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Lelang Commandery
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== History == ===Han dynasty=== [[File:Basket from Lo-lang.jpg|thumb|260px|A scene of historic paragons of [[filial piety]], Chinese painted artwork on a [[Lacquerware|lacquered]] basketwork box, excavated from an Eastern-Han tomb in Lelang Commandery.]] In 108 BC, [[Emperor Wu of Han|Emperor Wu]] of the [[Han dynasty]] conquered the area under [[Ugeo of Gojoseon|King Ugeo]], a grandson of [[Wiman of Gojoseon|King Wiman]]. The Emperor set up Lelang, [[Lintun Commandery|Lintun]], [[Xuantu Commandery|Xuantu]] and [[Zhenfan Commandery|Zhenfan]], known as the [[Four Commanderies of Han]] in the northern [[Korean peninsula]] and [[Liaodong peninsula]]. The ''[[Book of Han]]'' records Lelang belonged to [[Youzhou]], located in northwestern [[Gojoseon]] consisted of 25 [[prefecture]]s, 62,812 houses, and the population was 406,748.<ref>前漢書卷二十八地理志第八 "樂浪郡,武帝元封三年開。莽曰樂鮮。屬幽州。戶六萬二千八百一十二,口四十萬六千七百四十八。有雲鄣。縣二十五:朝鮮,讑邯,浿水,水西至增地入海。" [[:s:zh:漢書/卷028下|Wikisource: the Book of Han, volume 28-2]]</ref>{{sfn|Barnes|2001|p=40}} Its capital, then the prefecture of Joseon (朝鮮縣, 조선현), was located at modern [[Pyongyang|P'yŏngyang]]. ([[Rakrang-guyok|Rakrang]] 樂浪/락랑, a district in central P'yŏngyang today, is named after Lelang.)<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-bHkI4cEc1QC&q=chinese+official's+tombs+dotted+around+modern+pyongyang+contained+paintings&pg=PA8|title=BRADT TRAVEL GUIDE NORTH KOREA, THE|author=ROBERT WILLOUGHBY|year=2008|publisher=Bradt Travel Guides|isbn=978-1-84162-219-4|page=7|access-date=2011-01-09}}</ref> After Emperor Wu's death, Zhenfan and Lintun were abolished and Xuantu was moved to [[Liaodong]]. Some prefectures of the abolished commanderies were incorporated into Lelang. Lelang after the consolidation is sometimes called "Greater Lelang commandery". Since Lelang became too large, the Defender of the Southern Section (南部都尉) was set up to rule the seven prefectures which formerly belonged to Zhenfan. Before that, the Defender of the Eastern Section (東部都尉) was set up to rule former Lintun's seven prefectures. Immigrants mainly from [[Yan (state)|Yan]] and [[Qi (state)|Qi]] settled in the former [[Gojoseon]] lands and brought with them [[Chinese culture]]. Among them, the Wang clan, whose ancestor is said to have fled there from Qi in the 2nd century BC, became powerful. While the Han dynasty was taken over by [[Wang Mang]], Wang Tiao (王調) started a rebellion and tried to secede from China. In 30 AD, the rebellion was stopped by Wang Zun (王遵), whom [[Emperor Guangwu of Han|Emperor Guangwu]] appointed as governor. The Han dynasty reasserted its authority over Lelang in the late 1st and 2nd centuries.{{sfn|Barnes|2001|p=40}} However, the shortage of human resources caused by the turmoil resulted in the abolishment of the seven eastern prefectures. The administration was left to the [[Eastern Ye|Dongye]] natives, whose chiefs were conferred as marquises. At the end of the [[Eastern Han dynasty]], [[Gongsun Du]], appointed as the Governor of [[Liaodong]] in 184, extended his semi-independent domain to the Lelang and Xuantu commanderies. His son [[Gongsun Kang]] separated the southern half from the Lelang commandery and established the [[Daifang commandery]] sometime between 204 and 220.{{sfn|Barnes|2001|p=40}} As a result, the Lelang commandery reverted to its original size. ===Cao Wei=== In 236, under the order of [[Cao Rui|Emperor Ming]] of [[Cao Wei]], [[Sima Yi]] [[Sima Yi's Liaodong campaign|crushed the Gongsun family]] and annexed Liaodong, Lelang and Daifang to Wei. Sima Yi did not encourage frontier settlers to continue their livelihoods in the Chinese northeast and instead ordered households who wished to return to coastal and central China to do so, evacuating the region of Chinese settlers. The [[Book of Jin|Jin Shu]] records the number of households in the Korean commanderies of Lelang and Daifeng as 8,600 households, less than a sixth of the figures given in the [[Book of the Later Han|Hou Han Shu]] for Lelang (which included Daifeng). Liaodong would be out of Chinese hands for centuries due to the lack of Chinese presence there as a result of the policies the Wei court adopted for the commanderies after the fall of the Gongsun family.<ref>Gardiner, K.H.J. "The Kung-sun Warlords of Liao-tung (189–238)". Papers on Far Eastern History 5 (Canberra, March 1972), p. 173</ref> ===Jin dynasty=== Lelang was then inherited by the Jin dynasty. Due to bitter civil wars, Jin was unable to control its holdings within the northern section of the Korean peninsula at the beginning of the 4th century and was no longer able to dispatch officials to the frontier commanderies, which were maintained by the dwindling local population of remaining Han Chinese residents. The ''[[Zizhi Tongjian]]'' states that Zhang Tong (張統) of Liaodong, Wang Zun (王遵) of Lelang and over one thousand households decided to break away from Jin and submit to the [[Xianbei]] warlord of [[Former Yan]] [[Murong Hui]]. Murong Hui relocated the remnants of the commandery to the west within Liaodong. [[Goguryeo]] annexed the former territory of Lelang in 313. Goguryeo ended Chinese rule over any part of the Korean peninsula by conquering [[Lelang]] in 313. After Lelang's fall, some commandery residents may have fled south to the indigenous Han polities there, bringing with them their culture that spread to the southern part of the Korean peninsula. With the collapse of the commanderies after four centuries of Chinese rule, Goguryeo and the native polities in the south that became [[Baekje]] and [[Silla]] began to grow and develop rapidly, heavily influenced by the culture of the [[Four Commanderies of Han]].<ref>Kwon, O-Jung. "The History of Lelang Commandery". ''The Han Commanderies in Early Korean History'' (Cambridge: Harvard University, 2013), p.96-98</ref>{{sfn|Barnes|2001|p=46}} Goguryeo absorbed much of what was left of Lelang through its infrastructure, economy, local inhabitants, and advanced culture. Unable to govern the region directly and form a new political center immediately, Goguryeo began to consolidate authority by replacing previous government administrators with its own appointed officials, mostly refugees and exiles from China, the most famous being Dong Shou (冬壽) who was entombed at [[Anak Tomb No. 3]], overtly retaining the previous administrative system of Lelang. In 334 Goguryeo established the fortress and city of Pyongyang-song within the center of the former commandery. Towards the end of the 4th century, in order to focus on the growing threat of [[Baekje]] and having checked the power of [[Former Yan]] in Liaodong, Goguryeo began to actively strengthen and govern the city. In 427 Goguryeo moved its capital to [[Pyongyang]] from its former capital of [[Ji'an, Jilin|Ji'an]] as the new political center of the kingdom in order to administer its territories more effectively.<ref>Yeo, Hokyu. "The Fall of the Lelang and Daifang Commanderies". ''The Han Commanderies in Early Korean History'' (Cambridge: Harvard University, 2013), p. 191-216</ref>
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