The three Gojoseon kingdoms are states thought to have existed according to ''

Joseon Sangosa 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 ...

'' (1924–25). The concept gained a following among several fringe historians, although it is not completely accepted by mainstream scholars. In popular Korean history, drawing on the Korean founding myth,

Gojoseon Gojoseon (; ), contemporary name Joseon (; ), was the first kingdom on the Korea, Korean Peninsula. According to Korean mythology, the kingdom was established by the legendary king Dangun. Gojoseon possessed the most advanced culture in th ...

(고조선, 古朝鮮, 2333 BC – 239 BC) was an early state that was established around

Liaoning ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...

, southern

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 ...

, and the northern

Korean Peninsula 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 divided at or near the 38th parallel between North Korea (Dem ...

. It was anciently known simply as ''Joseon'', but is now referred to as ''Gojoseon'', i.e. "Ancient Joseon" to distinguish it from the much later (14th century) Kingdom of

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 ...

. According to some sources, Gojoseon was a kingdom formed by the union of three confederacies, or ''

Samhan Samhan, or Three Han (), is the collective name of the Byeonhan, Jinhan, and Mahan confederacies that emerged in the first century BC during the Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea, or Samhan, period. Located in the central and southern regions o ...

'': Makjoseon (막조선, 莫朝鮮), Jinjoseon (진조선, 真朝鮮) and Beonjoseon (번조선, 番朝鮮). These three confederacies are said to be also known as Mahan, Byeonhan, and Jinhan. In conventional Korean history, these three confederacies appeared following Gojoseon's break-up, in the central and southern Korean Peninsula, until they were fully absorbed into the

Three Kingdoms of Korea The Three Kingdoms of Korea or Samhan (Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla) competed for hegemony over the Korea, Korean Peninsula during the ancient period of History of Korea, Korean history. During the Three Kingdoms period (), many states and statele ...

around the 4th century CE. Therefore, these later Samhan must be distinguished from the "former Samhan", or ''Samjoseon''.

Government structure

According to ''

'', written in 1924–25 by

Sin Chaeho Shin Chae-ho, or Sin Chaeho (; December 8, 1880 – February 21, 1936), was a Korean independence activist, historian, anarchist, nationalist, and a founder of Korean nationalist historiography (민족 사학, ''minjok sahak''; sometimes shortene ...

, Korea during the Sudu era(which roughly corresponds to Dangun Joseon) had an organizational system of three states and 5 ministries(Obu,五部). The three states consisted of Jinjoseon, Makjoseon and Beonjoseon. Jinjoseon was said to be ruled by the Supreme

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 ...

. Beonjoseon and Makjoseon were said to be ruled by two Vice-Danguns. The Five Ministries, or '' Ohga'', included ''Dotga'' (pig), ''Gaega'' (dog), ''Soga'' (cow), ''Malga'' (horse) and ''Shinga'' according to their areas of east, west, south, north and center. This ministry system using the name of animals was also claimed to be used by

Buyeo Buyeo (; ; ), also rendered as Puyŏ or Fuyu, was an ancient kingdom that was centered in northern Manchuria in modern-day northeast China. It had ties to the Yemaek people, who are considered to be the ancestors of modern Koreans. Buyeo is ...

, which is considered a successor state of Gojoseon by fringe historians (in real life its hard to say it is a successor state as buyeo was coexistent with gojoseon). In wartime, five military troops(오군,五軍) consisting of a central army, an advanced army, a left army and a right army were said to be organized, according to military commands, by the general of the central army. It is said that the traditional Korean game of ''

Yut ''Yunnori '' (), also known as ''yut'', ''nyout'' and ''yoot'', is a traditional board game played in Korea, especially during Korean New Year. The game is also called ''cheoksa'' (; ) or ''sahui'' (; ) in Hanjaeo(Sino-Korean vocabulary). Origi ...

