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Collection
The Three Kingdoms period in ancient Korea from the 1st century BCE to 7th century CE actually saw four states dominate the peninsula: Silla, Gaya, Baekje, and Goguryeo. All shared similar characteristics of government and a highly stratified system of social classes. Many ideas were adopted from neighbouring China such as writing and coinage, while Baekje had particularly close ties with Japan. It was a period of great artistic endeavour with fine ceramics, tomb painting, and gilt-bronze sculpture being produced, which today constitute many of the national treasures of Korea. The rich and sometimes turbulent history of the period were recorded in two of Korea's most famous literary works, the Samguk Sagi and the Samguk Yusa, written in the 12th and 13th centuries CE respectively.
In this collection, we look at each kingdom of the period in detail, including some of their most famous rulers and monuments. We also examine the history of the period through the two books mentioned and see the relevance of Buddhism, Confucianism, and neighbouring states on Korea in the Three Kingdoms period.
Notable surviving structures at Gyeongju include the mid-7th century CE Cheomseongdae observatory. Nine metres tall, it acted like a sundial but also has a south-facing window which captures the sun's rays on the interior floor on each equinox. It is the oldest surviving observatory in East Asia.
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About the Author
Mark is a full-time writer, researcher, historian, and editor. Special interests include art, architecture, and discovering the ideas that all civilizations share. He holds an MA in Political Philosophy and is the WHE Publishing Director.
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License & Copyright
Uploaded by Mark Cartwright, published on 15 May 2019. The copyright holder has published this content under the following license: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike. This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon this content non-commercially, as long as they credit the author and license their new creations under the identical terms. When republishing on the web a hyperlink back to the original content source URL must be included. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms.