Editing Lelang Commandery (section)

== Historical revisionism ==
{{see also|Nakrang Kingdom}}
In the [[North Korea]]n academic community and some parts of the [[South Korea]]n academic community, the [[Han dynasty]]'s rule in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula have been denied. Proponents of this revisionist theory claim that the Lelang Commandery actually existed outside of the Korean Peninsula, and place them somewhere on the [[Liaodong Peninsula]] instead.<ref>
*{{Cite book|date=2015-12-24 |title=매국사학의 몸통들아, 공개토론장으로 나와라! |publisher=[[ngonews]] |url=http://www.ngo-news.co.kr/sub_read.html?uid=82015 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919142317/http://www.ngo-news.co.kr/sub_read.html?uid=82015 |archive-date=2016-09-19 }}
*{{Cite book|date=2016-08-21 |title=요서 vs 평양… 한무제가 세운 낙랑군 위치 놓고 열띤 토론 |publisher=[[Segye Ilbo]] |url=http://www.segye.com/content/html/2016/08/21/20160821001406.html |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170413160938/http://www.segye.com/content/html/2016/08/21/20160821001406.html |archive-date=2017-04-13 }}
*{{Cite book|date=2016-08-22 |title="갈석산 동쪽 요서도 고조선 땅" vs "고고학 증거와 불일치" |publisher=[[The Dong-a Ilbo]] |url=http://news.naver.com/main/read.nhn?mode=LSD&mid=sec&sid1=001&oid=020&aid=0002997608 |access-date=2017-04-14 }}</ref>

The characterization of Japanese historical and archaeological findings in Korea as imperialist forgeries owes in part to those scholars' discovery of the Lelang Commandery&mdash;by which the Han dynasty administered territory near Pyongyang&mdash;and insistence that this Chinese commandery had a major impact on the development of Korean culture.<ref name="Pai127">{{citation|title=Constructing "Korean" Origins: A Critical Review of Archaeology, Historiography, and Racial Myth in Korean State Formation Theories|first=Hyung Il|last=Pai|publisher=Harvard University Asia Center|pages=127–129|year=2000}}</ref> Until the North Korean challenge, it was universally accepted that Lelang was a commandery established by [[Emperor Wu of Han]] after he [[Gojoseon–Han War|defeated Gojoseon]] in 108 BCE.<ref name="Ch'oe 1980 23–25">{{citation|title=An Outline History of Korean Historiography|first=Yŏng-ho|last=Ch'oe|journal=Korean Studies|volume=4|year=1980|pages=23–25|doi=10.1353/ks.1980.0003|s2cid=162859304}}</ref> To deal with the Han dynasty tombs, North Korean scholars have reinterpreted them as the remains of Gojoseon or Goguryeo.<ref name="Pai127"/> For those artifacts that bear undeniable similarities to those found in Han China, they propose that they were introduced through trade and international contact, or were forgeries, and "should not by any means be construed as a basis to deny the Korean characteristics of the artifacts".<ref>{{citation|title=An Outline History of Korean Historiography|first=Yŏng-ho|last=Ch'oe|journal=Korean Studies|volume=4|year=1980|page=509|doi=10.1353/ks.1980.0003|s2cid=162859304}}</ref> The North Koreans also say that there were two Lelangs, and that the Han actually administered a Lelang on the [[Liao River]] on the [[Liaodong peninsula]], while Pyongyang was an "independent Korean state" of Lelang, which existed between the 2nd century BCE until the 3rd century CE.<ref name="Ch'oe 1980 23–25"/><ref>{{citation|title=Centering the Periphery: Manchurian Exile(s) and the North Korean State|first=Charles K.|last=Armstrong|journal=Korean Studies|volume=19|year=1995|pages=11–12|doi=10.1353/ks.1995.0017|s2cid=154659765|url=http://academiccommons.columbia.edu/download/fedora_content/download/ac:168680/CONTENT/19.armstrong.pdf}}</ref> The traditional view of Lelang, according to them, was expanded by Chinese chauvinists and Japanese imperialists.<ref name="Ch'oe 1980 23–25"/>

