Buyeo or
Puyŏ (),
Fuyu in
Chinese, was an ancient
Korean kingdom located from today's
Manchuria to northern
North Korea, from around the 2nd century BC to 494. Its remnants were absorbed by the neighboring and brotherhood kingdom of
Goguryeo in 494. Both Goguryeo and
Baekje, two of the
Three Kingdoms of Korea, considered themselves its successor nation.
Although records are sparse and contradictory, it is speculated that in 86 BCE,
Dongbuyeo (East Buyeo) branched out, after which the original Buyeo is sometimes referred to as
Bukbuyeo (North Buyeo).
Jolbon Buyeo was a continuation of Bukbuyeo under a changed state name. In 538, long after the fall of
Buyeo, Baekje renamed itself
Nambuyeo (South Buyeo).
"Buyeo" may also refer to a
Baekje surname or
Buyeo County in
South Korea.
History
Origins
Proto-Three Kingdoms, c. 001 AD.
The founder of Buyeo kingdom was probably Dongmyeong, having no relations with
Jumong who founded
Goguryeo. After its foundation,
Hae Mosu (解慕漱：the son of heaven) brought the royal court to his new palace, and they proclaimed him King. Hae Mosu called his new kingdom "Buyeo" to show that he was the true successor to the Kings of Buyeo.
Jumong is described as the son of Hae Mosu and
Yuhwa (柳花), who was a daughter of the Habaek (河伯).
Dongbuyeo
According to the
Samguk Sagi and other accounts, the kingdom of
Dongbuyeo (86 BCE - 22 CE) branched out to the east of
Bukbuyeo, near the land of
Okjeo. Bukbuyeo's King died, and his brother
Hae Buru succeeded him and became the king of Bukbuyeo.
Hae Buru found a golden frog-like child under a large rock. Hae Buru named the child
Geumwa, meaning golden frog, and later made him crown prince.
Geumwa became king after Hae Buru's death. Geumwa met
Yuhwa, the daughter of
Habaek, and brought her back to his palace. She was said to have been impregnated by sunlight and to have laid a golden egg. Geumwa made many attempts to destroy the egg, but failed, and returned the egg to Yuhwa. From the egg hatched
Jumong, who later founded the kingdom of
Goguryeo. Jumong later fled to
Jolbon Buyeo after numerous assassination attempts by the seven sons of King Geumwa.
Geumwa's eldest son
Daeso became the next king. Daeso attacked
Goguryeo during the reign of its second
King Yuri. Goguryeo's third
king Daemusin attacked Dongbuyeo and killed Daeso. After internal strife, Dongbuyeo fell, and its territory was absorbed into Goguryeo.
Contrarily,
Gwanggaeto stele mentioned Dongbuyeo as a vassal state of Goguryeo, even long after its destruction. Since the chronology is inconsistent with the
Samguk Sagi, the Dongbuyeo mentioned in the stele is widely speculated by historians to have been a revival movement of Dongbuyeo, formed around 285.
Jolbon Buyeo
Many historical records name a “Jolbon Buyeo” (卒本夫餘, 졸본부여), apparently referring to the incipient
Goguryeo or its capital city.
In 37 BCE, Jumong became the first king of
Goguryeo. Jumong went on to conquer
Okjeo,
Dongye, and Haengin, regaining some of
Gojoseon's former territory.
Under attack
At the end of Eastern Han,
Gongsun Du, a Chinese warlord in
Liaodong, supported Buyeo to counter
Xianbei in the north and Goguryeo in the east. After destroying the Gongsun family, the
Kingdom of Wei sent
Wuqiu Jian to attack Goguryeo. A squad of the third expeditionary force led by the Governor of the Xuantu commandery was welcomed by Buyeo. It brought detailed information of the kingdom to China.
After that, Buyeo was torn between big powers, and ravaged during the waves of movement of northern nomadic peoples into China. In 285 the Murong tribe of the Xianbei, led by
Murong Hui, invaded Buyeo, pushing King Uiryeo (依慮) to suicide, and forcing the relocation of the court to
Okjeo. Considering its friendly relationship with
Jin Dynasty, Emperor Wu helped King Uira (依羅) revive Buyeo.
Goguryeo's attack sometime before 347 caused further decline. Having lost its stronghold near Harbin, Buyeo moved southwestward to Nong'an. Around 347, Buyeo was attacked by
Murong Huang of the
Former Yan, and King Hyeon (玄) was captured.
Fall
A remnant of Buyeo seems to have lingered around Harbin under the influence of Goguryeo. Buyeo paid tribute once to
Northern Wei in 457, but otherwise seems to have been controlled by Goguryeo. Goguryeo and Buyeo were under attack by the rising Wuji (
Mohe, 勿吉, 물길) in 494 and the Buyeo court moved into Goguryeo.
Culture
The Buyeo were agricultural people who occupied the vastest plain in Manchuria. Their manners and customs were mostly recorded in
Sanguo Zhi (
Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms). They already maintained a complex social structure and named official titled after animals.
Language
The
Buyeo (Puyŏ, Fuyu) languages are a hypothetical
language family that would relate the languages of Buyeo,
Goguryeo, and
Baekje with the
Japonic languages, and possibly place them together as a family under the hypothetical
Altaic family. However, the hypothetical is unverified and thought unproven.
The Buyeo language itself is unknown except for a small number of words, but thought to have been similar to languages of
Gojoseon,
Goguryeo and East
Okjeo.
Legacy
In the 1930s,
Chinese historian Jin Yufu developed a linear model of descent for the people of Manchuria and northern Korea, from the kingdoms of Buyeo,
Goguryeo, and
Baekje, to the present
Korean nationality. Later historians of Northeast China built upon this influential model.
Goguryeo and
Baekje, two of the
Three Kingdoms of Korea, considered themselves successors of Buyeo.
King Onjo, the founder of Baekje, is said to have been a son of
King Dongmyeongseong, founder of Goguryeo. Baekje officially changed its name to Nambuyeo (남부여, 南夫餘 "South Buyeo") in 538.
See also
