Tan'gun
Legendary founder and first king of Gojoseon.
His descendants are said to have the surname Park or Pai.[1] The legendary first ruler of Gojoseon, the earliest Korean kingdom, is Tan'gun, who is also referred to as Tan'gun Wanggŏm.[2] According to legend, Tan'gun established the first kingdom in 2333 BC and is called the "grandson of heaven" and "son of a bear".[1]
Quick Facts
- Reign
- c. 2333 BC, 2240 BC
- Predecessor
- Hwanung
- Successor
- Jizi?
- Mother
- Ungnyeo
- Dynasty
- Gojoseon
Facts from the source article.
Key facts and history
Hwanin's son Hwanung descended with 3,000 followers to Taebaeksan, now believed to be Paektu Mountain, and founded Sinsi, the "City of God"[3] A tiger and a bear prayed to become human, and Hwanung gave them garlic and mugwort to eat while staying out of sunlight for 100 days.[4] The bear-woman, Ungnyeo, married Hwanung and gave birth to Tan'gun Wang'gŏm.[5] Tan'gun built the walled city of Asadal near Pyongyang and called the kingdom Joseon, now called Gojoseon.[5]
The Samguk yusa, a 13th-century text, contains the earliest known version of the Tan'gun legend; that text cites the lost Korean record Gogi and China's Book of Wei.[6] In Korean mythology, Hwanin, the "Lord of Heaven", is the grandfather of Tan'gun.[3] After roughly twenty days, the tiger abandoned the attempt, but the bear continued and was transformed into a woman.[4] The start of Tan'gun's reign is typically calculated as 2333 BCE, based on the 1485 work Tongguk t'onggam.[7]
What the cited sources add
That book further explains that students are taught the teul symbolizes "the holy legendary founder of Korea in the year 2333 BC".[8][9]
References
- Wikipedia, "Tan'gun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Melton, "Faiths Across Time: 5,000 Years of Religious History", ABC-Clio, 2014; Kang, "The Land of Scholars: Two Thousand Years of Korean Confucianism", Homa & Sekey, 2006; Gyuwon sahwa (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Tan'gun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "단군", m.terms.naver.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Tan'gun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: David A., "The Background and Contemporary Spiritual-Nationalist Significance of Mt. Baekdu-san and the Baekdu-daegan Range, in All of Korea" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Tan'gun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Myth of Founding-King Dan-gun" (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Tan'gun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tudor, "Korea: The Impossible Country: The Impossible Country", Tuttle Publishing, 2013 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Tan'gun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: 한국 브리태니커 온라인 '단군' Encyclopædia Britannica online Korea '단군 Dangun'; "단군(檀君)", Korean Culture Portal; Kim, "[한국 고대사-1] 국조 단군이야기", The Hankyoreh (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia, "Tan'gun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Richmond, "Lonely Planet Korea", Lonely Planet, 2010, p. 25 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
- Open Library record, ISBN 9781462909919 ("Taekwondo Grappling Techniques"). CC0 (metadata); book content not read. openlibrary.org
- Wikipedia, "Tan'gun" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Kemerly, "Taekwondo Grappling Techniques: Hone Your Competitive Edge for Mixed Martial Arts", Tuttle Publishing, 2013 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Tan'gun (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.
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