Korean History: Antiquity to 1875 Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In 108 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty incorporated much of the Korean peninsula into the Chinese empire. What was the main administrative center that the Chinese established in Korea?

Answer: Lelang commandery

Lelang was the most important and longest lasting of the four Han commanderies established by Emperor Wu. The location of its headquarters is now part of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Lelang remained a center of Chinese influence in the Korean peninsula until it was annexed by Koguryo in the fourth century AD.

2. Which of Korea's "Three Kingdoms" survived the Chinese invasions of the seventh century AD?

Answer: Silla

Silla, located in the southeast, around today's Pusan, was initially an ally of Tang China and assisted in the conquest of Silla (660) and Koguryo (668). Silla then turned against China and supported resistance movements in the conquered territories. When Tang forces withdrew to confront more serious threats from the Tibetans and (later) the Eastern Turks, Silla was able to unify most of the Korean peninsula under its own control.

3. Where was the medieval state of Parhae (or Balhae) located?

Answer: Manchuria and Northern Korea

Parhae (or Balhae) was founded by a former Koguryo general in 698. It survived until 926, when it was conquered by the Khitan and incorporated into their Liao state.

4. Which of these cities was the capital of the Koryo dynasty?

Answer: Kaesong

The Koryo dynasty lasted from 918 to 1392 and was the first to unify the Korean peninsula. "Koryo" is a shortened form of Koguryo and the source of the modern term "Korea."

5. Who was the founder of Korea's last royal dynasty?

Answer: Yi Song-gye

Yi Song-gye (1335-1408) was a Koryo general who seized power and established the Choson kingdom (Yi dynasty) in 1392. His descendants ruled Korea for more than 500 years.

6. What was the greatest contribution to Korean culture made by King Sejong?

Answer: The Korean alphabet

King Sejong was born in 1397 and ruled Korea from 1418 until his death in 1450. He was an East Asian version of the "complete Renaissance man" and is credited with a great variety of reforms and inventions. By far the most important of these is the Korean phonetic alphabet (Hanggul). Before the fifteenth century, literate Koreans wrote in classical Chinese just as Chinese scholars did. King Sejong is also credited with the invention of metallic, movable type, but woodblock printing had originated in China centuries earlier and was already well known throughout East Asia.

7. What secret weapon did the Korean Admiral Yi Sun-sin use to inflict repeated defeats on Japanese invaders in the 1590s?

Answer: turtle ship

These warships bristled with cannon and were roofed over. They thoroughly outclassed the vessels the "dwarf bandits" could deploy against them. Whether or not they were the world's first ironclad warships is still a matter of debate.

8. What was the Korean scholar-official class called during the Yi dynasty?

Answer: Yangban

Yangban meant literally "two groups" -- the civil and military officials. They monopolized high government office and owned most of the land in the country. Unlike the "gentry" in China, their status was hereditary. Other social classes were chungin (lower-ranking government employees), yangmin (commoners, often serf-like tenants on yangban-owned lands), and ch'onmin ("base people," such as slaves).

9. What was the dominant social and political ideology under the Yi dynasty?

Answer: Confucianism

In "East Asia: Tradition and Transformation" (revised edition, 1989) Fairbank, Reischauer & Craig have this to say: "Korea became in many ways an almost model Confucian society, and it came to show some of the strengths and also some of the weaknesses of the Confucian polity in more extreme form than they appeared in China." (p. 301) Koreans pushed Confucian ritual prescriptions to such an extreme that most people had to wear white (the color of mourning) most of the time.

10. For much of the nineteenth century, Korea remained a loyal tributary of China and sought to minimize contacts with the Western powers and Japan. As a result, it became known to foreigners as the _______ Kingdom.

Answer: Hermit

The Koreans were in the habit of firing at foreign vessels that approached their shores -- such as the American "General Sherman," which was burned in the Taedong estuary in 1866. The hermit label was apparently first applied by William Elliot Griffis in his book, "Corea: The Hermit Nation" (1882).

Source: Author Guiguzi

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor bloomsby before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Korea has a long history and deserves some quizzes that are more representative. Here is the first of two.

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