Kochoson (Ancient Joseon) is an early state entity that laid the foundation for the formation of several states, at the mention of which an association with the name "Korea" appears. The history of this once unified, but now divided into two parts of the country totals millennia. The exact time of the appearance of the first state is difficult to establish. Kochoson is mentioned in the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk Yusa), the historical work of a Buddhist monk named Iren, in which the ancient history of Korea is presented as a collection of legends, fairy tales, and biographies. The text, written in Chinese in the XIII century, includes the legend of Tangun, the founder of the first Korean kingdom. Tangun Wang, one of the most popular characters in national mythology, was the grandson of the Lord of Heaven Khvanin. The story of his birth is interesting. Hwangoon, the son of the king of heaven, and three thousand of his followers were sent to Earth, or rather, to the highest mountain of the Korean Peninsula called Pektusan, without which ancient Korea is unthinkable. This mountain, located on the border between the DPRK and China, is still considered sacred among the inhabitants of both countries.
Here, according to Samguk Yusa, Hwanum founded the city of God of Sinxi, came up with laws, established the necessary departments and set about training people in crafts, agriculture and medicine. The tiger and the bear, who lived nearby, turned to Hwanum with a request to give them a human appearance. God's son invited the beasts to pass the test: to spend 100 days in a cave without sunlight, eating only garlic and wormwood. The tiger surrendered, and the she-bear did everything as Hwanum said, and was rewarded: she turned into a woman and gave birth to her master's son - Tangun Wang.
Ancient Joseon is the subject of scientific debate. According to legend, the history of Korea begins with the founding of the most ancient Korean kingdom in 2333 BC. e., with which modern scholars disagree, since the first references to Kochoson appear in written sources of the 4th-3rd centuries BC. e.
The facts about the union of the tribes living in antiquity on the territory of the Korean Peninsula and part of the Liaodong Peninsula have confirmation . Here there were city-states, each of which had its own management. The inhabitants of this country grew crops, bred horses and were able to create products from bronze, and later from iron, which were in no way inferior to Chinese samples belonging to the same period.
Around the 4th century BC e. Cochoson has become a
centralized state. The political history of Korea includes information about the long-term relationship of the ancient Korean state and the neighboring Chinese kingdom of Yan, whose rulers repeatedly turned their eyes to the east and sought to tear away the territories of Kochoson. In 108 B.C. e. Kochoson was conquered by the Chinese Han Empire, as a result of which the Korean tribes were at a lower stage of political organization compared to the time of the tribal union. Only at the beginning of the Christian era did the early Korean states reappear on the peninsula.
The ancient history of Korea is a fascinating story about a people who, already in the Bronze Age, had an early state education with hereditary monarchical power and rudimentary forms of government.