Gojoseon grows, meets Han and falls

When the Han army came, Gojoseon won the first battle and then held out for about a year before Wanggeom-seong fell in 108 BCE.

After its legendary beginnings, Gojoseon steps into written history through Chinese records. By the 4th century BCE, textbooks say, it had become a league kingdom ruling a wide area that joined Liaoning and the north of the peninsula. That put it next to Yan, one of the Warring States of China, and the two clashed often. A Yan attack weakened Gojoseon for a time, but by the 3rd century BCE strong kings named Bu and Jun passed the throne from father to son, and below them served officials with titles such as sang, daebu and janggun. Gojoseon was strong enough to face Yan across the Liao River.

Wiman, the newcomer king

When China fell into turmoil after the Warring States, many refugees crossed into Gojoseon. King Jun let them settle on the western border, and one of them, Wiman, was given the task of guarding that frontier. Wiman built up power among the newcomers and, in 194 BCE, marched on the capital, drove Jun out and made himself king. Textbooks point out that when Wiman arrived he wore his hair in a topknot and dressed like a person of Joseon, so he was probably a Joseon man who had lived in Yan. He kept the country's name, Joseon, and many locals held high posts under him. For that reason historians see Wiman's Joseon as a continuation of the earlier state, not a foreign conquest.

Under Wiman and his successors Gojoseon took up iron in earnest. Iron farming tools raised harvests and iron weapons strengthened the army, and the kingdom brought surrounding groups under its rule. It also grew rich from trade: it stood between the Han empire and the states of the south of the peninsula, the Jin, and acted as the middleman between them.

War with Han

A rich, independent Joseon that controlled the trade routes worried Emperor Wu of Han. He sent armies by land and by sea. Gojoseon won the first clash decisively, and King Ugeo, Wiman's grandson, held out at Wanggeom-seong for about a year. In 108 BCE the capital finally fell and Gojoseon came to an end. Han set up commanderies on part of its land, but they met strong resistance from the people living there, slowly shrank, and Goguryeo drove out Nangnang, the most important of them, in 313.

Eight laws, three surviving

Gojoseon kept order with a law of eight articles. Only three survive, recorded in the Chinese history Hanshu. Each tells us something about the society: the first shows that life was valued and the state could punish by death, the second that people owned property and farmed grain, and the third that there were slaves and private wealth.

The laws also fit what textbooks say about Gojoseon society in general. Production grew, private property increased and the gap between rich and poor widened. Society split into a ruling group that handled politics and war and the people who farmed and made things, and the king had officials such as sang, daebu and janggun under him. A law that turns a thief into a slave only makes sense in such a world.