Asadal, () was the capital city of the kingdom of
Gojoseon (), the first
Korea
Korea is a peninsular region in East Asia consisting of the Korean Peninsula, Jeju Island, and smaller islands. Since the end of World War II in 1945, it has been politically Division of Korea, divided at or near the 38th parallel north, 3 ...
n kingdom and notably founded by the legendary king
Dangun
Dangun or Tangun (; ), also known as Dangun Wanggeom (; ), was the legendary founder and first king of Gojoseon, the first Korean kingdom. He founded the first kingdom around the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. He is said to be the "gra ...
. It is thought that Asadal was located in
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...
, in the northeastern
Hwanghae Province in North Korea, or in the Pyongyang Province (, with no relation to
the modern-day capital of North Korea).
Etymology
The etymology of "Asadal" is uncertain. One hypothesis is that the word is a compound composed of two elements, ''asa'' + ''dal''; this hypothesis is primarily motivated by an assumption of equivalence between the Chinese
phonetic transcription
Phonetic transcription (also known as Phonetic script or Phonetic notation) is the visual representation of speech sounds (or ''phonetics'') by means of symbols. The most common type of phonetic transcription uses a phonetic alphabet, such as the ...
''Asīdá'' and the word ''
Joseon
Joseon ( ; ; also romanized as ''Chosun''), officially Great Joseon (), was a dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed for 505 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom w ...
'' (, ''Cháoxiǎn'' or ''Cháoxiān'', in Chinese), another
name for Korea. However, the etymology of ''Joseon'' is ultimately unknown, with opinions differing as to whether the word was created as a phonetic transcription or as a semantic
calque
In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...
(presumably of a foreign word). Furthermore, the reading of the
Mandarin Chinese
Mandarin ( ; zh, s=, t=, p=Guānhuà, l=Mandarin (bureaucrat), officials' speech) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers over a large geographical area that stretch ...
character (''cháo'') in ''Cháoxian'' (Joseon) is identical to the reading when used to mean "
dynasty
A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family, usually in the context of a monarchy, monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A dynasty may also be referred to as a "house", "family" or "clan", among others.
H ...
," not with the reading when used to mean "
morning
Morning is either the period from sunrise to noon, or the period from midnight to noon. In the first definition it is preceded by the twilight period of dawn, and there are no exact times for when morning begins (also true of evening and nigh ...
" (which would instead be ''zhāo'').
However, the character , which is used in modern
Chinese languages
The Sinitic languages (), often synonymous with the Chinese languages, are a group of East Asian analytic languages that constitute a major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. It is frequently proposed that there is a primary split b ...
mainly to represent the
phoneme
A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...
s or in word-final and preconsonantal positions when
transcribing foreign words, has always had a
sibilant
Sibilants (from 'hissing') are fricative and affricate consonants of higher amplitude and pitch, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the teeth. Examples of sibilants are the consonants at the beginning of the English w ...
() rather than an
affricate
An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pai ...
like the Korean (), and there are plenty of other characters better suited to transcribing the Korean sound. The second part, ''dal'', might be the result of reading
Chinese characters
Chinese characters are logographs used Written Chinese, to write the Chinese languages and others from regions historically influenced by Chinese culture. Of the four independently invented writing systems accepted by scholars, they represe ...
in the Korean way; if so, the original Chinese pronunciation at the time ''Asadal'' was recorded in historical texts could have been ''Asada'', with the final syllable (''-da'') as a transcription of the
Middle Korean word (''stáh''),
Early Modern Korean (''sta''),
Modern Korean (''tta'') or (''ttang''), meaning "land." In this case, ''Asadal'' would mean "Morning Land." If, however, the final syllable was used much like the
Goryeo
Goryeo (; ) was a Korean state founded in 918, during a time of national division called the Later Three Kingdoms period, that unified and ruled the Korea, Korean Peninsula until the establishment of Joseon in 1392. Goryeo achieved what has b ...
city-name suffix ''-dal'' (used for mountains or cities founded on plateaus/mountains), then ''Asadal'' would mean "Morning Mountain."
It also draws possible connections to the
Japanese word "
Asa (あさ)" meaning "morning (朝)". The modern
Korean word for morning "Achim" () is thought to have evolved from
Middle Korean "Achom (아ᄎᆞᆷ〮)." Using Japanese ''Asa'' as a cognate, alongside the aforementioned theories, it can be deduced that "Asadal" most likely meant "Morning Land" or "Morning Mountain". In fact, up until the
Yamato Kingdom changed its name from "Wakoku (倭国)" to "Nihon (日本)", Ancient Korean kingdoms such as
Baekje
Baekje or Paekche (; ) was a Korean kingdom located in southwestern Korea from 18 BCE to 660 CE. It was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, together with Goguryeo and Silla. While the three kingdoms were in separate existence, Baekje had the h ...
had used the same characters "日本", literally meaning "Land where the sun rises" (no relations to
Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...
) when it colloquially addressed itself, seeming to have carried over the meaning of "Morning Land" from ''Asadal''.
History
The first Korean historical work that mention Asadal is the ''
Samguk yusa'', which cites the Chinese ''
Book of Wei''. The ''Samguk yusa'' also cites the lost historical records of ''Go-gi'' () to the effect that Dangun's capital was located in Pyongyang. But recent studies show that there were more than one city named Pyongyang (which literally means "flat soil" in Chinese), situated in the north deep in
Manchuria
Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...
- possibly bordering in between China and Russia. The modern
Pyongyang
Pyongyang () is the Capital city, capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is sometimes labeled as the "Capital of the Revolution" (). Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. Accordi ...
, capital of North Korea, is actually the southern counterpart. At that time it was common for an emperor to manage two capitals and rule in two palaces. Therefore, it could be that the "true" Asadal is located in Manchuria.
See also
*
Wanggeom-seong, a capital of later Gojoseon
Other sources
* Lee, Peter H & Wm. Theodore De Bary. ''Sources of Korean Tradition'', page 5-6. Columbia University Press, 1997.
References
External links
Naver Encyclopedia{{in lang, ko
Gojoseon
Former capitals of Korea
Dangun
Places in Korean mythology