Balhae

Expansion and foreign relations

The second king Mu, who felt encircled by Tang, Silla and Black Water Mohe along the Amur River, attacked Tang and his navy briefly occupied a port on the Shandong Peninsula in 732. Later, a compromise was forged between Tang and Balhae, which resumed tributary missions to Tang. He also sent a mission to Japan in 728 to threaten Silla from the rear. Balhae kept diplomatic and commercial contacts with Japan until the end of the kingdom. Because of its proximity to many powerful states, Balhae became a buffer zone for the region.

The third king Mun expanded its territory into the Amur valley in the north and the Liaodong Peninsula in the west. He also established the permanent capital near Lake Jingpo in the south of today's Heilongjiang province around 755.

By the 8th century, Balhae controlled northern Korea, all of northeastern part of China's Northeast, and the Liaodong peninsula. Its strength was such that Silla was forced to build a northern wall in 721 as well as maintain active defences along the common border.

Fall and legacy

The Khitans themselves would eventually succumb to the Jurchen people, which founded the Jin Dynasty. The Jin dynasty favored the Balhae people as well as the Khitans. The fourth, fifth and seventh emperors of Jin were mothered by Balhae consorts. The 13th century census of Northern China by the Mongols distinguished Balhae from other ethnic groups such as Goryeo, Khitan and Jurchen. This suggests that the Balhae people still preserved their identity even after the conquest of the kingdom.

Government and culture

An important source of cultural information on Balhae was discovered at the end of the 20th century at the Ancient Tombs at Longtou Mountain, especially the Mausoleum of Princess Jeong-Hyo.

Characterization and political interpretation

Koreans regard Balhae as a Korean state, particular from the Joseon Dynasty onwards. The 18th century, during the Joseon Dynasty, was a period in which Korean scholars began a renewed interest in Balhae. The Qing and Joseon dynasties had negotiated and demarcated the Sino-Korean border along the Yalu and Tumen rivers in 1712, and Jang Ji-yeon (1762–1836), journalist, writer of nationalist tracts, and organizer of nationalist societies, published numerous articles arguing that had the Joseon officials considered Balhae part of their territory, they would not be as eager to "give up" lands north of the rivers. Yu Deuk-gong in his eighteenth-century work Parhaego (An investigation of Balhae) argued that Balhae should be included as part of Korean history, and that doing so would justify territorial claims on northeastern China. Korean historian Sin Chae-ho, writing about Gando in the early twentieth century, bemoaned that for centuries, Korean people in their “hearts and eyes considered only the land south of the Yalu as their home” and that “half of our ancestor Tan’gun’s ancient lands have been lost for over nine hundred years.” Sin also criticized Kim Busik, author of the Samguk Sagi, for excluding Balhae from his historical work and claiming that Silla had achieved unification of Korea.^[#endnote_1] Inspired by ideas of Social Darwinism, Sin wrote:

How intimate is the connection between Korea and northeastern China? When the Korean race obtains northeastern China, the Korean race is strong and prosperous. When another race obtains northeastern China, the Korean race is inferior and recedes. Moreever, when in the possession of another race, if that race is the northern race, then Korea enters that northern race's sphere of power. If an eastern race obtains northeastern China, then Korea enters that race's sphere of power. Alas! This is an iron rule that has not changed for four thousand years.^[#endnote_2]

In modern North and South Korea, Balhae is regarded as a Korean state and is positioned in the "North-South Period" (with Silla) today, although such a view has had proponents in the past. They emphasize its connection with Goguryeo and minimize that with the Mohe. While South Korean historians think the ethnicity ruling class was of Goguryeo and the commoners were mixed, including Mohe, North Korean historians think Balhae ethnography was mostly Goguryeo. Koreans believe the founder Dae Joyeong was of Goguryeo stock. The Book of Tang says that Dae Joyeong was of a "changed Goguryeo kind" (高麗別種),[link] and the New Book of Tang states that he is "from the Sumo Mohe of the former realm of Goguryeo."

In the West, Balhae is generally characterized as a successor to Goguryeo that traded with China and Japan, and its name is romanized from Korean. ^{([Disputed statementdisputed]—see [link] [link] [link] [link] It is seen as composed of peoples of northern part of northeastern China and northern Korea, with its founder and the ruling class consisting largely of the former aristocrats of Goguryo. ([Disputed statementdisputed]—see [Dae Joyeong was of Goguryeo ethnicity ([Disputed statementdisputed]—see [Disputed statementdisputed]—see [link] [link][link] [link] [link] [link]}

Like many ancient Korean and Japanese kingdoms, Balhae sometimes paid tribute to China, and a heir who lacks this sanction was called by China 知國務 ("State Affairs Leader"), not king; also, China considered every king simultaneously the Prefect of Huhan Prefecture (忽汗州都督府都督). However, Balhae rulers called themselves emperors and declared their own era names. Chinese historians consider Balhae to be composed of the Balhae ethnic group, which was mostly based on the Mohe. Historically, the Jurchens (later renamed the Manchus, considered themselves as sharing ancestry with the Mohe (Malgal), and the People's Republic of China continues to consider Balhae as part of the history of its ethnic Manchus. [link]

The People's Republic of China is accused of limiting Korean archealogists access to historical sites located within Liaoning and Jilin. Starting from 1994, increasing numbers of South Korean tourists began to visit archaeological sites in China and often engaged in nationalistic displays. This was aggravated by a series of tomb robberies and vandalism at several of these archaelogical sites between 1995 and 2000, which were widely believed to have been perpetrated by ethnic Koreans. ^[#endnote_4]

South Korean archeaologist Song Ki-ho, who is a noted professor of Seoul National University and has published several papers criticizing the Chinese government, made several visits to China in the 1990's, 2000, 2003, and 2004, examined several historical sites and museums. However, he found himself restricted by limitations on note-taking and photography and even ejected from several sites by museum employees. [link] [link] [link]

North Korea has restricted independent archaelogists from its historical sites since at least the early 1960's. Foreign scholars have criticized political bias in North Korean historiography, and have accused North Korean scholars of reconstructing or even fabricating historical sites. ^[#endnote_5]

Russian archaelogists and scholars, like those from China, think of Balhae as an independent Mohe state, with Central Asian and Chinese influence. [link]

In relations with Japan, Balhae referred to itself as Goguryeo, and Japan welcomed this as a kind of restoration of its former friendly relationship with Goguryeo. [link] [link] Modern Japanese scholars view Balhae as an independent state.

References and notes