Jizi
Template:Short description Template:For Template:Infobox Chinese Jizi, Qizi, or Kizi (Template:Lang-zh)Template:Efn, called in Korean Kija (Template:Korean/auto), was a semi-legendary<ref>
- "Although Kija may have truly existed as a historical figure, Tangun is more problematical."
- "The Tangun myth became more popular with groups that wanted Korea to be independent; the Kija myth was more useful to those who wanted to show that Korea had a strong affinity to China."
- "If a choice is to be made between them, one is faced with the fact that the Tangun, with his supernatural origin, is more clearly a mythological figure than Kija."
</ref> Chinese sage who is said to have ruled Kija Chosŏn in the 11th century BCE. Early Chinese documents like the Book of Documents and the Bamboo Annals described him as a virtuous relative of the last king of the Shang dynasty who was punished for remonstrating with the king. After Shang was overthrown by Zhou in the 1040s BCE, he allegedly gave political advice to King Wu,<ref>https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/29740/1/Han_Hee_Yeon_C_201105_PhD_thesis.pdf p. 271</ref> the first Zhou king. Chinese texts from the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) onwards claimed that King Wu enfeoffed Jizi as ruler of Chaoxian (Template:Lang, pronounced "Joseon" in Korean). According to the Book of Han (1st century CE), Jizi brought agriculture, sericulture, and many other facets of Chinese civilization to Joseon. His family name was Template:Tlit/Template:Tlit (Template:Lang) and given name was Template:Tlit/Template:Tlit (Template:Zhi/ Template:Lang Template:Tlit, or Template:Zhi/Template:Lang Template:Tlit).Template:Citation needed
Kija (the Korean pronunciation of "Jizi") may have been the object of a state cult in sixth-century Goguryeo, and a mausoleum to him was established in Goryeo in 1102, but the first extant Korean text to mention Kija was the Samguk sagi (1145). Starting in the late thirteenth century, Kija was fully integrated into Korean history, being described as a successor to the descendants of Dangun in the state of Old Joseon. Following the spread of Neo-Confucianism in Korea in the fourteenth century, scholars of the Joseon period (est. 1392) promoted Kija as a culture hero alongside Dangun, with Kwŏn Kŭn's preface of Sambong chip writing,
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However, with the development of radiocarbon dating and newly found excavations, modern Korean historians started to question the legitimacy of his enfeoffment as ruler of Gojoseon. Shin Chaeho (1880–1936) was the first to question the extent of Kija's cultural contributions and many followed as Kija's historical claims did not align with archeological evidence found during the time of his supposed rule.<ref name=":0" /> Additionally, post-war Korean scholars in both North and South Korea have strongly criticized the story of Kija's migration to Korea in the eleventh century BCE, claiming that his involvement in the history of Korea was widely exaggerated.
In recent times, both North and South Korea, and their respective historians do not officially recognize Jizi and his supposed accomplishments,<ref name=":1" /> making China the only nation that still supports his claims.Template:Citation needed
In ancient Chinese texts
Pre-Qin sources
The earliest known mention of Jizi is in the "Mingyi" Template:Lang hexagram of the Book of Change.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> According to other ancient Chinese texts like the Book of Documents, the Analects, and the Bamboo Annals, Jizi was a relative of King Zhou, the last ruler of the Shang dynasty, and one of the three wise men of Shang, along with Weizi (Template:Lang) and Bi Gan.<ref name="Shim 274">Template:Harvnb.</ref> Many identify him as Grand Tutor of the king. Jizi was either imprisoned or enslaved for remonstrating against King Zhou's misrule.<ref name="Shim 274"/> (One later version states that he pretended to be mad after Bigan had been killed by King Zhou.)<ref>Template:Harvnb. This version appears in the Huainanzi, a text that was compiled in the second century BC.</ref> After Shang was overthrown by the Zhou dynasty in the mid eleventh century BC, Jizi was released by King Wu, to whom he gave advice on how to rule the new polity.<ref name="Shim 274"/>
These texts mention neither Joseon nor Jizi's descendants; they simply describe Jizi as a virtuous man who was trusted by King Wu of Zhou after having been mistreated by the last Shang king.<ref name="Shim 274"/>
Han and later texts
The first texts that make an explicit connection between Jizi and Joseon date from the second century BC, under the Han dynasty.<ref name="Shim 275">Template:Harvnb.</ref> The earliest known source stating that Jizi went to Joseon is the Shangshu dazhuan (Template:Lang), a commentary on the Book of Documents attributed to Fu Sheng of the second century BC.<ref name="Shim 274"/> In that account, King Wu enfeoffed Jizi as the ruler of Joseon and Jizi became the subject of King Wu.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> In a similar story recorded in Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian (or Shiji, compiled between 109 and 91 BC), Jizi was enfeoffed by King Wu but did not become his subject.<ref name="Shim 275"/> Sima Qian did not mention Jizi in his section on contemporary Joseon (i.e. northwestern Korea), where Wei Man's kingdom had flourished since about 194 BC until it was conquered by the Han dynasty in 108 BC.<ref name="Shim 275"/> Thus the location of Joseon as in these earlier sources is not clear. Among other Han dynasty sources, the Han shi waizhuan mentions to Jizi but not his migration to Joseon.
