Koguryo

• Dates: 37 BCE - 668 CE
• Korean: 高句麗 (Goguryeo, Kokoryŏ)

Koguryo, also known as Kokoryŏ, Goguryeo, and by a number of other spellings, was one of the Three Kingdoms of the Korean peninsula, lasting from roughly 37 BCE to 668 CE.

Established around 37 BCE, the kingdom conquered the Han Dynasty Chinese commandery of Lelang in 313. Buddhism is believed to have been introduced into Goguryeo in 372.

Koguryo figures in both Korean and Japanese origin myths, with the Chikuzen fudoki alleging that Hiboko, the tutelary deity of a prominent northern Kyushu family, first came to earth within the territory of Koguryo. Ancient Chinese sources suggest that Koguryo was first founded by a figure called in Korean either Chumong (朱蒙) or Tongmyŏng (東明), who hatched from an egg.

Koguryo was repeated attacked by the Chinese Sui Dynasty, and later by an alliance between Tang Dynasty China and the Korean kingdom of Silla, but was successful in fending off these attacks for roughly a century, before finally falling in 668.

References

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