Dangun

In the Samguk Yusa

Iryeon's Samguk Yusa gives two accounts. From a Chinese 'Book of Wei' it quotes that two thousand years earlier Dangun Wanggeom set his capital at Asadal and founded a state called Joseon, in the time of the sage-emperor Yao. From the Korean 'Old Record' it tells the full myth: born of Hwanung and Ungnyeo, Dangun made his capital at Pyongyang in the fiftieth year of Yao, called his state Joseon, later moved to Asadal on Mount Baegak, and ruled for fifteen hundred years. When the Zhou king enfeoffed Gija in Joseon, Dangun moved away, returned to Asadal, and became a mountain god, having lived 1,908 years. Iryeon himself notes that the traditional year does not match Yao's reign.

The date and the nation

The date 2333 BCE for Dangun's founding, used for South Korea's National Foundation Day, is a later calculation by Joseon-dynasty historians, not the Samguk Yusa's own statement, and the historical state of Gojoseon is known from Chinese sources from about the fourth century BCE until its conquest by the Han in 108 BCE. Dangun became a powerful symbol of national identity, especially under Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945), when the religion Daejonggyo (founded 1909) and independence activists honored him as the common ancestor of all Koreans.

Two Koreas

South Korea celebrates Gaecheonjeol on 3 October. North Korea announced in 1993 that it had found Dangun's bones near Pyongyang and built a large mausoleum in 1994; most historians outside North Korea regard the claim as political rather than archaeological.