These hypotheses are considered authoritative in the North Korean academic community, which is supported by some historians in South Korea, but this theory is not recognized at all in the academic circles of the [[United States]], [[China]] and [[Japan]].<ref group="note">
*{{cite book|last=United States Congress|title=North Korea: A Country Study|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ybmFuqReAqUC&pg=PA6|year=2016|publisher=Nova Science Publishers|isbn=978-1590334430|page=6}}
:"Han Chinese built four commanderies, or local military units, to rule the peninsula as far south as the Han River, with a core area at Lolang (Nangnang in Korean), near present-day P'yongyang. It is illustrative of the relentlessly different historiography practiced in North Korea and South Korea, as well as both countries' dubious projection backward of Korean nationalism, that North Korean historians denied that the Lolang district was centered in Korea and placed it northwest of the peninsula, possibly near Beijing."
*{{cite book|last=Connor|first=Edgar V.|title=Korea: Current Issues and Historical Background|year=2003|publisher=Nova Science Publishers|isbn=978-1590334430|page=112}}
:"They place it northwest of the peninsula, possibly near Beijing, in order to de- emphasize China's influence on ancient Korean history."
*{{cite book|last=Kim|first=Jinwung|title=A History of Korea: From "Land of the Morning Calm" to States in Conflict|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QFPsi3IK8gcC&pg=PA18|year=2012 |publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=978-0253000248|page=18}}
:"Immediately after destroying Wiman Chosŏn, the Han empire established administrative units to rule large territories in the northern Korean peninsula and southern Manchuria."
*{{cite book|last=Hyung|first=Hyung Il|title=Constructing "Korean" Origins|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QxztLeLoVkQC&pg=PA129|year=2000 |publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674002449|page=129}}
:"When material evidence from the Han commandery site excavated during the colonial period began to be reinterpreted by Korean nationalist historians as the first full-fledged "foreign" occupation in Korean history, Lelang's location in the heart of the Korean peninsula became particularly irksome because the finds seemed to verify Japanese colonial theories concerning the dependency of Korean civilization on China."
*{{cite book|last=Hyung|first=Hyung Il|title=Constructing "Korean" Origins|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QxztLeLoVkQC&pg=PA128|year=2000 |publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=9780674002449|page=128}}
:"At present, the site of Lelang and surrounding ancient Han Chinese remains are situated in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang. Although North Korean scholars have continued to excavate Han dynasty tombs in the postwar period, they have interpreted them as manifestations of the Kochoson or the Koguryo kingdom."
*{{cite book|last=Lee|first=Peter H.|title=Sourcebook of Korean Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N66XyMJ_sNsC&pg=PA227|year=1993|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0231079129|page=227}}
:"But when Emperor Wu conquered Choson, all the small barbarian tribes in the northeastern region were incorporated into the established Han commanderies because of the overwhelming military might of Han China."
</ref> The majority of Korean scholars from the [[Goryeo]] and [[Joseon]] dynasties considered the location of Lelang county somewhere around today's Pyongyang area based on the Korean history record [[Samguk sagi]] which referred to the Chinese records on the Han commandries. However, [[Bak Jiwon (born 1737)]], a [[Silhak]] scholar who visited [[Qing dynasty]] in 1780, claimed that the location of commandries were in [[Liaodong]] area in his [[The Jehol Diary]].<ref>{{cite web |script-title=zh: 熱河日記 卷一 渡江錄 |trans-title=The Jehol Diary Chapter 1. Dogangnok - 高氏境土之在遼東者。唐雖得之。不能有而復歸之高氏。則平壤本在遼東。或爲寄名與浿水。時有前郤耳。漢樂浪郡治在遼東者。非今平壤 |url= https://zh.m.wikisource.org/zh/%E7%86%B1%E6%B2%B3%E6%97%A5%E8%A8%98/%E5%8D%B701 |website=Wiki E-text }}</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=The source is in Classical Chinese, which requires specialized knowledge to understand even for a native Chinese. No secondary source is provided either.|date=August 2021}} Ri Ji Rin (Lee Ji Rin), a North Korean historian who obtained his Ph.D. in history from [[Peking University]] in China, suggests in ''Research on Ancient Korea'' that based on the initial records of Chinese texts and archaeological findings in [[Liaodong]] area, the Han Commanderies were located in [[Liaodong Peninsula]].<ref>{{cite web |title=CHINA'S IMPACT ON KOREAN PENINSULA UNIFICATION AND QUESTIONS FOR THE SENATE |url=https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CPRT-112SPRT77566/html/CPRT-112SPRT77566.htm |website=U S Government Information}}</ref> South Korea Historian Yoon, Nae-Hyun also suggests that the Han commanderies were not in Korean peninsula, claiming that there is no archaeological evidence.<ref>True Understanding of Old Choson." Korea Journal 27:12 (December 1987): 23-40</ref>