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.