Editing Gojoseon (section)

==State formation==
{{See also|Gojoseon–Yan War}}
[[File:Gojoseon (700 BC).png|thumb|250px|Approximate location of Gojoseon in 700BCE]]

The first mentions of Gojoseon are found in historical records of [[Guanzi (text)|Guanzi]]. It locates Gojoseon around [[Bohai Bay]] and mentions the state trading with [[Qi (state)|Qi]] (齊) of China.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=14543 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120701153430/http://100.naver.com/100.nhn?docid=14543 |url-status=dead |archive-date=2012-07-01 |script-title=ko:고조선 |publisher= Naver/Doosan Encyclopedia |language=ko }}</ref> The ''[[Zhanguoce]]'', ''[[Shanhaijing]]'', and ''[[Shiji]]''—containing some of its earliest records—refers to Joseon as a region, until the text ''Shiji'' began referring it as a country from 195 BCE onwards.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Barnes|first1=Gina| title=State Formation in Korea: Historical and Archaeological Perspectives |date=2000| publisher=Curzon| location=Richmond| isbn=9780700713233|pages=9–10}}</ref>

By the 4th century BCE, other states with defined political structures developed in the areas of the earlier Bronze Age "walled-town states"; Gojoseon was the most advanced of them in the peninsular region.<ref name = "Met" /> The city-state expanded by incorporating other neighboring city-states by alliance or military conquest. Thus, a vast confederation of political entities between the Taedong and Liao rivers was formed. As Gojoseon evolved, so did the title and function of its leader, who came to be designated as "king" ([[Khan (title)|Han]]), in the tradition of the [[Zhou dynasty]], around the same time as the [[Yan (state)|Yan]] (燕) leader.<ref name = "naver">{{Cite web|url=https://terms.naver.com/list.nhn?cid=40942&categoryId=40942|script-title=ko:두산백과 : 네이버 지식백과|website=terms.naver.com}}</ref> Records of that time mention the hostility between the feudal state in Northern China and the "confederated" kingdom of Gojoseon. Notably, a plan to attack the Yan beyond the Liao River frontier is recorded. This confrontation led to the decline and eventual downfall of Gojoseon, described in Yan records as "arrogant" and "cruel". But the ancient kingdom also appears as a prosperous Bronze Age civilization with a complex social structure, including a class of horse-riding warriors who contributed to the development of Gojoseon and its northern expansion<ref name = "NYT">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/c/cumings-korea.html?_r=1&oref=slogin | work=The New York Times | title=Korea's Place in the Sun}}</ref> into most of the Liaodong basin.

Around 300 BCE, Gojoseon lost significant western territory after a war with the Yan state, but this indicates Gojoseon was already a large enough state that it could wage war against the Yan and survive the loss of 2000 [[li (unit)|li]] (800 kilometers) of territory.<ref name = "daum">{{Cite web|url=http://status.daum.net/error/error403.html|title=Daum 요청하신 페이지의 사용권한이 없습니다.|website=status.daum.net}}</ref> Gojoseon is thought to have relocated its capital to the [[Pyongyang]] region around this time.<ref name = "naver" />

===Wiman Joseon and Its Fall===
{{See also|Wiman Joseon|Han conquest of Gojoseon|Four Commanderies of Han}}
[[File:Hangunhyeon.PNG|left|thumb|250px|[[Han dynasty]] destroys [[Wiman Joseon]], establishing [[Four Commanderies of Han]] in the northern Korean peninsula.]]

In 195 BCE, [[Jun of Gojoseon|King Jun]] appointed a refugee from Yan, [[Wiman of Gojoseon|Wi Man]], to guard the frontier.<ref>Academy of Korean Studies, ''The Review of Korean Studies'', vol. 10권,3–4, 2007, p. 222</ref> Wi Man later rebelled in 194 BCE and usurped the throne of Gojoseon. King Jun fled to [[Jin (Korean state)|Jin]] in the south of the [[Korean Peninsula]].<ref name="Lee">Lee Injae, Owen Miller, Park Jinhoon, Yi Hyun-Hae, ''Korean History in Maps'', Cambridge University Press, 2014, p. 20</ref>

In 109 BCE, [[Emperor Wu of Han]] invaded near the [[Liao River]].<ref name="Lee"/> A conflict would erupt in 109 BCE, when Wi Man's grandson King [[Ugeo]] ({{Korean|hangul=우거왕|hanja=右渠王|labels=no}}) refused to let Jin's ambassadors through his territory in order to reach the Han dynasty. King Ugeo refused and had his son, Prince [[Wi Jang]] (長降) escort the ambassador back home. However, when they got close to Han's borders, the ambassador assassinated [[Wi Jang]] (長降) and claimed to Emperor Wu that he had defeated Joseon in battle. Emperor Wu, unaware of this deception, made him the military commander of the Commandery of Liaodong. The outraged King Ugeo made a raid on Liaodong and killed She He. Scholars also hypothesize that the initiation of war may also have been because the Han dynasty was concerned that Gojoseon would ally with the [[Han–Xiongnu War|Xiongnu against the Han]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pai |first1=Hyung |title=Constructing "Korean" origins: A critical review of archaeology, historiography, and racial myth in Korean state-formation theories |date=2000 |publisher=Harvard University Asia Center |location=Cambridge |pages=144–145}}</ref>

In response, Emperor Wu commissioned a two-pronged attack, one by land and one by sea, against Gojoseon.<ref name="Lee"/> The two forces attacking Gojoseon were unable to coordinate well with each other and suffered large losses. Eventually, the commands were merged, and Wanggeom fell in 108 BCE. Han took over the Gojoseon lands and established [[Four Commanderies of Han]] in the western part of former Gojoseon.<ref name="Kang">Jae-eun Kang, ''The Land of Scholars: Two Thousand Years of Korean Confucianism'', Homa & Sekey Books, 2006, pp. 28–31</ref>

Gojoseon disintegrated by the 1st century BCE as it gradually lost the control of its former fiefs. Many successor states sprang from its former territory, such as [[Buyeo kingdom|Buyeo]], [[Okjeo]], [[Eastern Ye|Dongye]]. [[Goguryeo]] and [[Baekje]] arose out from Buyeo.