This treatise was written to give an outline of how the world order of early Koguryo.
The former studies of Koguryo’s world view put its origin at 4-5 centuries A.D..
However, polities that possessed their distinct world view did exist in Korean history.
Hence, re-examination of previous theories is needed.
Koguryo succeeded the world view of Old Joseon and Buyeo, so that the monarch
already was the‘ Great King’through the means of vassal system since the beginning of
its dynasty. The‘ King of Kings’title was introduced in the middle years to celebrate the
upgrading of the Koguryo king who enjoyed the vast extension of its territory in the 4th
century. Such phonomena reflected the expansion and internationalization of Koguryo’s
world view.
The middle years also witnessed the introduction of Confucianism and Buddhism to
Koguryo. However, such accomodations were strictly based on tight government control,
to reconstruct the damaged world view after years of national humiliation by king
Gogukwon. Restructuring the world view also brought about the capital transfer to
Pyongyang, thereby signaling the completion of the new world view.
The attitude of Koguryo to its surrounding neighbors were classified into the
‘subordinates’and the ‘foreign ethnicities’. The ‘subordinates’were the objects of
Koguryo’s conquest into its domain, whereby the‘ foreign ethnicities’were simply the
objects of indirect control and exploitation. The application of middle-year world view of
Koguryo can be summarized into three points : first, Koguryo has succeeded the vassal
system by creating the new ones based on homogeneity. Second, Koguryo never
allowed anybody to challenge its absolute world view in northeast Asia. Lastly, the
reason why Koguryo failed to unify all its surrounding territories was due to many factors, despite the fact that Koguryo actually had the will to do so. Consequently, the
application of Koguryo’s world view suffered substantial gap between theory and reality.