The Three Kingdoms and Silla's unification
Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla compete for the peninsula for centuries until Silla, allied with Tang China, conquers its rivals and then drives the Tang out.
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
- Korea Old and New: A History — Carter J. Eckert, Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson and Edward W. Wagner, Ilchokak / Korea Institute, Harvard University (1990)
By the fourth century CE three kingdoms dominated the peninsula: Goguryeo in the north and Manchuria, a warrior state that repeatedly defeated Chinese invasions, including the huge Sui armies of 612; Baekje in the south-west, a sophisticated maritime kingdom that passed Buddhism, writing and craft skills to Japan; and Silla in the south-east, the latecomer, ruled by a rigid aristocracy of “bone ranks”. Small Gaya states along the south coast were absorbed by Silla in the sixth century.
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
- Korea Old and New: A History — Carter J. Eckert, Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson and Edward W. Wagner, Ilchokak / Korea Institute, Harvard University (1990)
Buddhism arrived from China in the late fourth century and became the faith of all three courts. Silla’s capital, Gyeongju, filled with temples and royal tombs, many packed with gold crowns.
- Korea Old and New: A History — Carter J. Eckert, Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson and Edward W. Wagner, Ilchokak / Korea Institute, Harvard University (1990)
In the seventh century Silla allied with Tang China, destroyed Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668, then fought its former ally until the Tang withdrew in 676. Silla now ruled most of the peninsula south of the Taedong River. In the north, former Goguryeo people and Malgal tribes founded the kingdom of Balhae (698–926). Korean historians increasingly call this period the “Northern and Southern States”.
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
- Korea Old and New: A History — Carter J. Eckert, Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson and Edward W. Wagner, Ilchokak / Korea Institute, Harvard University (1990)
Goguryeo was a Korean kingdom, ancestor of Goryeo (whose name means the same thing) and so of "Korea" itself. Chinese claims to it are seen as an attempt to rewrite Korean history.
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
A Chinese state research programme in 2002–07 described Goguryeo as a regional regime of ancient China, because much of its territory lay in what is now China.
- A Concise History of Korea: From Antiquity to the Present — Michael J. Seth, Rowman & Littlefield (2016)
Why it matters today
The Three Kingdoms are Korea's classical age, a source of regional identity, historical dramas and national pride. Goguryeo, whose territory reached deep into Manchuria, is also the subject of a sharp dispute with China over whether it was a Korean or a Chinese regional state.