Han Commanderies in Korea

Han Chinese Commanderies in Korea

“In 108 B.C. Han China established the three commanderies of Lo-Lang [called lelang and Luolang – see pp. 70-71 of our text – between the Yalu and Taedong River in North Korea], Chen-fan, and Lin-t’un within the former domain of Wiman Chosǒn [ca. began around the 2nd century BCE - from the Yalu River to P’yōngyang], which has been subjugated in that same year, and in the next year completed the formation of the so-called Four Chinese commanderies by creating Hsuan-t’u [Xuantu] in the former territory of the Ye [the northern part of North Korea]. The locations of these Chinese administrative units are not precisely known, but one widely accepted view places them as follows: Lo-lang (Korean: Nangnang) in the Taedong river basin area of Old Chosǒn; Chen-fan (Korean: Chinbǒn) in the former Chinbǒn region from the Chabi Pass south to the Han River; Lin-t’un (Korean: Imdun) in the old Imdun area of southern Hamgyǒng province; and Hsuan-t’u (Korean: Hyǒndo) in the Ye territory spanning the middle reaches of the Yalu and T’ung-chai river basin. According to this theory the territorial extent of the Four Chinese Commanderies was limited to the area north of the Han River, thus leading to the interesting conclusion that they were designed to administor four distinct and integral socio-political entities.

Whatever the case, it is clear that Han China was forced by the opposition of the local populations to make major adjustments in the boundaries of each of these four administrative units. Only twenty-five years after they had been established, Han China abolished both Chen-fan and Lin-t’un, attaching the areas under their jurisdiction to Lo-lang and Hsuan-t’u respectively (82 BC). But at the same time some of the more remote districts presumably had to be abandoned. Less than a decade later, in 75 BC, Han moved Hsuan-t’u Commandery far to the west, out of the former Ye territory to a region centering on modern Hsing-ching in east-central Manchuria. This likely was occasioned by clashes with the growing power of the emerging Koguryǒ state. In consequence, jurisdiction over areas that originally had come under Lin-t’un Commandery now was transferred from Hsuan-t’u to Lo-lang.

Nor could Lo-lang itself enjoy uninterrupted tranquility in the administration of its territory. At the beginning of the Later Han dynasty a revolt occurred led by Wang T’iao, a powerful member of the Lo-lang gentry. This was suppressed in 30 AD by Wang Tsun, the newly arrived governor of Lo-lang, but it had significant repercussions. It was around this time that the Korean Han societies in the region of the Chin state south of the Han River began to display new vigor, and from this point on many people of Old Chosǒn who had come under the rule of Lo-lang sought refuge there. The growing strength of these societies eventually evoked a response from the Kung-sun rulers of the Liao-tung region (where they had created an independent domain at the end of the Later Han dynasty), who established a new commandery, Tai-fang (Korean: Taebang), in the area south of Lo-lang formerly administered by the Chen-fan Commandery (ca. 204 AD). In 313, however, Lo-lang fell to Koguryǒ pressure and at about the same time Tai-fang disappeared at Paekche expanded its frontiers northward.

Lo-lang was the core area in which Chinese colonial policy in Korea was carried out. As its administrative center the Chinese built what was in essence a Chinese city where the governor, the officials under him, merchants, and many other Chinese colonists came to live. Their way of life in general can be surmised from the investigation of remains unearthed at T’osǒng-ni, across the Taedong River to the southwest of P’yǒngyang where the administrative center Lo-lang is thought to have been located. The richness of the life style of these Chinese officials, merchants, and others who enjoyed the status of colonial overlords in Lo-lang’s capital is plainly evident in the variety of burial objects that have been found in the wooden and brickwork tombs in which these Chinese were interred. Although some of these objects were made locally in Lo-lang, for the most part they were brought in from China. Accordingly, the culture of Lo-lang was a Chinese culture, and from the standpoint of those who produced and used these burial objects, this culture had no connection whatever with the people of Old Chosǒn who now were under Chinese rule.

Despite the sumptuousness of Lo-lang’s colonial administrative center, China’s colonial policy does not seem to have been marked by severe political repression. Living among themselves apart from the native Old Chosǒn populace, it may be conjectured that the Chinese were content to exercise a certain degree of control while permitting substantial political freedom to the people they governed. On the other hand, it would appear that the impact of the Chinese administration on the economic life of the native population was substantial. Records of the mobilization of 1,500 people from Lo-lang to cut timber in the area of the Han states to the south, or of the acts of thievery committed at night by Chinese merchants constitute fragmentary evidence to be sure, but they offer a hint, at least, that such was the case. Moreover, since salt and iron were government monopolies in China, Lo-lang officials must have shown great interest in the extraction of these local resources, and iron from the Pyǒnhan state, it is known, was supplied to both Lo-lang and Tai-fang. To obtain such vital products from areas outside Chinese control, it was standard practice for the Chinese to effect tributary relationships with native leaders by granting them titular office and rank, official seals, and ceremonial attire.

The impact of the Chinese commaderies must have been particularly pronounced in the area under direct Chinese dominion, where the Chinese way of life and institutional arrangements gradually but inexorably penetrated the fabric of the Old Chosǒn society. This influence is perhaps typified by the fact that Old Chosǒn’s original body of law, consisting of only eight prohibitory articles, was expanded to over sixty provisions as a result of the Chinese presence. We are told that the continuous night-time thievery of Chinese merchants in Lo-lang was prompted by the realization that the people of Old Chosǒn were not in the habit of keeping their goods in secure custody, and that this experience weakened the faith of the native inhabitants in their traditional values, thus necessitating the proliferation of provisions in the code of laws. It may be conjectured, then, that close contact with the Chinese, with their highly developed sense of private property, set in motion a disintegration process in Old Chosǒn society. For example, the fact that a segment of the native population is said to have come to use Chinese type eating and drinking utensils may be taken to signify the emergence of a new China-oriented elite class possessed of wealth and power. Within the area under Chinese control, however, there could be no expectation of independent political development by the Old Chosǒn people.

The impact of the Chinese commanderies also was felt in neighboring states. In these areas the cultural influence was by far the most important, for the fruits of the highly advanced Chinese were much more coveted. This is apparent from the fact that for the most part the leaders of the Han states in the southern half of the peninsula willingly accepted the grants of office and rank, official seals, and ceremonial attire that constituted formal tokens of their submission to Lo-lang’s authority. The ability to absorb Chinese culture while maintaining their political independence, it should be noted, allowed these native societies to weather the crises that at times confronted them and achieve impressive new development.”

Source: Ki-baik Lee, Trans. Edward W. Wagner & Edward J. Shultz, A New

History of Korea, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1984, pp. 19-20. [This text has been updated and is currently one of the most commonly used text to teach about Korean History in English.]

This book has numerous maps of the area at that time. Even though this text has been treated as a standard text to read, after 20 years there are other more up-to-date discoveries to confirm and refute some of the beliefs held in this text. Its significance lies in the fact the Han Chinese did set up a military base (commandery) in Korea; however, historians and scholars debate over the length of the stay and the impact of the Han Chinese in le-lang [Lo-lang].

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