Jizi

Jizi or Qizi or Kizi (; Gija or Kija in Korean) was a semi-legendary
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:"Although Kija may have truly existed as a historical figure, Tangun is more problematical."
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:"Most orean historianstreat the angunmyth as a later creation."
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:"The Tangun myth became more popular with groups that wanted Korea to be independent; the Kija myth was more useful to those who wanted to show that Korea had a strong affinity to China."
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:"If a choice is to be made between them, one is faced with the fact that the Tangun, with his supernatural origin, is more clearly a mythological figure than Kija."
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:"An extreme manifestation of nationalism and the family cult was the revival of interest in Tangun, the mythical founder of the first Korean state... Most textbooks and professional historians, however, treat him as a myth." Chinese sage who is said to have ruled Gija Joseon in the 11th century BCE. Early Chinese documents like the ''Book of Documents'' and the ''Bamboo Annals'' described him as a virtuous relative of the last king of the Shang dynasty who was punished for remonstrating with the king. After Shang was overthrown by Zhou in the 1040s BCE, he allegedly gave political advice to King Wu, the first Zhou king. Chinese texts from the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) onwards claimed that King Wu enfeoffed Jizi as ruler of Chaoxian (朝鮮, pronounced "Joseon" in Korean). According to the ''Book of Han'' (1st century CE), Jizi brought agriculture, sericulture, and many other facets of Chinese civilization to Joseon. His family name was Zi/Ja (子) and given name was Xuyu/Suyu (胥餘/서여 xūyú/seoyeo, or 須臾/수유 xūyú/suyu).

Gija (the Korean pronunciation of "Jizi") may have been the object of a state cult in sixth-century Goguryeo, and a mausoleum to him was established in Goryeo in 1102, but the first extant Korean text to mention Gija was the ''Samguk Sagi'' (1145). Starting in the late thirteenth century, Gija was fully integrated into Korean history, being described as a successor to the descendants of Dangun in the state of Old Joseon. Following the spread of Neo-Confucianism in Korea in the fourteenth century, scholars of the Joseon Dynasty (est. 1392) promoted Gija as a culture hero alongside Dangun.

However, with the development of radiocarbon dating and newly found excavations, modern Korean historians started to question the legitimacy of his enfeoffment as ruler of Gojoseon. Shin Chaeho (1880–1936) was the first to question the extent of Gija's cultural contributions and many followed as Gija's historical claims did not align with archeological evidence found during the time of his supposed rule. Additionally, post-war Korean scholars in both North and South Korea have strongly criticized the story of Gija's migration to Korea in the eleventh century BCE, claiming that his involvement in the history of Korea was widely exaggerated.

In recent times, both North and South Korea, and their respective historians do not officially recognize Jizi and his supposed accomplishments, making China the only nation that still supports his claims.

In ancient Chinese texts

Pre-Qin sources

The earliest known mention of Jizi is in the "Mingyi" 明夷 hexagram of the '' Book of Change''. According to other ancient Chinese texts like the ''Book of Documents'', the ''Analects'', and the ''Bamboo Annals'', Jizi was a relative of King Zhou, the last ruler of the Shang Dynasty, and one of the three wise men of Shang, along with Weizi (微子) and Bi Gan.. Many identify him as Grand Tutor of the king. Jizi was either imprisoned or enslaved for remonstrating against King Zhou's misrule. (One later version states that he pretended to be mad after Bigan had been killed by King Zhou.) After Shang was overthrown by the Zhou dynasty in the mid eleventh century BC, Jizi was released by King Wu, to whom he gave advice on how to rule the new polity.

These texts mention neither Joseon nor Jizi's descendants; they simply describe Jizi as a virtuous man who was trusted by King Wu of Zhou after having been mistreated by the last Shang king.

Han and later texts

The first texts that make an explicit connection between Jizi and Joseon date from the second century BC, under the Han dynasty.. The earliest known source stating that Jizi went to Joseon is the '' Shangshu dazhuan'' (尚書大傳), a commentary on the ''Book of Documents'' attributed to Fu Sheng of the second century BC. In that account, King Wu enfeoffed Jizi as the ruler of Joseon and Jizi became the subject of King Wu. In a similar story recorded in Sima Qian's ''Records of the Grand Historian'' (or ''Shiji'', compiled between 109 and 91 BC), Jizi was enfeoffed by King Wu but did not become his subject. Sima Qian did not mention Jizi in his section on contemporary Joseon (i.e. northwestern Korea), where Wei Man's kingdom had flourished since about 194 BC until it was conquered by the Han Dynasty in 108 BC. Thus the location of ''Joseon'' as in these earlier sources is not clear. Among other Han dynasty sources, the '' Han shi waizhuan'' mentions to Jizi but not his migration to Joseon.

The "Monograph on Geography" (''Dili zhi'' 地理志) of the ''Book of Han'' (1st century AD) claims that Jizi had taught the people of Joseon agriculture, sericulture, and weaving, as well as proper ceremony. Jae-hoon Shim interprets the following sentence in that section of the ''Hanshu'' as claiming that Jizi also introduced the law of " Eight Prohibitions" (犯禁八條) in Joseon. The ''Records of Three Kingdoms'' (first published in the early fifth century) claims that the descendants of Jizi reigned as kings of Joseon for forty generations until they were overthrown by Wei Man, a man from the state of Yan, in 194 BC.

According to his commentary to the ''Shiji'', Du Yu (first half of the 3rd century) states that the tomb of Jizi was located in Meng Prefecture of the State of Liang (modern-day Henan). This suggests that the story of Jizi's association with Joseon was not necessarily prevailing although the narrative seen in the ''Hanshu'' later became common.

As historian Jae-hoon Shim concludes, only during the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) did Jizi begin to be associated with Joseon, and only after the Han were his descendants identified as the Joseon royal family.

Interpretations of Gija in Korea

Ancient Korean accounts

The first extant Korean text to mention Gija (the Korean pronunciation of Jizi) was Kim Busik's ''Samguk Sagi'' (completed in 1145), which claimed that Gija had been enfeoffed in Haedong (海東: Korea) by the Zhou court, but commented that this account was uncertain because of the brevity of the sources.. Only in the thirteenth century did Korean texts start to integrate Gija more fully into Korean history. The ''Samguk Yusa'' (1281) explained that after being enfeoffed by King Wu of Zhou, Gija replaced Dangun's descendants as the ruler of Joseon, whereas '' Jewang Ungi'' (1287) identified Dangun and Gija as the first rulers of former and latter Joseon respectively. Most premodern Korean historians after that accepted that Gija had replaced another indigenous power (represented by Dangun) in Old Joseon.

In 1102, during the Goryeo Dynasty, King Sukjong built a mausoleum to Gija in a place near Pyongyang that had been identified as Gija's tomb. Sadang for gija called gijasa (箕子祠) was also built in Pyongyang. The mausoleum was rebuilt in 1324 and was repaired in 1355, but the cult of Gija spread most widely after the establishment of the Joseon Dynasty in 1392. Because Joseon's state ideology was Neo-Confucianism borrowed from China, Joseon intellectuals promoted Gija as a culture hero who had raised Korean civilization to the same level as China..

From the second half of the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century, Joseon scholars published a number of books on Gija. In 1580, Yun Dusu (尹斗壽) collated all available material on him and published his research as the ''Gijaji'' (箕子志; "Record of Gija"). On the same year, eminent scholar Yi I

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