South Korea is home to not one, but two miracles. The first is the often-referenced “miracle on the Han River,” the extraordinary economic growth that led the country out of poverty and on the road to wealth, in the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s. That South Korea had a GDP of less than US$100 per capita in 1960, precious few natural resources, and only the most basic (and war-ravaged) infrastructure seems scarcely believable looking around Seoul these days. The second miracle is just as precious, though. As recently as 1987, South Korea was a military dictatorship, but today, it has stable, democratic leadership. As other Asian nations like Singapore, and now China, promote a mix of authoritarianism and capitalism, South Korea stands out in the region as an example of a country that values not just wealth but also the rule of law and rights for its citizens.
There is another, more negative, source of inspiration for the subtitle, though. As we shall see, genuine contentment largely eludes the people of South Korea, despite all their material success and stability. This is a country that puts too much pressure on its citizens to conform to impossible standards of education, reputation, physical appearance, and career progress. Worldwide, South Korea is second only to Lithuania in terms of suicides per capita. The problem is getting worse, rather than better: between 1989 and 2009, the rate of suicide quintupled. South Korea therefore is “impossible” in its astonishing economic and political achievements but also in the way that it imposes unattainable targets on its people.
Korean independence fighter Kim Gu stated that, “I do not want our nation to become the richest and most powerful nation in the world. . . . It is sufficient that our wealth is such that it makes our lives abundant.” Instead, he wanted Korea to become “the most beautiful nation in the world,” one that provides happiness for its own people and others. Were he alive today, he would probably be disappointed with some of what he saw. But even he would have to admit that this impossible country has come a long way.
A Brief History of Korea
Prehistory and Gojoseon
Homo erectus made his appearance on the Korean peninsula as early as 400,000 years ago. Modern humans have existed in the region of northeast Asia for almost 40,000 years. The people identified by archaeologists as the ancestors of today’s Koreans are believed to have arrived in successive waves from southern Siberia and Manchuria from around 6,000 BCE onwards. They were semi-nomadic, followed shamanistic religious practice, and spoke an Altaic language.
The foundation of the first state entity on the peninsula is shrouded in myth. According to the Samguk Yusa, a compendium of historical events, legends, and folktales from ancient Korea from the thirteenth century, the state of Gojoseon was founded by the demigod king, Dangun, in the fiftieth year of the reign of Chinese emperor Yao. This corresponds with the year 2333 BCE. The story goes that Hwanin, the Lord of Heaven, had a son named Hwanung, who wanted to live on earth. Hwanung descended from Heaven at Taebaek, now known as Baekdu, the highest mountain on the Korean peninsula. There he founded a city named Sinsi, the City of God. A tiger and a bear prayed to Hwanung that he make them human, and Hwanung instructed them to remain in a cave for one hundred days, eating only garlic and mugwort. The tiger soon gave up, but the bear kept to the bargain and was transformed into a woman. Hwanung took her as his wife, and together they produced a son, Dangun. After becoming king, Dangun built a city named Asadal (near present-day Pyongyang) and established the state of Gojoseon.
Archeological evidence suggests the existence of city-states on the peninsula from the eleventh century BCE onwards. Gojoseon, ruled by kings who claimed to descend from Dangun, became the most powerful and advanced of these. It absorbed other city-states in a kind of confederation structure and controlled territory from the Daedong River to the Liao River in present-day China by the fourth century BCE.
Gojoseon had hostile relations with the Chinese state of Yan and lost much of its northern territory following a war around 300 BCE. Two centuries later, in 108 BCE, Emperor Wu of the Western Han dynasty destroyed Gojoseon completely and set up four commanderies to rule Gojoseon’s former territory. Due to local resistance, though, three were recalled, leaving only one, the Lelang Commandery (“Nakranggun” in Korean). The Lelang Commandery’s exact location is the subject of controversy, but it survived until 313 AD, serving as a conduit by which Chinese culture—particularly Confucian thought and the Chinese writing system—entered the Korean peninsula.
The state responsible for ending the Lelang Commandery was Goguryeo, a pre-Korean state that began in southern Manchuria around the Yalu River. By the fifth century, the territorially and culturally ambitious Goguryeo had expanded its control to the northern part of Korea as well as almost all of Manchuria and parts of Inner Mongolia. Goguryeo established the Korean peninsula’s first Confucian college in 372 and was also the first of Korea’s kingdoms to adopt Buddhism, in the very same year.
The Three Kingdoms, and Unifying Shilla
While Goguryeo was building up its power in the north, two other states began to emerge in the southwest and southeast of the peninsula. These were Baekje and Shilla, respectively. During this so- called proto-Three Kingdoms Period, Baekje began absorbing a set of less powerful states in the southwest known collectively as the Mahan Confederacy (between the first and third centuries), and Shilla achieved the same feat in the southeast with a collection of chiefdoms known as the Jinhan (between the first and fourth centuries). Shilla later conquered Gaya, another confederacy located around the Nakdong River Basin by the south coast, in 562.
Goguryeo, Baekje, and Shilla shared a common language (Old Korean, or Godae Gukeo), a shamanistic religious tradition that came from the Siberian heritage of ancient Korea, and an increasing acceptance of Chinese culture. However, these three states also existed in a state of political and military rivalry. Following the annexation of Gaya and the formation of an alliance with Tang China in 648, Shilla began to gain the upper hand. In 660, aided by the Tang, Shilla conquered Baekje. Together, the Tang and Shilla also attacked Goguryeo the following year but were repulsed. In 668, Goguryeo finally fell to Shilla, which thus became the state that unified the Korean peninsula.
Goguryeo’s former territories in Manchuria were lost, however. Tang China’s purpose in allying with Shilla had always been the eventual conquest of Korea, and so, following the Korean unification, the two former allies fell into conflict, fighting several battles throughout the 670s. Shilla eventually repelled the Tang but at the cost of all the land north of the Daedong River. Nationalistic Korean historians sometimes lament Shilla’s alliance with the Tang because of this. Kim Yu-shin, the general who led Shilla’s unification of Korea, has statues dedicated to him in South Korea, yet North Korean defectors report that General Kim is vilified there for his role in the forfeit of Goguryeo land.
Shilla led Korea through an era of prosperity and peace that lasted until around the mid-eighth century. It adopted Buddhism as state religion and encouraged the development of Confucianism, with the opening of a national Confucian college in 682. Despite the wars of the 670s, it also managed to rebuild relations with Tang China, which was at the time the most advanced state in the world, and certainly the most powerful in East Asia.
Fall of Shilla, and Koryo
Early pre-unification Shilla was marked by shifts in power between three competing clans, with the names of Park, Kim, and Seok. As the state developed, the Kim clan gained the upper hand and established a monarchy. They adopted a highly stratified social structure, based on so-called “bone rank.” At the top was the “sacred bone” class, which comprised those directly related to the king. Beneath this was the “true bone” class of lesser royals and members of the Park and Seok clans. Below the true bone class were six further ranks. Those at the top, at rank six, could become vice ministers of the government but rise no higher. Ranks five and four could become lower-level civil servants. Little is known about ranks one, two, and three, but they are assumed to represent the general populace. This system was entirely hereditary, and thus social mobility in the state of Shilla was nonexistent.
Those in level six, often highly educated and ambitious intellectuals, felt restricted by the system’s rigidity, and by the eighth century, rebellions began to issue from this class. Peasant farmers also revolted in 889 over excessive