Читать книгу Asia Past and Present - Peter P. Wan - Страница 79

700,000 BCE	Humanlike beings appear on the Korean Peninsula
10,000 BCE	Paleolithic hunters and gatherers of the Old Stone Age
1500 BCE	Agricultural villages appear; rice cultivation introduced from China 1200–900 BCE
800 BCE	Bronze Age begins
ca. 4th century BCE	GoJoseon Dynasty established; centralized kingdom
3rd century BCE	Iron Age begins
200–100 BCE	Jin State emerges in southern Korean Peninsula
194–198 BCE	Wiman Joseon Dynasty founded by defeated rebel Han Chinese general at Pyongyang
109–108 BCE	China’s Han Wudi, the Martial Emperor, unseats Wiman Joseon Dynasty and sets up Four Chinese Commanderies
57 BCE–668 CE	Three Kingdoms
	37 BCE–668 CE: Goguryeo
	57 BCE–935 CE: Silla
	18 BCE–660 CE: Baekje
698–926	Northern and Southern Dynasties
	668–935: Unified Silla
	698–926: Unified Balhae
892–936	Later Three Kingdoms: Silla, Later Baekje, and Later Goguryeo
918–1392	Unified Goryeo, from where the English word “Korea” comes
1234	Metal, moveable‐type printing press invented
1270–1350s	Mongol conquest
1392–1897	Unified Yi Joseon Dynasty
1402	Paper currency in circulation
1424	Compilation of History of Koryo completed
1446	Hangeul, the Korean phonetic spelling system, adopted
1592, 1598	Toyotomi Hideyoshi attempts to conquer Korea but is defeated by Korean Admiral Yi Sun‐sin’s “turtle boats”
1627, 1636	Manchu Qing China invades Korea and turns it into a tributary state
1880s–1890s	China and Japan work to keep Russia out of Korea
1894–1895	Japan defeats China in the First Sino‐Japanese War, ending Korea’s tributary and protectorate status
1897	Yi Joseon Dynasty collapses; Korean Empire created

The earliest forms of agricultural society on the Korean Peninsula had emerged by 1500 BCE. Villages surfaced and grew into societies led by chieftains. In southern Korea, they engaged in intensive agriculture in dry and paddy fields, and grew a multitude of crops, such as millet, red bean, soybean, and rice. As was the case in other civilizations, bronze was only used to make weapons and ceremonial items, but not farm tools. Most of the population lived in rectangular pit‐houses, but walled cities were already appearing. Dolmen burial sites became increasingly elaborate and numerous. (A dolmen is a single‐chamber megalithic tomb for the burial of important persons. Over 40% of the world’s dolmens are found on the Korean Peninsula.)

Korean mythology has it that the first Korean state, often called the GoJoseon Dynasty, was founded in 2333 BCE by the son of the Divine Creator and a female bear in human form. Modern historians generally agree that the GoJoseon Dynasty became a centralized kingdom before the fourth century BCE. (Note: In Korean, “Joseon” means “Land of the Morning Calm,” and “go” means “ancient.” To combine “Go” and “Joseon” distinguishes this ancient Joseon dynasty from the Yi Joseon Dynasty of the fourteenth century.)