The "Monograph on Geography" (Dili zhi Template:Lang) of the Book of Han (1st century AD) claims that Jizi had taught the people of Joseon agriculture, sericulture, and weaving, as well as proper ceremony.<ref>Template:Harvnb. Original text: Template:Lang (Hanshu Template:Lang [Book of Han], chapter 28.2, p. 1658 of the standard Zhonghua shuju edition).</ref> Jae-hoon Shim interprets the following sentence in that section of the Hanshu as claiming that Jizi also introduced the law of "Eight Prohibitions" (Template:Lang) in Joseon.<ref>Template:Harvnb. Original text: Template:Lang (Hanshu Template:Lang [Book of Han], chapter 28.2, p. 1658 of the standard Zhonghua shuju edition). The Records of Three Kingdoms (late 3rd century AD) and other later documents interpret these "Eight Prohibitions" as Jizi's teachings, but it is also possible that the Hanshu was describing the early phase of Lelang Commandery, and not Jizi's initiatives.</ref> The Records of Three Kingdoms (first published in the early fifth century) claims that the descendants of Jizi reigned as kings of Joseon for forty generations until they were overthrown by Wei Man, a man from the state of Yan, in 194 BC.<ref>Template:Harvnb. Record of Three Kingdoms (chapter 30, p. 848): Template:Lang. The overthrowing of the kings of Joseon by Wei Man is also recorded in the Brief History of Wei (third century), which is cited in Sanguozhi, chapter 30, p. 850.</ref>
According to his commentary to the Shiji, Du Yu (first half of the 3rd century) states that the tomb of Jizi was located in Meng Prefecture of the State of Liang (modern-day Henan). This suggests that the story of Jizi's association with Joseon was not necessarily prevailing although the narrative seen in the Hanshu later became common.Template:Citation needed
As historian Jae-hoon Shim concludes, only during the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD) did Jizi begin to be associated with Joseon, and only after the Han were his descendants identified as the Joseon royal family.<ref name="Shim 275"/>
Interpretations of Kija in Korea
Ancient Korean accounts
The first extant Korean text to mention Kija (the Korean pronunciation of Jizi) was Kim Pusik's Samguk sagi (completed in 1145), which claimed that Kija had been enfeoffed in Haedong (Template:Lang: Korea) by the Zhou court, but commented that this account was uncertain because of the brevity of the sources.<ref name="Shim 276">Template:Harvnb.</ref> Only in the thirteenth century did Korean texts start to integrate Kija more fully into Korean history. The Samguk yusa (1281) explained that after being enfeoffed by King Wu of Zhou, Kija replaced Dangun's descendants as the ruler of Joseon, whereas Jewang Ungi (1287) identified Dangun and Kija as the first rulers of former and latter Joseon respectively.<ref name="Shim 276"/> Most premodern Korean historians after that accepted that Kija had replaced another indigenous power (represented by Dangun) in Old Joseon.<ref name="Shim 276"/>
In 1102, during the Goryeo period, King Sukjong built a mausoleum to Kija in a place near Pyongyang that had been identified as Kija's tomb.<ref>Template:Harvnb, citing the Goryeosa, the official history of Goryeo compiled in the fifteenth century under the Joseon period.</ref>Sadang for Kija called Kijasa (Template:Lang) was also built in Pyongyang.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The mausoleum was rebuilt in 1324 and was repaired in 1355, but the cult of Kija spread most widely after the establishment of the Joseon Dynasty in 1392. Because Joseon's state ideology was Neo-Confucianism borrowed from China, Joseon intellectuals promoted Kija as a culture hero who had raised Korean civilization to the same level as China.<ref name="Shim 277">Template:Harvnb.</ref>
From the second half of the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century, Joseon scholars published a number of books on Kija. In 1580, Yun Tusu collated all available material on him and published his research as the Kijaji (Template:Lang; "Record of Kija").<ref name="Shim 277"/> On the same year, eminent scholar Yi I used Yun's book to compile the Kija Silgi (Template:Lang), or True Account of Kija.<ref name="Shim 277"/> Yi praised Kija for introducing agriculture, sericulture, decorum, the well-field system, and the Eight Prohibitions.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Though he emphasized Kija's independence from King Wu of Zhou, Yi believed that Kija's teachings helped Korea to reach the same level of civilization as China.<ref name="Shim 278">Template:Harvnb.