoki" to claim that Gaya was a Japanese military station on the Korean Peninsula during the Yamato era.However, Japan at that time obviously did not have the ability to occupy Gaya and any place on the Korean Peninsula, so this view was generally denied in Japan.However, Japanese media still use this argument to justify Japan's annexation of the Korean peninsula during World War II. Since then, Goguryeo and Baekje have started a tug-of-war for nearly a hundred years in order to compete for control of the peninsula. In 342 A.D., the Yan army broke through the capital of Goguryeo, Marutusan Fortress, dug up the body of King Micheon, and captured the mother of the original king of the old country. Goguryeo surrender.In order to reduce the threat of Yan State to the capital, the original king of the old country moved the capital to Pyongyang.It can be said that Yan's strength is also an important reason for forcing Goguryeo to develop to the south of the peninsula. In 371 A.D., the second year after the former Qin conquered Qianyan, Baekje sent all its strength (30,000 troops) to the north and besieged Pyongyang.The original king of Goguryeo's homeland was killed by an arrow while defending the city, and his son, King Xiaoshoulin, came to the throne.As a result, Baekje won Lelang and the hometown of Daifang from Goguryeo, occupying the most developed area of ​​the peninsula. In 378 AD, Baekje once again sent troops to the north, all the way to the city of Pyongyang. In these two battles, the weaker Baekje took the initiative to attack Goguryeo.On the surface, the Baekje Northern Expedition was to prevent Goguryeo from expanding to the south of the Korean Peninsula; but in fact, Baekje launched the war to compete for the most economically and culturally developed and most populous Lelang and the hometown of Daifang on the peninsula.All this shows that at the beginning of the 4th century AD, Goguryeo had already controlled the Datong River Basin. In 388 AD, Goguryeo King Hotae, who had been on the throne for four years, sent troops south to fight a decisive battle with the Baekje Army on the Datong River.Retake control of the Daedong River from Baekje. In 396 A.D., King Haotai led an army to personally conquer Baekje and captured many cities in Baekje.The king of Baekje was forced to give up a thousand male and female slaves and a thousand pieces of fine cloth, and then surrendered to Goguryeo.However, this was just Baekje's expedient measure. As soon as the Goguryeo army left, Baekje repeated its old tricks and began to erode Lelang and lead Fang's hometown. The two generations of Goguryeo King Haotae and King Changshou led the army to defeat Baekje many times, driving the Baekje forces out of the Datong River Basin, and stabilizing Goguryeo's rule in Lelang and Daifang's hometown.Since then, the focus of competition between Goguryeo and Baekje has shifted to the Han River Basin in the middle of the peninsula. Lelang and Daifang cannot be regarded as colonies, because the four counties in the Han Dynasty were originally Chinese territory, and there was no such thing as a colony.It was not China that really created the first colony in Northeast Asia, but Japan across the strait. Before the Jin Dynasty, China had a unified but vague name for the Japanese archipelago-Wo.It was not until the Sixteen Kingdoms that a relatively large country appeared on the Japanese archipelago, named Yamato.Due to the harsh living environment and underdeveloped economy and culture, the Dahe country was a little stronger and began to cross the strait to attack Silla.According to the Goguryeo Haotawang Stele, the Yamato Kingdom crossed the sea to attack Baekje and Silla in 391 AD, occupied the old place of Bianhan (now Gyeongsangnam-do), renamed it "Imna", and built a "Japan government" to rule. At the same time, Baekje, which replaced Mahan and occupied the southwestern part of the peninsula, took the initiative to form an alliance with Yamato and became a tributary state of Yamato in order to fight against Goguryeo in the north and Silla, which was not very obedient in the east. So far, the old pattern of Northeast Asia dominated by the Central Plains dynasty has been broken, and a new pattern of Northeast Asia centered on the Korean Peninsula has taken shape.The ebb and flow of various forces on the Korean Peninsula has gradually become the focus of competition for hegemony in Northeast Asia.This rudiment lasted for several centuries, and it was not broken again until Tang Gaozong's period, which is a later story.