Lelang Commandery Totally Explained

Everything about Lelang totally explained

Lelang was one of the Chinese commanderies which was kept in the Korean Peninsula over 400 years until Goguryeo conquered it in 313 A.D.

History

In 108 B.C. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty conquered the area under Ugeo (右渠), a grandson of Wiman. The Emperor set up Lelang, Lintun, Xuantu and Zhenfan, known as the Four Commanderies of Han (漢四郡) in the Korean Peninsula. The Book of Han records Lelang belonged to Youzhou, located in northwestern Korea consisted of 25 prefectures, 62,812 houses, and the population was 406,748. Its capital was put near P'yŏngyang. (Rangrang 樂浪/락랑 is a district in central P'yŏngyang today.)
   After Emperor Wu's death, Zhenfan and Lintun were abolished and Xuantu was moved to Liaodong. Some prefectures of the abolished commanderies were incorporated into Lelang. Lelang after the consolidation is sometimes called "Greater Lelang commandery". Since Lelang became too large for a commandery, the Defender of the Southern Section (南部都尉) was set up to rule the seven prefectures which formerly belonged to Zhenfan. Before that, the Defender of the Eastern Section (東部都尉) was put to rule former Lintun's seven prefectures.
   A flux Chinese immigrations, mainly from the Yan (Hebei) and Qi (Shandong) provinces, continued without cessation, implanting Chinese culture into the peninsula. The Yan people came from the Yan area, around what is now Beijing, via Liaodong; and the Qi people came across the Yellow Sea. Among them, the Wang clan, whose ancestor is said to have fled there from Qi in the 2nd century B.C., became powerful. It is presumed that most of the Lelang Chinese spoke the Yan dialect.
   While the Han Dynasty was taken over by Wang Mang, China fell into chaos. [WangTiao] (王調) started a rebellion and tried to secede from China. In 30 A.D. the rebellion was stopped by Wang Zun (王遵), whom Emperor Guangwu appointed as governor. Lelang came under the direct control of China once again. However, the shortages of human resources caused by the turmoil resulted in the abolishment of the seven eastern prefectures. The administration was left to the Hui (濊) natives, whose chiefs were conferred as marquisate.
   At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Gongsun Du, appointed as the Governor of Liaodong in 184, extending his semi-independent domain to the Lelang and Xuantu commanderies. His son Gongsun Kang separated the southern half from the Lelang commandery and established the Daifang commandery in 204. As a result, the Lelang commandery reverted to its original size.
   In 236 under the order of Ming Di of Kingdom of Wei, Sima Yi crushed the Gongsun family and annexed Liaodong, Lelang and Daifang to Wei. Lelang was inherited by the Jin Dynasty. Due to bitter civil wars, Jin became unable to control the Korean peninsula at the beginning of the 4th century. Zhang Tong (張統) broke away from Jin in Lelang and Daifang. After Luoyang, the capital of Jin, was occupied by the Xiongnu in 311, he went for help to Murong Hui, a Xianbei warlord, with his subjects. Murong Hui put another small Lelang commandery in Liaodong. The former Lelang was then annexed by Goguryeo.

Posited State of Nangnang

According to a theory first advanced by Sin Chae-ho and recently elaborated by Yun Nae-hyeon, Lelang commandery was located in Manchuria, not Korea. Instead, an independent state of Nangnang (195BCE - 32CE) existed in the northern Korean peninsula. The State of Nangnang was originally located in the area of Liaoning, but the capital city was moved into the area of the Taedong River in 195 BCE. Only later, during the Eastern Han Dynasty, was independent Nangnang conquered and incorporated into Goguryeo in 32CE. The theory goes on to suggest that the two were later confused, leading to the misconception that Lelang Commandery was in Korea instead of Manchuria.,
The source of this theory is one interpretation of a passage from the Samguk Sagi. The passage describes Choe Ri (崔理), a 王 (wang) of Lelang / Nangnang. However, 王 (wang) as used in Classical Chinese can mean both the king of a sovereign state, and the prince of a dependent principality. The theory that posits a separate state of Nangnang is based on the former interpretation rather than the latter. However, Samguk Sagi and the Book of Later Han utilize the term "Taesu(太守)" when the local governors in Lelang commandery are mentioned.
The theory is also cast into doubt by the lack of historical sources pointing to the existence of Nangnang. In particular, the only known ruler of the posited state, Choi Ri, isn't mentioned in any other historical text.

Further Information

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