Gojoseon

• Korean: 古朝鮮 (Gojoseon)

Gojoseon was an ancient Korean polity, first mentioned in Chinese sources in the 2nd century BCE. Such ancient sources refer to it simply as Joseon (or Chosŏn), but with the advent of the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1897) in the Common Era, this ancient state has come to be referred to as Go- ("old") Joseon.

Ancient Chinese sources suggest that the kingdom was founded by a Chinese man named Jizi (K: Kija, 箕子), while other sources suggest it was founded by a figure named Tan'gun (檀君), the son of the sun god & a she-bear. Both figures were major objects of worship in the later Koryŏ Dynasty, as well as in other periods.

References

• Evelyn Rawski, Early Modern China and Northeast Asia: Cross-Border Perspectives, Cambridge University Press (2015), 198.