Introduction
The origin of the Koreans is complex with some controversy. This article will explain the history of Koreans from the ethnicity point of view. Basically, there were three main groups of people which played a role in Korea's history which are Yemaek, native Japonic and the Han Chinese.This article will narrate the non-controversial part of Korean history which are acknowledged and agreed by both Chinese and Korean historians.
Yemaek homeland
The Yemaek was the earliest ancestor of the Koreans and their homeland is situated near the Yalu-Tumen-Sungari river region. Sungari river is also known as Songhua river in China.Yemaek's ancient neighbours were the Donghu (ancestors of Mongols) living to the west and the Sushen (ancestors of Manchu) living to the east.
During the Zhou dynasty (1046 BC – 256 BC), the Chinese recorded the Yemaek to live mainly in the Songnen plains (松嫩平原) which is the region bounded the upper Songhua river (light blue) and Nen river (dark blue). The source of the Songhua river is in Changbai aka Paektu (백두산) Mountain on the present China-Korea border.
By the Han dynasty (202 BC-220 AD), Yemaek had splintered into various subgroups such as Buyeo, Okjeo aka Okcho (옥저) and Eastern Ye aka Dongye (동예).
Migration to Korea
From the Sungari River basin, the proto-Korean migrated into Korean peninsular and formed several recorded Korean kingdoms in this order- Buyeo aka Puyo (부여): approximately 200 BC - 494 AD
- Goguryeo aka Koguryo (고구려): 37 BC - 668 AD
- Baekja aka Paekche (백제): 18 BC - 660 AD
- Balhae (발해): 698-926 AD formed by a Goguryeo general
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| Map in 1 BC - migration path of proto-Korean |
In 18 BC, the Koreanic-Buyeo people annexed Mahan state. Thus, the rulers of Paekche and its soldiers spoke a Koreanic language whereas the earlier residents of Mahan spoke a different non-Koreanic language.
Korean language & writing
The founding ruler of Goryeo (고려): 918 AD - 1392 AD, who controlled the whole of Korean peninsular, was a descendant of a noble ethnic Korean Goguryeo clan.
The modern Korean language is descended from the Middle Korean language spoken during the Goryeo kingdom.
The founding ruler of the next dynasty i.e. Joseon aka Chosun (조선): 1392 AD - 1897 AD, who toppled Goryeo kingdom, was one of the ethnic Korean generals of the previous Goryeo kingdom .
The Korean writing system called Hangul was invented by the Joseon dynasty King Sejong (1418-1450 AD). Before that time, Koreans wrote in Chinese characters.
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| King Sejong |
Ethnic Korean in China
Ethnic Korean is the majority in North and South Korea as early back as the Joseon dynasty.In the late 19th century and early 20th century, large groups of ethnic Korean migrated to live in China mainly in Yanbian (연변) Korean autonomous prefecture in Jilin province. The main reason was due to famine and warfare on Korea launched by Japan.
Ethnic Yemaek in China
One of the descendants of ancient Yemaek people is the ethnic Yemaek who lives mostly in Jilin province and they still preserve their own traditional culture whereas the Koreans have adopted some elements of Han Chinese culture. |
| Yemaek traditional clothing and village in northeast China |
Due to the fertile soil of the Songnen plains, the Yemaek have traditionally been farmers for at least two thousand years. This is in contrast to the other nomadic tribes in the Northeast.
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| Yemaek people |
Proto-Yemaek
Yemaek was formed from two ancient tribes which are Ye tribe and Maek tribe.The Ye (穢) tribe was a nomadic tribe who came from the north which most historians claiming that their original homeland was in the mountains around Lake Baikal in Siberia and they also worship Siberian tiger similar to the Tungusic people.
Therefore, the Ye people is believed to belong to a separate branch of the Altaic people because their languages were recorded in the Han dynasty to be different from the neighboring Yilou tribe which is a Southern Tungusic tribe.
The Xituanshan (西團山) Culture in Huanxi town, Jilin of China is believed to belong to the Ye people.
The Maek tribe migrated eastwards and the Ye tribe migrated south-eastwards to form the Yemaek tribe. The Ye tribe is represented by the tiger whereas the Maek tribe is represented by the bear in the picture below.
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| Ye and Maek tribes (left)/ Buyeo artifacts (right) |
The Buyeo artifacts in the picture above show that the Yemaek people have very small eye aperture typical of the Altaic people.
Conclusion
The ancient Koreans originated from one of the Northeast Asian tribes which is the Yemaek tribe in Manchuria; in other words, they are not the natives of Korean Peninsular.
The ancestors of Han Chinese, Mongol and Manchu fought and expanded their territories in the northeast which resulted in the migration of the ancient Korean southwards into the Korean Peninsular.
The origin of the natives of peninsular Korea will be explored on another article in this blog.
Related links
Origin of some Altaic tribesSources
- Constructing "Korean" Origins: A Critical Review of Archaeology By Hyung Il Pai, Hyung 1l Pai
- History of Korea and modern Korea (韓國歷史與現代韓國) By Jian Jiang (簡江)
- From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean. By Alexander Vovin.
- Is Japanese Related to Korean, Tungusic, Mongolic and Turkic? By Martine Robbeets (2005).
- Transeurasian Verbal Morphology in a Comparative Perspective: Genealogy, contact, chance by Lars Johanson, Martine Robbeets
- Origin of the Koreans: a population genetic study. By Saha, Tay JS. National University of Singapore.
- Koguryo: The Language of Japan’s Continental Relatives: An Introduction to study of the Japonic-Koguryoic languages. By Christopher Beckwith
- The history of Korea. By Djun Kil Kim. 2nd edition
- https://kknews.cc/history/4mezok2.html
- https://kknews.cc/culture/3z9gx4a.html
- https://kknews.cc/history/nk548r5.html
- https://kknews.cc/culture/qbpj3pr.html
- https://www.wikizero.com/en/Buyeo_languages
Last updated: 11 Sept 2022
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Dear madam or sir:
ReplyDeleteI agree with the comments on your site that the information is fascinating, as well as unique. As a librarian, I am a stickler for citations. Could you tell me specifically which facts come from which of your sources? Further, who, in the statement, "New research will be conducted . . . , " will be doing the research -- scientists, academics, journalists . . . ?
I look forward to more information from you and from your sources. I was disappointed that the address eastasiaorigin.blogspot did not work from my email provider. Thank you very much.
Sources are quoted in the sources section which are based on mostly Chinese history books. If you want citations, you need to find somebody else to read the vast amount of Chinese texts and cite yourself. For more information, go to profile of this blog.
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