Capitals of Baekje: Gongju 1

For some historical context on Gongju, read my survey of Baekje capital moves first.

After the fall of Wiryeseong to Goguryeo (the kingdom which controlled modern day North Korea into China) in 475, Baekje moved it's capital south to Gongju (then known as Ungjin). Situated in the mountainous interior, Gongju hosted a revival of Baekje culture. In the summer of 2012, I took a day trip to Gongju to see what easily accessible historical sites and museums were present.

There are several things to do in Gongju: several temples, the fortress, the national museum, and the burial mounds museum. I was not able to visit the national museum, as I was there on a Monday, and I ran out of time to see the temples, but I did see the fortress and burial mounds. Below we'll look at the historical information about Gongju as well as how accessible the history is to an English speaking tourist.

In 475, Baekje was on the retreat. King Gaero had just died in the capital of Wiryeseong, which now lay in the hands of Goguryeo. Baekje was smaller than the other two kingdoms on the peninsula. Their success, and even their survival was built upon foreign trade. Both the northern and southern dynasties of China traded heavily with Baekje throughout it's history. Additionally, Baekje had considerable ties to and influence in Japan. The foundation of this trade was the Han River basin.

Modern Korea sees no foreign trade on the Han River. Though the river is perfectly navigable by large ships, the mouth of the river opens into North Korean waters. The deep water port of the capital is Incheon, not Seoul. But at the time of Baekje, that was not the case. The tidal basin of Incheon (with mudflats that stretch for a half mile or more) made a poor anchorage. Instead, trade came directly into Wiryeseong via the Han River. The loss of the Han River basin to Goguryeo threatened the very survival of the kingdom, something had to be done to stabilize the situation.

Ungjin (Bear Port) was selected by King Munju as the new capital in an effort to mitigate the disadvantages of Wiryeseong's location while maintaining active trade. Situated in much more rugged terrain, but along Geum River, the fifth longest river in Korea. The Geum river continued to bring trade to Baekje while the River and mountainous terrain combined to provide a much more defensible position. The first two kings to reign in Ungjin did little more than stabilize the kingdom. But King Dongseong (동성왕, 479-501) began to lead Baekje from recession through a marriage-alliance with Silla. After King Dongseong, King Muryeong (무령왕, 501-523) re-established consistent foreign trade by opening amicable relations with the Liang dynasty in China. This trade opening was the beginning of a second peak in Baekje culture which would eventually lead to relocating the capital to Buyeo, closer to the mouth of the Geum River to facilitate easier trade.

The most famous historic site in Gongju is actually connected with King Muryeong. Baekje royal burials involved the construction of a mound over a room. Seven such mounds have been discovered in Gongju and it is possible there are more. The first 6 mounds, numbered in order of discovery, were discovered by the colonial Japanese government between 1910 and 1945. Reportedly, these tombs had already been stripped bare when they were discovered, but there are other confirmed cases of Japanese archaeologists reporting digs had been looted to the Koreans while taking the artifacts back to Japan for private or national collections and most believe that is what happened to these 6 mounds. But the 7th mound was not discovered during this time. After the colonial period and the Korean war, the mounds were opened to the public. In 1971, while irrigation work was being done on mounds 5 and 6, the discovered the tomb. Very few intact Baekje tombs have been discovered, and King Muryeong's tomb yielded nearly 3,000 artifacts classified into 108 categories, a treasure trove of cultural and historical information.

The original tomb is not open to the public. The exposure to outside air was damaging the tomb. But a replica of the tomb (and of the other 6 tombs) has been created nearby. The descriptions and signage was in Korean and English, and the translations were good. We were also given a guide to explain the tombs as we went. Although most of what she said was on the signs, she was really helpful and eager to answer questions, though I would have preferred a more leisurely pace as we went through the exhibit.

In my next post, we'll look at Gongsanseong Fortress (공산성). I will have photos for that, as I was able to take some pictures there.

Survey of Baekje

The first series of posts I will be doing are details/travelogues of my trip this summer to Gongju and Buyeo, two of the three capitals of Baekje. But history is not, fundamentally, a list of facts and locations. These facts and locations fit within a story, they need context. So before I begin, here is a very brief survey of Baekje. This is simply the bones, I am not covering their cultural developments or contributions. There aren't a lot of kings listed here. This is simply to provide a very rough timeline of the capital moves made by Baekje and the reasons the moves were made. Perhaps in a later post I will cover Baekje in more detail.

