History of Pyongyang

With a long history, Pyongyang is the birthplace of the Korean nation and holds an important position in the history of Korea. According to legend, in 2333 B.C., Dangun (also known as Wangjian), who was born to Hwanxiong, the son of Emperor Tiandi, and the daughter of a bear, founded the state of Joseon, and his capital city, Asda, was located in Pyongyang, which is why Pyongyang is also called "Wangjian Castle". After the fall of the Shang Dynasty in China, a nobleman of the Yin Shang Dynasty, Minja, came to Joseon and made Pyongyang the capital of the country, which became "Minja Joseon". In the past, the Korean people revered Minja as the founder of the Korean nation. Therefore, the status of Pyongyang became sacred and it was called "Minseong".

In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty in China, Weiman, a native of the state of Yan, fled to Joseon and replaced Minji-joseon, which was called Weiman-joseon. In 108 B.C., Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty sent troops to destroy Weiman Joseon, captured Wangjian Castle (Pyongyang), and established four counties in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula under the jurisdiction of the Han Dynasty, of which the area around Pyongyang was known as the county of Lelang, which was the center of the Han's four counties. The county was located in Chosun County, south of the Daedong River, and its ruins were unearthed in the 1930s, giving the city of Pyongyang its name from the ruins of the county. In 313, Goguryeo, which had risen to power in northeastern China, took advantage of the decline of the Western Jin Dynasty to move southward to the Korean Peninsula, annexed the county, and restored Pyongyang's ancient name, while the 24th king of Goguryeo, Guryeo, also known as the King of Jangseo, moved the capital of Goguryeo to Pyongyang in 427. With Pyongyang as its center, Goguryeo's power continued to move southward in an attempt to unify the Korean Peninsula. The era of the Three Kingdoms (Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje) on the Korean Peninsula did not come to an end until the unification of most of the Korean Peninsula by Silla in 668.At the end of the 6th century, Emperor Yang of Sui of China sent a naval force to attack the city of Pyongyang, but it was repulsed; and during the reign of Emperor Gaozong of Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty exterminated Goguryeo in 668, and set up the Antonian capital in Pyongyang. Thereafter, Pyongyang became the site of another confrontation between the Tang Dynasty and Silla, and was later incorporated into Silla's lands. After years of destruction from war, Pyongyang was deserted at this time.

In the Goryeo era, Pyongyang was revitalized again because of its strategic importance. 918 Wang Jian just established the Goryeo dynasty, declared that "Pyongyang's ancient capital, although deserted for a long time, the base site still exists, and the thorns and thistles are flourishing ...... it is appropriate to migrate the people to the real, in order to solidify the fence, for the benefit of the hundred generations! ", so "the amount of salt, white, yellow, sea, phoenix state people to the real, for the Da Du Gu Fu", opened the Goryeo on the operation of the Pyongyang area. 926, the Goryeo dynasty will be Pyongyang as the "West Beijing". During the Goryeo Dynasty, Pyongyang has been quite prosperous after years of construction, especially at that time, Pyongyang was planted with willows all over the country, and it was known as "Willow Capital", which is why the famous Goryeo poet Jung Ji-chang eulogized Pyongyang's scene of "purple strings in the spring breeze and fine rain, and the light dust does not move and willows slant". At the same time, Pyongyang is also a major town to resist foreign invasion. During the Goryeo period, Khitan, Jurchen, and Mongolia invaded successively and captured Xijing (Pyongyang) several times, and in 1269, Cui Tan, the commander of Xijing of Goryeo, and Li Yanling surrendered to Mongolia, and Pyongyang was occupied by Mongolia, and later became the Dongningfu of Liaoyang Province of Yuan Dynasty, which was directly under the jurisdiction of Yuan Dynasty, and in 1290, at the request of the King of Chungrye of Goryeo, Yuan Dynasty returned Dongningfu to Goryeo, and it remained as the indirect territory of Yuan Dynasty (Goryeo was the east-conquering province of Yuan Dynasty). province).

