Gija Joseon

Gija Joseon (?–194 BC) describes the period after the alleged arrival of Gija in the northwest of Korean peninsula. It was considered by most of the Chinese and the Korean scholars as a part of the Gojoseon period (2333?–108 BC) of Korean history. Today, it is generally rejected as a later embellishment in Korea.　Gija was Chinese.

Understanding before 20th century

Chinese records before the 3rd century BC describe Gija (箕子) as the paternal uncle (or brother in other records) of the last emperor of the Chinese Shang Dynasty, the tyrannical King Zhou, but contain no mention of his relationship with Gojoseon. Gija was imprisoned by the tyrant until the downfall of Shang Kingdom, when King Wu of Zhou released him.

Records written after the 3rd century BC, when China and Gojoseon were at war, add that Gija led 5,000 to east of present-day Beijing, as written in the Geography of Hanshu from Han Dynasty (though some, especially in China, believe him to have moved to present-day Korea), and became the king of Gija Joseon.

Joseon

The Kingdom of Joseon (Chosŏn'gŭl: 대조선국; hancha: 大朝鮮國, literally "Great Joseon State"; also Chosŏn, Choson, Chosun) was a Korean kingdom founded by Yi Seonggye that lasted for approximately five centuries, from July 1392 to October 1897. It was officially renamed the Korean Empire in October 1897. It was founded following the aftermath of the overthrow of Goryeo in what is today the city of Kaesong. Early on, Korea was retitled and the capital was relocated to modern-day Seoul. The kingdom's northernmost borders were expanded to the natural boundaries at the Yalu and Tumen Rivers through the subjugation of the Jurchens. Joseon was the last dynasty of Korea and its longest-ruling Confucian dynasty.

During its reign, Joseon encouraged the entrenchment of Chinese Confucian ideals and doctrines in Korean society. Neo-Confucianism was installed as the new dynasty's state ideology. Buddhism was accordingly discouraged and occasionally faced persecutions by the dynasty. Joseon consolidated its effective rule over the territory of current Korea and saw the height of classical Korean culture, trade, science, literature, and technology. However, the dynasty was severely weakened during the late 16th and early 17th centuries, when the Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–98) and the first and second Manchu invasions of 1636 nearly overran the Korean Peninsula, leading to an increasingly harsh isolationist policy for which the country became known as the "hermit kingdom". After the end of invasions from Manchuria, Joseon experienced a nearly 200-year period of peace.

Joseon (disambiguation)

Joseon was a Korean kingdom between 1392 and 1897.

Joseon, Chosŏn, Choseon or Chosun may also refer to:

See also