Baekje (백제) was one of the kingdoms battling for supremacy on the peninsula during the 3 kingdoms period. Stretching from Mokpo to Haeju in North Korea and reaching inward towards and in some places across the mountainous spine of Korea, Baekje left a major imprint on Korean history, especially in the Southwestern portions of the peninsula.
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Baekje was founded in the Han River basin, growing from the Mahan confederacy, a coalition of city-states and chiefdoms from before the rise of kingdoms on the peninsula. The first capital, Wiryeseong (외례성), was either within Seoul city limits or in the adjacent city of Hanam, though we aren't sure exactly where. Modern day Songpa-gu (Near the Olympic stadium) has several remains of Earthen fortifications dating from that era which are believed to have been part of Wiryeseong.

Baekje first appears as a kingdom in Chinese records in AD 345 and it expanded strongly to the south and into the Gaya Confederation's territory (situation in the middle of the southern portion of the peninsula, around Busan) by that time. During the 3 kingdoms period, it allied itself with and fought against both Silla (신라) and Goguryeo (고구려), the other two kingdoms.

In 475 , Goguryeo invaded and destroyed Wiryeseong, forcing King Munju (문주왕) to move the capital south to Ungjin (웅진, modern day Gongju). In Ungjin, they experienced a cultural revival. Ungjin is located inland, amongst the mountains. It was closer to Silla, however, and so they forged an alliance with their Eastern neighbors. Particularly, King Muryeong (무령왕) oversaw a major revival in political stability and foreign relations.

In the midst of this revival, Silla power continued to grow to their east. Looking for some insurance against Silla aggression, King Seong moved the capital one last time to Sabi (사비, modern day Buyeo). Located on a navigable river, this allowed trade with China.

Ultimately, a coalition of Silla and Tang Chinese forces that defeated Silla in 660. Though several attempts were made to revive the nation, Baekje ultimately passed into history.

However, they did leave a large number of remains, most of which are centered on Gongju and Buyeo, the height of their cultural development. Most of those are accessible, either as originals or copies in museums, and all of the former fortresses in Gongju and Buyeo are largely intact and can be explored.

Over the next few weeks, I will post some of what I learned in my explorations of Gongju and Buyeo this summer, with photos.

Introduction

고래 싸움에 새우 등 터진다. ~ In a battle between whales, the shrimp's back is broken.

This Korean proverb summarizes Korea's view of its history. Seeing itself trapped between Japan, China, and (in the 19th and 20th century) Russia/the USSR, Koreans frequently felt they got the short end of the stick in their dealings with their larger and more powerful neighbors. The reality is somewhat more complicated. And, if you're a casual historian who doesn't speak Korean, it's almost inaccessible.

I've lived in Korea for nearly 3 years now, and I've developed a passion for Korean history. I always loved history, and I regularly read history books aimed at casual audiences (book of the same genre as Steven Ambrose's books Citizen Soldiers or An Army at Dawn). When I came to Korea, I started exploring the history of Korea, just as I did when I lived in Europe and America.

So when I went to 경복궁(Gyeongbokgung Palace, one of 5 within Seoul), I was naturally intrigued when I stumbled upon this.

Assassination? Japanese agents? That sounds like some fascinating history! So I went to the English bookstores here and scoured the shelves. I found shelves of books on Korean history, beginning in 1945. It was as if, for casual historical works, Korea didn't exist before the end of World War 2. There are some sources online, and over the years I've found a few blogs which cover Korean history, but few books.

There were some translations of scholarly Korean works. But scholarly language is very difficult to translate into a new language and most of the translations were slow, rough reading. There are books covering aspects of Korean history from the perspectives of outsiders, for instance A Dragon's Head and a Serpent's Tail, a book about Ming Dynasty's involvement in the defense of Korea during the Japanese invasion in 1592. There don't seem to be as many casual historical works of the type I was looking for which covered the era I was looking for. And none of those that I could find that were readily available in Korea (ironically enough).

So finally, last April, I decided to study Korean history in an effort to produce (at least online) the sorts of reading material I wanted to find about Korean history, but couldn't.

This is a long journey. Ultimately, I hope to earn a Ph.D in Korean History and study in depth Korean history before 1945, particularly the Joseon dynasty. Currently, I'm learning Korean and doing self-studies of various topics in Korean history. I'm opening this blog as a place to record what I find and, hopefully, interact with others who have the same interest in Korean history that I do.