Masterpieces on middle-age Korea

Paekjae Kingdom(or Baekjae Kingdom), 18B.C.- 660A.D.

Around the period before and after the Christianera the Kingdom of Chinguk became weak gradually and the autonomous local aristocrats grew into power-ful feudal forces. Paekje and silla came to the front.
Paekje formed a feudal kingdom around the 1st century, a little later than Koguryo. Kwangju (Kyong-gi Province) south of the han-gang River was set as her capital. According to the legend, Onjo, founder of Paekje, was the second son of Chumong, founder of Koguryo. As the eldest son, who was born when his father Chunmong was in Puyo, came and succeeded to the throne, Ryuri Onjo, the second king of Kogu-ryo, moved to the area south of the River Han-gang and founded a kingdom. This legend is based on a histor-ical fact that paekje was founded by a political force which broke off from Koguryo.
in fact, Paekje followed the Koguryo pattern. this is borne out by the fact that in paekje the an-cestral rites were conducted at the shrine dedicated to Chumong and that the kingdom was divided into five adninistrative districts as in the case of Kogu-ryo.
After her creation, Paekje annexed small territorial kingdom. In 9 A.D. she conquered Mahan. from then onwards, the work of union continued in the Mahan region.
In the mid-1st century the government was administered by the ministrative called ehwabo and ubo. For administratrative purposes Paeje was divided into five districts in the capital and five communities in local areas. The intensified feudal system was ac-companied by the consolidation of the central admin-istration machinery in 260 A.D. In addition to 16 of-ficial ranks, under the king there were six govern-ment posts dealing with the royal court, finance, official posts were held by aristocrats of Koguryo origin who emigrated from the north and by the na-tive Mahan dignitaries. This was aimed at strengthen-ing her political foothold.
Paekje had a powerful standing army. Five hun-dred soldiers were placed in each pu or district in the capital and 700 to 1,200 soldiers in each pang or community in local areas. A criminal law was in force. It laid down that:
Traitors, murderers and those who retreated in battle shall be put to death and prostitutes and thieves shall be made slaves.
Such repressive measures pursued double aims-externally, to protect the country from the encroach-ment of the foreign enemy and internally, to oppress the people.
In Paekje, too, the political system was based on the aristocratic democracy. The king could not wield all powers over the state affairs; the appointment and dismissal of ministers were subjected to the ap-proval of the aristocrats body.
Paekje succeeded in conquering local forces and placing their areas under the state control. But in her early years, she adopted a feodo-vassalitic system, I.e., a system under which local aristocrats were ap-pointed lords or kings and their autonomy was re-cognized. This system was applied even to the "small countries" founded in japan by Paekje -lining aristo-crats. According to historical records, 28 townships were all under the control of the royal family and there were big aristocratic family units with eight dif-fering names. This indicates that there existed a feo-do-lord system under which local dynasties of vassaiific dignifaries were independent in their activities.
Land and other properties obtained in the course of conquering the local feudal forces were giver out among the royal dignitaries and officials as fieds. The local lords and officials who had received fiefs provid-ed individual persons with land in order to reduce them to haho (serfs). A documentary record says that those belonging to the haho class had their own clothes and seals. From this it seems that they tilled the land on their own, but they were virtually the vassals of their lords.
With the gradual expansion of the territory fol-lowing the founding of the kingdom, agricultural production increased, handicraft manufacturing and commerce developed and culture also flowered. In the early 4th century, Pakeje turned into a strong kingdom with fertile, wide land stretching from the area of Heanghae province into the coastal area along the South sea, Cholla Province of today.
But confronted with Koguryos southward advance started from the late 4th century, Paekje lost vast land in the basin of the Han-gang River in 339. in 475 she was compelled to transfer her capital to ungjin (now Kongju in South Chungchong Province). Attempts were made to check Koguryos southward advance with the support of Silla and the Paekje-lin-ing feudal forces in japan.
At the time of king Munyong (501-523) a series of positive measures were taken to encourage agri-cultural production and reinforce the military poten-tial. This tended to strengthen national power, to some extent.
After her capital was transferred to Sabi(now Puyo in South Chungchong Province) again in 538, Paekje attained economic and cultural development to some degree and regained her lost territory in the lower reaches of the Han-gang River.
But, by this time corruption of the court aristocrats and scramble for power within the ruling circles were becoming evident and this greatly reduced national strength. When the Tang aggressors invaded Puyo, 3,000 court ladies in the royal palace plunged into the paekma-gang River as so many flowers falling. The tragic story interwoven with firm constancy of Korean women and one aspect of increasing depravity of the royal court.
The attack of allied troops of silla and Tang brought Paekje to an end in 660.