Gija

Gija
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese:	箕子
Simplified Chinese:	箕子
Hanyu Pinyin:	Jīzǐ
Wade-Giles:	Chi-tzu
Korean name
Hangul:	기자
Hanja:	箕子
Revised Romanization:	Gija
McCune-Reischauer:	Kija

Jizi (chinese:箕子)(Gija in Korean), a semi-legendary Chinese sage who ruled Joseon in the 12th century B.C.E. He had Zi(子)as his family name and Xuyu (胥餘/서여 xūyú/seoyeo, or 須臾/수유 xūyú/suyu) as his given name.

Legend

The typical narrative of the legend of Jizi follows:

Jizi had been a relative of Zhou, the last king of the Shang Dynasty known as one of the three wise men of Shang, along with Weizi and Bigan. Some identify him as Grant Tutor of the king. The corrupt king imprisoned him by because he demonstrated against misrule (one variant states that he pretended madness after King Zhou killed Bigan resulting in his imprisonment). After the Zhou Dynasty overthrew Shang Jizi King Wu released him. He gave King Wu advice on politics when the king visited him. King Wu enfeoffed Jizi on Joseon, identified as northwestern Korea today. He taught the people rites, agriculture, sericulture and weaving.

Evolution of the legend of Jizi

Map of Korea from early 1700

As time has passed, legends about Jizi have become more and more numerous, leading many scholars to conclude the Gija lengend had no basis in history. Dating classical Chinese text has been difficult, but pre-Qin Dynasty documents including the Analects of Confucius, the Shangshu and the Bamboo Annals simply describe Gija as a virtuous man from the Shang royal family. He never had been associated with Joseon. In addition, those texts make no mention of Jizi's descendants.

The Shangshu dazhuan (zh:尚书大传) (2nd century B.C.E.?) constitutes the earliest known source that states Jizi went to Joseon. King Wu of Zhou recognized Jizi as the ruler of Joseon. The Records of the Grand Historian (Shiji) by Sima Qian records a similar but more detailed story, but unlike the Shangshu dazhuan, states that Jizi did not became a subject of King Wu although enfeoffed by the king. In the Shiji, the story appears in the section of the Song ruling family (宋微子世家), the founder Weizi coming from the former Shang. The story is omitted from the section dealing with contemporary Joseon (i.e. northwestern Korea), where Wiman's kingdom had flourished until falling to the Han Dynasty. Thus Joseon refered to in those sources remains hazy. Among Han-Dynasty sources, the Hanshi waizhuan mentions to Jizi leaving out any mention of Jizi's migration to Joseon.

The Hanshu (1st century AD) makes no mention to Jizi in the section of Joseon but adds Jizi's education in the section of Dilizhi (地理志): He taught the people of Joseon rites, agriculture, sericulture and weaving. In addition, a sentence in the Hanshu has been interpreted as Jizi's introduction of the law of "Eight Prohibitions" in Joseon. The Weilüe, complied during the Kingdom of Wei (220-265) or later, inserts a record about Jizi's descendants and connects Jizi to Wiman's kingdom in northwestern Korea: Jizi's descendants remained in Joseon and claimed themselves as king after the Zhou Dynasty declined. The Weilüe characterizes the last king Zhun (準), as a Yan Chinese fleeing to Joseon after expulsion in 192 B.C.E. by Wiman. Zhun fled to the south and proclaimed himself the King of Han (韓).

According to a commentary to the Shiji, Du Yu (first half of the 3rd century) located the tomb of Jizi in Meng Prefecture of the State of Liang. That suggests that the story of Jizi's association with Joseon had been weak although the narrative seen in the Hanshu later became common. According to the Old Book of Tang, the people of Goguryeo, who had already conquered the former Chinese commanderies, worshipped Jizi as one of the major deities.

Relationship with historical facts

According to most scholars, early Chinese history books reflect historical facts at least from the late Shang Dynasty onwards leading to the conclusion that the Jizi described in pre-Qing sources existed as a historical character. Archaeological evidences suggest that Jihou (㠱侯) or Lord Ji under the Yan Kingdom ruled a small city state in Liaoning. Jihou may have served as the model of Jizi. As for post-Qing sources, the story in the Weilüe remains controversial due to information contained missing in later texts. Imanishi Ryū presumed that that story had spread to China because of Chinese direct rule of the Korean Peninsula and that the source of information would have been the influential Chinese Han clan of the Lelang Commandery, who might have claimed themselves as descendants of Jizi.