</ref> The cult of Kija also continued as temples which worshiped Kija portraits called Kijayeongjeon (Template:Lang), were built in the 18th century in South Pyongan Province.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Although Korean scholars became more critical of Kija's role in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, this account of Kija as the "bearer of civilization from China" became widely accepted, so much that by the late Joseon, the worship of Kija "had become an integral part of Korean cultural identity."<ref>Historians more critical: Template:Harvnb, citing Template:Harvnb. Kija as "bearer of civilization: Template:Harvnb, pages 37 ("Korean transmission from the sage Kija at the founding of civilization in Korea") and 43 (Kija as "the bearer of civilization from China"); and Template:Harvnb. "Integral part of Korean cultural identity": Template:Harvnb.</ref> Some Korean clans claim to be direct descendants of Kija himself.<ref>Template:Harvnb. These families were the Han (Template:Korean) of Sangdang Template:Lang, the Ki (Template:Korean) of Deogyang Template:Lang, and the Seonu (Template:Korean) of Daewŏn Template:Lang.</ref>
Twentieth century accounts
In the beginning of the twentieth century, Korean historians started to doubt the authenticity of his supposed influence.<ref name="Shim 278"/> Shin Chaeho (1880–1936), a Korean independence nationalistic activist historian during the Japanese occupation, was the first to question the extent of Kija's contributions.<ref name="Shim 278"/> In an essay titled Doksa Sillon ("New Reading of History"; 1908), he argued that Korean history was revolved around Dangun, the legendary founder of the state of Gojoseon.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref> Shin dismissed Kija's contributions due to his foreign origin.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Shin also argued that Kija had become a vassal of the kings of Buyeo and was only given control of a small territory.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref>
Other historians such as Choe Nam-seon (1890–1957) and Lee Byeong-do (1896–1989) started to notice discrepancies between pre-Qin Chinese records of Jizi/Kija, and later accounts (both Chinese and Korean) of his role in Joseon.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> In 1973, archeologist Kim Cheong-bae (Template:Lang) denied Chinese influence on Korea because no ancient Chinese bronzes had been found on the peninsula.<ref name=":0">Template:Harvnb.</ref>
In addition, Ri Chirin, a leading North Korean historian of ancient Korea, argued that the Kija legend had been forged in Han times when the Chinese started to occupy part of Joseon.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> Most North Korean scholars have followed Ri in doubting the authenticity of Kija's migration to Joseon.<ref>Template:Harvnb.</ref>
Modern Korean accounts
Modern Korean scholars also deny the existence of Kija's involvement in Kija Chosŏn for various reasons.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> They point to the Bamboo Annals and the Confucian Analects, which were among the first works to mention Kija, but do not mention his migration to Gojoseon.<ref>Template:Lang</ref> However, some Kija enthusiasts suggest that Kija Chosŏn may have coexisted with Dangun, and that Kija Chosŏn was established at the western end of Gojoseon.<ref>Template:Harvnb</ref> This claim is mostly denied by modern Korean historians.
In addition, detractors of the Kija Chosŏn theory also point out that the cultural artifacts found in the region do not appear to have Chinese origins. An example of such an artifact is found in a Gojoseon mandolin-shaped bronze dagger. Its shape and bronze composition are different from similar artifacts found in China being described as "The detachable handle is a key feature for distinguishing Liaoning daggers from other Chinese daggers, which were typically produced in one piece."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Currently, Korean historians (from both nations) reject the previously held belief of Kija's involvement in Korea and thus many high school textbooks applied these recent studies reevaluating Kija and his influence with him now only being mentioned in a foot note.<ref name=":1">The theory introduced in the national history textbooks of the 5th and 6th Curricula considers "Kija" to be the name of a Korean tribe.</ref> Additionally, the 7th edition of the Korean textbooks do not mention Jizi/Kija, making China the only nation to officially support the preceding theory.Template:Citation needed
See also
Notes
References
Sources
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