Dangun (Tangun)

Assignment #1

INTELLECTUAL CURRENTS IN EAST ASIA (KOREA)

Dangun (Tangun)

Jubika Khanna

Intellectual Currents in East Asia

M.A East Asian Studies

Semester II

Koreans call their country Choson, literally “morning freshness” or more familiarly, “The Land of the Morning Calm”. The Koreans are an ancient & homogeneous people, whose ancestors originally originated from Central Asia & Manchuria. Korean history extends back to over 5000 years. From the unified Silla Kingdom of the 7th century to 1945, Korea was one country. Thus, neither the long centuries of domination by imperial China nor the modern annexation by Japan from 1910 to 1945 has affected the feeling that Koreans belong to a distinct people. Neither has the division of Korea between North & South since 1945 removed the feeling that Korea remains one country. Despite the country’s indigenous name, the history of Korea has been anything but calm, with successive invasions by the Chinese, Japanese & the Mongols.

Like most Asian nations, Korea has a myth about the origins of their own people. The Korean myth is that of Dangun. Dangun has survived over the centuries because its sacred message continues to unite people. Dangun is Korea’s most treasured myth. It is the myth of its own creation from an existing earth & humans already living upon it. Hwanung is an important figure in the mythological origins of Korea. He is the legendary founder of Gojoseon, the first kingdom of Korea, which is believed to have been founded in 2333 BC. Hwanung was the son of Hwanin, the “Lord of Heaven”.

Dangun was the mythical founder of Choson, the earliest known Korean state, which was conquered by the Chinese emperor Han Wudi in 108, BCE. Little is known for certain about this shadowy early state. It appears to have existed, as early as 300 BCE. And to have been centered in Northwestern...