Post by skinz on Oct 30, 2007 11:53:12 GMT -5
Koguryo's total population at the end of the Tang/Koguryo wars was actually 690,000. 100,000 households went to Silla (by virtue of the fact that Silla took about 1/4 of Koguryo's land and also because many Koguryo people decided to defect to Silla after the demise of their kingdom). You have to remember, a bulk of Koguryo's population was in northern Korea. 100,000 went to Parhae (or Bohai) kingdom. 10-30,000 probably went to Japan. Anyone with the surnames of Koma in Japan are descended from Koguryo. Interestingly enough some of them know this and are proud of their heritage. Put Koma + Koguryo in Google and you'll see some personal web pages of Japanese people who pay tribute to their Koguryo roots. People in Korea with the surnames of Ko, Wang, Yon and others can trace their lineage to Koguryo. The first king of the Koryo Kingdom was a Wang from Songak, former Koguryo territory. Some others jointed the Eastern Turks and some stayed in Liaodong when a Koguryo prince was give that area to rule as the King of Chaoxan (Choson) Commandery. Eventuall, 300,000 Koguryo households were settled in the central plains (i.e. China proper) and another 50-100,000 were exiled into the remote borderlands of the Tang Empire. The Tang had depopulated Koguryo because the inhabitants kept trying to revolt and reestablish the kingdom. Silla harbored these rebels and often these Koguryo elements attacked Tang from Silla bases. When Koguryo restoration movements failed, Silla gave the last prince of Koguryo Chin'gol status, the rank just below "Holy Bone" in their social order. Silla royalty themselves were Chin'gol and Holy bone.
The largest contingent of Koguryo people that didn't get exiled into China were in Bohai and Silla. For the most part, those that got moved into the Tang Empire just became Tang subjects. Ko is just Gao in Chinese and means High. Gao is a fairly common last name so I'd imagine that Koguryo people, over time, completely assimilated into the overall Han population of Tang. Please bear in mind that Gaos in Tang and Ko in Koguryo were not genetically related, just like Jins and Gums in China are not genetically related to Kims in Korea. Anyways, there are no vestiges of Koguryo culture anywere in China anymore. The only place you'll see any shread of Koguryo culture is in Korea and "maybe" Japan. The most well known Koguryo subject of Tang was some general who introducted papermaking into the middle east. He was some big general for Tang and lost some battle in Afganistan or something like that. I foget.
Very interesting..........so I guess the relocation policy actually worked after all.
You can read a good discussion about the history concerning this drama.......good stuff.
www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=2535&st=0
The largest contingent of Koguryo people that didn't get exiled into China were in Bohai and Silla. For the most part, those that got moved into the Tang Empire just became Tang subjects. Ko is just Gao in Chinese and means High. Gao is a fairly common last name so I'd imagine that Koguryo people, over time, completely assimilated into the overall Han population of Tang. Please bear in mind that Gaos in Tang and Ko in Koguryo were not genetically related, just like Jins and Gums in China are not genetically related to Kims in Korea. Anyways, there are no vestiges of Koguryo culture anywere in China anymore. The only place you'll see any shread of Koguryo culture is in Korea and "maybe" Japan. The most well known Koguryo subject of Tang was some general who introducted papermaking into the middle east. He was some big general for Tang and lost some battle in Afganistan or something like that. I foget.
Very interesting..........so I guess the relocation policy actually worked after all.
You can read a good discussion about the history concerning this drama.......good stuff.
www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=2535&st=0
