Old Jeongmi

Old Jeongmi 美淨古 미정고 美淨 미정 Jeongmi
461 BCE–57 BCE
Common languages	Old Jeongmian
Demonym(s)	Old Jeongmian
Government	Monarchy
King
• 461 BCE - 359 BCE?	Sogami (first)
Historical era	Ancient
• Established	461 BCE
• Disestablished	57 BCE
Population
• 300 BCE	1,500,000
• 200 BCE	2,500,000
• 100 BCE	3,200,000
Today part of	Jeongmi

Old Jeongmi was the first kingdom on the Jeongmian peninsula. According to the Bukgukgi, it was founded in 461 BCE by Sugami of the Gim family. It emerged first as a confederation of different Jeongmic groups that had begun settling the peninsula in large waves a century prior before power was gradually centralized around a single monarch. The Old Jeongmi period marked a profound shift in the peninsula as the previously dominant Fusenic population was largely replaced by the Jeongmians, who arrived with and popularized iron tools and weaponry. The founding date of Old Jeongmi as presented in the Bukgukgi traditionally marks the beginning of the iron age in Jeongmi. Old Jeongmi fragmented in the 1st century BCE before the territories that formerly constituted it were conquered by Cheonje in the 3rd century CE.

History

Founding

The foundation myth of Old Jeongmi is recorded in the Bukgukgi (北國記/Records of the Northern Kingdom). A divine figure named Dalli (蛋梨/Egg Pear/Tengri) descends from heaven with three sacred treasures and crosses the sea eastward on a white horse, arriving in Jeongmi after ten days. There, he is confronted by a bear, a fox, and a water deer, who ask him to turn them into humans. He orders them to live and pray every day in a cave for a hundred days without seeing the sunlight, to survive only off of some provided mugwort and garlic. After ten days, the water deer runs out of the cave and is consumed by tigers. The fox manages for around half of the hundred days before running out of the cave, where it is forced to flee east across the sea by a group of humans. The bear manages to succeed in this challenge and Dalli turns her into a beautiful woman, Gomagasi, and gifts her the three sacred treasures. He then ascends into heaven and transforms into a ray of sunlight that impregnates Gomagasi by shining on her. Later, she gives birth to an egg in the shape of a gourd, from which Sugami (首伽味/metal god), the first king of Old Jeongmi, is born.

According to the historian Ban Yeong-mun, the legend represents a recently-founded Jeongmian statelet seeking alliances in the area after having been founded by settlers arriving in the peninsula from either Yedal or Yoju. The three animals happen to represent the three main groups present in Jeongmi prior to the Jeongmians' arrival, with the bear representing the Resans, the fox the Fusenese, and the water deer the Ha. The test likely represents an ancient Jeongmic ritual ceremony that one had to pass in order to marry the head of early Old Jeongmi.

According to the Bukgukgi, Sugami ruled from 461 BCE to 359 CE, a total of ninety-eight years that is not seen as credible by historians today. It has been suggested that Sogami, surmised to mean "god of metal", was a hereditary title for the early rulers of Jeongmi.

Collapse

Archaeological evidence suggests increased conflict within the borders of Old Jeongmi beginning in the 1st century BCE and the gradual decline of population centers. According to the Bukgukgi, a power struggle occurred between X and his brothers. The kingdom comes to an end in 57 BCE in traditional historiography.

Culture

Iron Tools

Iron plowshare made c. 3-4th century BCE.

Iron tools were introduced by and essential to establishing domination over the peninsula for the Jeongmians. After a period of initial depopulation following their migration and conquest, the population rebounded as iron tools allowed for significant increases in agricultural production. Iron tools and weaponry spread quickly to Fusenic, Haic, and Reso-Iluladmivic groups as well.