'' is patterned after these five military structures (the real origin was based on the system of sachooldo). Generally, the succession system of the Supreme Dangun and the Vice-Dangun was said to be determined by heredity, and sometimes the ruler said to be succeeded by one of the ''Ohga'', suggesting that the sovereign's power was not absolute.

Jinjoseon (2333 BC – 239 BC)

Shin says the prefixes Ma, Jin and Beon were borrowed from

Chinese character Chinese characters are logographs used 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 represent the only on ...

s to represent the

Korean language Korean is the first language, native language for about 81 million people, mostly of Koreans, Korean descent. It is the national language of both South Korea and North Korea. In the south, the language is known as () and in the north, it is kn ...

using the Idu system. ''Jin'' (or ''Shin'') represents the meanings of "whole" or "general"; thus ''Jinjoseon'' refers to the central confederacy of Gojoseon.

Asadal Asadal, () was the capital city of the kingdom of Gojoseon (), the first Korean kingdom and notably founded by the legendary king Dangun. It is thought that Asadal was located in Manchuria, in the northeastern Hwanghae Province in North Korea, ...

(아사달) was the capital city of Jinjoseon governed by

, and the other two Joseons were governed by the vice Danguns. ''Joseon Sangosa'' says that Asadal corresponds to the current

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

. In history books, Jinjoseon was usually called ''Jin.'' Jinjoseon was conquered by Hae Mo-su of Buyeo, and the state name was changed to

Beonjoseon (2333 BC – 108 BC)

''Beon'' or sometimes ''Byun'' means a plain or a field. Because Beonjoseon was a neighbor to the Chinese states, Chinese history usually referred to Beonjoseon as ''Gojoseon'' or simply ''Joseon.'' According to Shin,

Gija Joseon Gija Joseon (1120–194 BC) was a dynasty of Gojoseon allegedly founded by the sage Jizi (Gija), a member of the Shang (Yin) dynasty royal house. Understanding before 20th century Chinese records Chinese records before the Qin dynasty descr ...

and

Wiman Joseon Wiman Joseon (194–108 BC) was a dynasty of Gojoseon. It began with Wiman's (Wei Man) seizure of the throne from Gija Joseon's King Jun and ended with the death of King Ugeo who was a grandson of Wiman. Apart from archaeological data, the ma ...

were usurpations of Beonjoseon, and the Danguns allowed Gija and Wiman to rule over Beonjoseon because they were of the

Dongyi The Dongyi or Eastern Yi () was a collective term for ancient peoples found in Chinese records. The definition of Dongyi varied across the ages, but in most cases referred to inhabitants of eastern China, then later, the Korean peninsula and Jap ...

race. Chinese usually referred to the ancestral Korean race as ''Dong-yi'', meaning eastern barbarians. According to ''Joseon Sangosa'', the ''Gi'' family became the kings of Beonjoseon in 323 BC, and the central authority of the Vice-Dangun became very powerful. Beonjoseon of the Gi family was usurped by Wiman in 193 BC; it was called Wiman Joseon henceforth. The last Vice-Dangun, Gijun, fled with his nobles and a large number of people into the Korean peninsula. There, he conquered Makjoseon, and established Mahan.

Makjoseon (2333 BC – ?)

''Ma'' is generally used to represent "south", and Makjoseon was located to the south of Jinjoseon. Its capital city was

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 ...

. It is uncertain how long Makjoseon endured, but it is thought to have been conquered by Gijun when he fled from Wiman, and then changed the name of the state to Mahan — one of the confederacies of the later

. It seems that Mahan continued until it was conquered by

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 ...

Disintegration of Three Gojoseon

According to ''Joseon Sangosa'', the disintegration of the three Gojoseon started when people were disillusioned with the religion of the Samjoseon confederation, and decided to establish their own autonomous entities.

Interpretation

Misreading

Some Korean scholars point out that the basis of the story is from Shin's interpretation of the following line in the chapter "Treatise on Chosun" (朝鮮列傳) section of the ''

Records of the Grand Historian The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...