Spread of Gija's legend in Korea

Tombs of Koguryŏ rulers

The Koreans, especially Confucians, considered Jizi a Chinese sage who had brought Chinese civilization to Korea. During the Goryeo Dynasty, King Sukjong identified a mound near P'yŏngyang as Jizi's tomb. He built a mausoleum to enshrine him in 1102 C.E.. The throne rebuilt the mausoleum in 1324 and repaired it again in 1355. In the Samguk Yusa (1281?) and the Jewang Ungi (1287), the story of Jizi follows that of the Weilüe, but unlike Chinese sources, they add that Jizi succeeded Dangun, who had ruled Gojoseon. Most subsequent Korean history books follow that narrative.

During the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) Neo-Confucianism state worship of Jizi intensified. The name "Joseon," given by Ming, derived from Jizi's dukedom. During the reign of King Taejong therRitual rites of Jizi performed in P'yŏngyang refined. In 1429, King Sejong separated Dangun from the mausoleum of Jizi. King Sejong also put up a monument in honor of Jizi. In the same period, agricultural fields allegedly developed by Jizi became P'yŏngyang. Those fields came to prominence among Ming Chinese. In 1570, King Seonjo erected a monument instructing people to alight from horses (out of respect for Jizi).

A number of published books on Jizi include the Gijaji (箕子志) of 1580, a collection of available materials on him, and the Gija Silgi (箕子實記) by Yi I. Around the same time, many Korean clans associated their origins with Jizi. Among them, the Cheongju Han clan (淸州韓氏), the Deokyang Gi clan (德陽奇氏) and the Taewon Seonu clan (太原鮮于氏) claimed that they originated in Jizi.

Modern interpretation

Goguryeo tomb mural

At first, the Korean Empire placed equal importance on Dangun and Jizi (or weighted toward Jizi) to portray Korea as an independent kingdom instead of a vassal state of China. Emperor Gojong and his court stressed that King Wu of Zhou had never treated Jizi as a subject. Focus later shifted to Dangun. According to Choe Namseon, the word "Jizi" constituted a distortion of Korean "gaeaji," meaning "son of the sun" used as the title for a monarch who succeeded Dangun. Similarly, Yi Byeongdo claimed the Korean Han clan, who later falsely claimed descent from Jizi, the ruling family of Gija Joseon

Some scholars speculate that Jizi had been enfeoffed somewhere in China rather than settling in Korea. Candidates for the place of his enfeoffment include Meng Prefecture (modern-day Henan, China), based on Du Yu's above-mentioned statement, and Taigu, Shanxi, China, based on the Spring and Autumn Annals. Cheon Gwanu claimed that the Korean Gi tribe, led by Jizi, established Gija Joseon in Hebei and later migrated to P'yŏngyang.

In South Korea, the high school national history textbook describes Gija Joseon marginally in a note, as a Korean tribe. Although widely accepted during Goryeo and Joseon periods that Jizi migrated to Korea to establish Gija Joseon, Jizi's purported migration to Korea has been widely rejected today due to contradicting historical and archaeological evidence. In North Korea, according to Chinese scholar Zong Yan, the mausoleum of Jizi in P'yŏngyang had been removed.

References

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• Imanishi Ryū 今西龍. 1970. Kishi Chōsen densetsu kō 箕子朝鮮伝説考, Chōsen koshi no kenkyū 朝鮮古史の研究 Tōkyō: Kokusho Kankōkai, pp. 131-173. OCLC: 21368198
• Kuwano Eiji 桑野栄治: Richō shoki no siten wo tōshite mita Dankun saishi 李朝初期の祀典を通してみた檀君祭祀, Chōsen Gakuhō 朝鮮学報 (Journal of the Academic Association of Koreanology in Japan), Vol. 14, pp. 57-101, 1959.
• Sassa Mitsuaki 佐々充昭: Dankun nashonarizumu no keisei 檀君ナショナリズムの形成, Chōsen Gakuhō 朝鮮学報 (Journal of the Academic Association of Koreanology in Japan), Vol. 174, pp. 61-107, 2000.
• Jae-hoon Shim: A New Understanding of Kija Chosŏn as a Historical Anachronism, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Volume 62 Number 2, pp. 271-305, 2002.

External Sites

• Harvard Asia Quarterly: Will Flowers Bloom without Fragrance? Korean-Chinese Relations. Retrieved September 4, 2007.
• Digital Chosunilbo: China Co-Opts More Old Korean Kingdoms. Retrieved September 21, 2007.
• Korea.net: Korea, China need more research on history. Retrieved September 21, 2007.

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