The Goguryeo Controversy, and Korea-China Relations

Not long ago, I visited the city of GyeongJu (경주), the capital of the Silla (신라) dynasty.  During my visit, I learned a lot about Korean history, mostly about the 신라 kingdom.  But to my surprise, I also obtained information about the relationship between Korea and China.

As I wrote earlier, the 신라 kingdom existed from about 57 BC until about 1000 AD, and it is credited with unifying the three kingdoms of the Korean peninsula, thus creating the first unified kingdom of Korea.  To do this, the 신라 kingdom had to conquer both the 백제 kingdom and the 고구려  kingdom, both of which controlled territories much larger than those originally controlled by the 신라 kingdom.  Interestingly, the 신라 kingdom did not conquer the 백제 and the 고구려 kingdoms alone.  They were helped by the Tang dynasty of China.

War between Chinese and Korean kingdoms had occurred often before.  Both the Tang dynasty and the previous Sui dynasty of China had gone to war against 고구려.  고구려 is located immediately to the north-east of China, and Chinese rulers wanted to conquer it.  However, China never successfully conquered 고구려 alone.

Near the year 660, 고구려 was finally defeated by an allied force of 신라 and Tang dynasty forces.  I don't know if there was a formal alliance between the Tang emperor and the 신라 king, or if both the Tang dynasty and the 신라 kingdom simply found themselves launching military assaults against 고구려 at the same time.  Probably both the Chinese and the 신라 people saw themselves as "in charge" of the military assault on 고구려.  But after the defeat of 고구려, the Tang kingdom attempted to take control of both 고구려 and 신라.  So, 신라 went to war with the Tang kingdom, and successfully maintained control of the Korean peninsula.

After the 신라-Tang wars, 신라 unified all territories of the Korean peninsula under one kingdom, but it failed to maintain control of the northern territories of the 고구려 kingdom, those territories located to the north of the Korean peninsula.  As a result, a new kingdom called Balhae (발해) was established there by a former general of 고구려.  Balhae was annexed by the Liao dynasty of China in the mid 900's.  However, as the former 고구려 territories are located at the easternmost frontier of all former Chinese empires, how much influence the Chinese governors actually exercised over them is unclear to me.

Today, the majority of the former territories of 고구려 are within the borders of modern China, in Manchuria.  But some Koreans that I have spoken to have told me that they consider that these territories should be returned to Korea.  In addition, some Koreans believe that the modern Chinese state gained control of the former 고구려 territories at the turn of the 20th century, via some sort of unofficial land-for-peace agreement between Chinese authorities and the former Japanese colonists of Korea.  This matter, known as the Goguryeo controversy, is of some importance in modern China-Korea relations.  Though there does not appear to be any serious efforts on the part of the Korean government to regain any territories from China, there are important disagreements about the interpretation of the history of this region.  For China, the region has always been a part of the historical Chinese kingdoms.  On the other hand, Korea sees the region as a former Korean territory that was conquered by China.  And apparently, Koreans often travel to sites in north-east China, like Ji'an, that are of importance in the history of 고구려.  Also, many Koreans worry that China, in claiming the 고구려 kingdom as a long-standing part of China's territory, is building a historical narrative to ultimately justify the taking over North Korea, if not all of the Korean peninsula.