Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/102

 arts which they brought with them exerted a great influence upon their neighbours, and as they gradually became absorbed with the population of Chinhan, a new and stronger civilisation had its birth there. It was in 57 B. c. that several of the most powerful chiefs met and agreed to consolidate their interests and establish a kingdom such as that which they had heard about from their Chinese guests. This was done, and a kingdom was established, with its capital at the present town of Kyongju. It was called Suyabul at first, but as it is generally known by the name Silla, which it adopted five centuries later, we shall call it by that name. A few years later a man named Chumong is said to have fled from his home in the far north near the Sungari River and to have come across the Yalu into Korea. The Chinese rule in those regions had become very weak, and Chumong found no difficulty in welding the scattered people into a strong kingdom. It was this man who, it is said, crossed the river on the fish which came to the surface and laid their backs together to make a bridge for him. The kingdom which he founded was called Koguryu, and it comprised all the northern portion of the peninsula. Again, in 9 B. c., a fugitive from Koguryu came into the northern borders of Mahan, and by treachery succeeded in wresting the kingdom away from its rightful king, on whose fallen throne he erected the new kingdom of Pakche. So that with the opening of our era there were three powers in Korea, Silla in the southeast, Pakche in the southwest and Koguryu in the north.

The kingdom of Silla was by far the most highly civilised of the three kingdoms. She was an eminently peaceful power, and paid more attention to the arts of peace than to those of war. Koguryu in the north was just the opposite. She was constantly at war either with one of her sister states or with China. And she made by no means a mean antagonist. At one time her territory stretched far beyond the Yalu, and she was able to defy the armies of China. Once an army of over a million Chinese came and encamped upon the western bank of