Legend, to the 4th century CE · Legend, China, and the first kingdoms
Every country tells a story about where it came from. Korea's begins on a mountain, with a bear who wanted to become a woman.
According to the Samguk Yusa, legends written down in the 13th century, a bear and a tiger asked Hwanung, a son of the Lord of Heaven, to make them human. The tiger gave up. The bear endured a hundred days away from the sun, became a woman, and gave birth to Dangun, who founded Gojoseon in 2333 BCE. Historians treat that date as legend, not documented fact.
What is documented: a state called Joseon existed in the north of the peninsula by the 4th century BCE. In 194 BCE Wi Man, a refugee from the Chinese state of Yan, took its throne. In 108 BCE the Han emperor Wu conquered it and set up four commanderies in the north.
For about four centuries, part of the north was governed from China. The largest commandery, Lelang, lasted until 313 CE, when the Korean kingdom of Goguryeo conquered it. Beside it, new kingdoms had grown up: Goguryeo in the north, Baekje in the southwest and Silla in the southeast. This is the Three Kingdoms period.
Korea borrowed heavily from China. Buddhism arrived in Goguryeo in 372 CE, in Baekje in 384 and in Silla in 528. Chinese characters, Hanja, became the language of government, and Confucian ideas shaped how people thought about family and study. A large share of Korean vocabulary is still Sino-Korean. But Koreans kept their spoken language, their customs and their own states, and roughly a thousand years later gave Korean its own alphabet.
Next station: Ancient Korea.