'' that Shin introduced in his book ''Chǒnhu Samhan Ko'' ("A Study of the Three Hans in Sequence", or "An Inquiry into the Former and Latter Three Han States"; 前後三韓考): 自始全燕時嘗略屬眞番朝鮮. " Zhenfan Commandery and Joseon were already invaded and subjugated in the high days of the Yan." Since the characters 眞番朝鮮 can be read as Jinbeon and Joseon or Jinjoseon and Beonjoseon, this is thought to be the source of the confusion.

Support for the interpretation of Shin's original opinion

{{Unreferenced section, date=December 2020 On the collected annotations (集解) of the same section, Guang Xu (徐廣) who was a historian of

Eastern Jin Eastern or Easterns may refer to: Transportation Airlines *China Eastern Airlines, a current Chinese airline based in Shanghai * Eastern Air, former name of Zambia Skyways *Eastern Air Lines, a defunct American airline that operated from 192 ...

, illustrates that Jinbeon is also called Jinmak (眞莫). In the Biographies of the Wuhuan,

Xianbei The Xianbei (; ) were an ancient nomadic people that once resided in the eastern Eurasian steppes in what is today Mongolia, Inner Mongolia, and Northeastern China. The Xianbei were likely not of a single ethnicity, but rather a multiling ...

, and

in the ''

Book of Wei The ''Book of Wei'', also known by its Chinese name as the ''Wei Shu'', is a classic Chinese historical text compiled by Wei Shou from 551 to 554, and is an important text describing the history of the Northern Wei and Eastern Wei from 386 to 5 ...

'' in the ''

Records of the Three Kingdoms The ''Records of the Three Kingdoms'' is a Chinese official history written by Chen Shou in the late 3rd century CE, covering the end of the Han dynasty (220 CE) and the subsequent Three Kingdoms period (220–280 CE). It is regard ...

'', a following detailed paragraph appears that differentiates Jin (辰) and Beon (蕃) which suggests the two entities were separate. 初, 右渠未破時, 朝鮮相歷谿卿以諫右渠不用, 東之辰國, 時民隨出居者二千餘戶, 亦與朝鮮貢蕃不相往來. "At earlier times before King Ugeo was demolished, a Joseon official called Yeokgyeyung (歷谿卿) expostulated to the king but after his expostulation was refused he went east to the state of Jin (辰國). At that time there were 2000 houses of people who followed his journey, and they never traded with Beon (蕃) which was a tributary of Joseon."

Trivia

A classification of Three Joseons existed before in the geography section of the Veritable Records of Sejong of the

Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty The ''Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty'', sometimes called ''sillok'' () for short, are state-compiled and published records, called Veritable Records, documenting the reigns of the kings of the Joseon dynasty in Korea. Kept from 1392 ...

where it illustrates the history of

Pyongan Province Pyongan Province (; ) was one of Eight Provinces of Korea during the Joseon dynasty. Pyongan was located in the northwest of Korea. The provincial capital was Pyongyang. History Pyongan Province was formed in 1413. Its name derived from the name ...

. But the classification was of

Dangun Joseon Gojoseon (; ), contemporary name Joseon (; ), was the first kingdom on the Korean Peninsula. According to Korean mythology, the kingdom was established by the legendary king Dangun. Gojoseon possessed the most advanced culture in the Korea ...

(Jeonjoseon),

(Hujoseon), and

, Veritable Records of Sejong, geography, Pyongan province, Pyongyangbu,"本三朝鮮舊都。唐堯戊辰歲, 神人降于檀木之下, 國人立爲君, 都平壤, 號檀君, 是爲前朝鮮。周武王克商, 封箕子于此地, 是爲後朝鮮。逮四十一代孫準, 時有燕人衞滿亡命, 聚黨千人, 來奪準地, 都于王險城, 【卽平壤府。】是爲衞滿朝鮮。"

References

Gojoseon Pseudohistory