Korean History Explained as a Drama

A Rough and Even Controversial Semantic Encoding

Korea was the most beautiful girl in the neighborhood.

Only the strongest guy could ever date her.

The Sui dynasty (581–618) confessed, but Korea (Goguryeo) rejected it.

Sui picked a fight with korea, lost at the Battle of Salsu (612) and collapsed.

The Tang dynasty (618–907) confessed next, and Korea dated Tang for a while.

Tang, with Silla, destroyed Baekje (660) and Goguryeo (668).

(Baekje, Goguryeo, and Silla were the three ancient kingdoms of Korea.)

The Song dynasty (960–1279) appeared, but bullies like Khitan Liao (907–1125), Jurchen Jin (1115–1234), and Mongol Yuan (1271–1368) blocked the way.

The Khitan confessed three times (993, 1010, 1018) but got slapped and went home.

The Jurchens briefly dated Korea (12th century) by force but soon lost grip.

Then the Mongols, the most brutal, forced Korea (wars 1231–1259) into submission.

Korea entered a marriage alliance (after 1270), but thought there was nothing to learn from the Mongols and felt sad.

The Yuan picked fights everywhere until collapsing (1368).

The Ming dynasty (1368–1644) rose, smart and strong.

Korea (Joseon, founded 1392) liked Ming a lot(Ming was center of Confucianism), respected Ming like an older brother and served faithfully.

Meanwhile, all along, Japan (late 16th century) was always treated as unimpressive by Korea and China.

Shame piled up until it exploded in the Imjin War (1592–1598).

The excuse was “a road to China,” but really Japan wanted Korea.

With Ming’s help, Korea endured; Japan tormented her but failed to win her heart.

The war drained Ming, which soon collapsed (1644).

The Jurchens reemerged as Qing (1636–1912), taking Ming’s place.

Qing also wanted korea as a partner. Korea considered Qing not her type and refused, but in the Manchu Invasion (1636) qing forced down and took her by sheer power.