Page:History of Corea, ancient and modern; with description of manners and customs, language and geography (1879).djvu/27

HAN. 5 Yow and Ying Chows remained in their original savage stata But in the time of the " Fighting Kingdoms " (5th centuiy RC.)» those regions — then Liaosi and Liaotung — ^became organised into the Kingdom of Yen ; implying an improvement in manners, and, possibly, the ability to till the ground. When, after centuries of misrule, anarchy, and bloodshed, China was again welded into one by the Founder of the Tsin (Chin) dynasty — ^him who began the building of the Great Wall, B.C. 239, — ^Yowchow was renamed Liaosi Kun, and Yingchow, Liaotung Kun. The Tsin was overturned by the first really powerful dynasty China has ever produced — ^the Han, — which began to reign B.C. 206, and whose name dates Chinese affidrs of state for nearly five centuries. It is after this dynasty the Chinese delight to call themselves the ^'Han People." As soon as the Han was finnly seated on the throne of China,, a formidable expedition was hurled on Chaosien, which, though doubtless always fighting in the east, never had any war with China till this second centuiy B.C. A stubborn resistance was of no avail against overwhelming numbers and better discipline, and Chaosien ceased to be. It was about the very time of the destruction of Chaosien that Fooyii men laid the foundation of the ancient and modem Corea> giving first the name Gaogowli, afterwards of Qaoli, to the head waters of the Yaloo, where they originated. Sooshun produced another powerful kingdom, that of Yilow, north-east of Fooyii, before which the gloiy of Fooyii paled. The power of Han no sooner extended its wave into Chaosien than it began to subsida And the Eastern Han had to yield, to the regions formerly called Chaosien, the rank of a feudal kingdom. The dynasty, towards its close, nominated Qoong Swundoo Commandant of Huentoo. But the dynastic influence having waned so that it scarcely extended so far, Qoong assumed first the title of Liaotung How (Uarquis), and afterwards Liaotung Wang or Feudal Eong. He got possession of all Liaotung and liaosi, and divided his kingdom into West Liao,