During the Joseon Dynasty, Pyongyang was still an important city in Korea at that time, called "Pyongyang Prefecture" at that time, and was the capital of Ping'an Province, and was also known as the "two western towns", and was praised by the people of the time as "negative mountains and water, controlling the northwest, and overlooking the Yangtze River. Pyongyang was praised by the people of the time as having "a mountainous terrain, obstructing water, controlling the northwest, overlooking the Yangtze River (Tatung River), and being far away from the wilderness". At that time, the city of Pyongyang was divided into four parts: the inner city, the middle city, the outer city and the northern city. The inner city had five gates, the Jubilee Gate in the south, the Daitong Gate in the east (with urns), the Seven Star Gate in the northeast, the Changqing Gate in the southeast and the Jinghai Gate in the west. Beyond the inner city is the middle city, with the Zhengyang Gate in the south, the Kuming Gate in the east, the Qingchang Gate in the north, and the Ordinary Gate in the west. Beyond the Middle City is the Outer City, with the Cheju Gate in the south and the Dojeong Gate in the west. In addition, there were Seungbokmun, Adipokmun, Daodaemun, Xiaotongmun, and Suidemun. At the northern end of the inner city, there is Bukseong, with Turnjinmun in the south and Xuanwumun in the north. Although Pyongyang and the capital city of Seoul (present-day Seoul, South Korea) were the two major commercial centers of Korea at that time, it was repeatedly hit by wars. 1592, the Imjin Japanese Rebellion, Japan captured the city of Pyongyang, which was later recovered by the Chosun with the help of reinforcements from the Ming Dynasty in a fierce battle with the Japanese army. 1627, the Dinmao Rebellion and 1636, the period of the Ci Rebellion, the Manchurian (female genitalia) troops twice captured Pyongyang, and a large number of citizens were captured and used as slaves, and Pyongyang was severely damaged again. In 1811, Hong Gyeongrae revolted near Pyongyang, which was later suppressed, and in August 1866, Pyongyang witnessed the General Sherman Incident, in which the General Sherman, an armed U.S. merchant ship, forced its way into Pyongyang's Datong River, fired its cannons indiscriminately, and was finally sunk by Pyongyang's soldiers and civilians. This incident is also regarded by North Korea as the beginning of the modern history of Korea. 1894, the Qing Dynasty and the Japanese army in Pyongyang, the Qing army was defeated, is the Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War in the famous "Battle of Pyongyang", in addition, Pyongyang's outer harbor town of Nampo was also the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War Japanese army station base.

In 1896, North Korea divided 8 provinces into 13 provinces, and Pyongyang belonged to the South Pyongan Province, which remained the capital of the province. 1897, the port of Jinnampo was opened, and in May 1898, the government of the Korean Empire announced that it would open Pyongyang to all countries, and in May 1902, Pyongyang was elevated to the status of the capital of the Korean Empire, which was known as "Saikyo". At that time, Pyongyang was not only home to many Japanese and Westerners, but also to a large number of overseas Koreans. With the opening up of Pyongyang to the outside world and the elevation of its status, Pyongyang's modernization process accelerated, and it gradually became the commercial and industrial center of the Korean Peninsula, as well as the center of Christianity on the Korean Peninsula, with more than 1,400 churches in its heyday (all of which were blown up by the U.S. military during the Korean War), and was nicknamed "Jerusalem of the Orient". On the eve of the Russo-Japanese War, Emperor Gojong of the Korean Empire planned to move the capital to Pyongyang to escape the Japanese threat, but failed to do so under Japanese pressure.

Pyongyang was an important center of the Trinity Movement in 1919 during the Japanese colonial era, and in 1931, the Wambaoshan Incident, a large-scale anti-Chinese riot caused by the citizens of Pyongyang under the misguided instigation of the Japanese, led to the Japanese surrender of Pyongyang in 1945 and the occupation of Pyongyang by the USSR, and the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula under the cabinet of Kim Il Sung as the Prime Minister and the capital, Pyongyang, in 1948. The capital was Pyongyang. When the Korean War broke out in 1950, the ancient capital of Pyongyang was once again ravaged by war, not only becoming a battlefield, but also dropping 428,000 bombs by U.S. bombers over Pyongyang during the three-year period from 1950 to 1953, when Pyongyang's population was only 400,000, with an average of more than one bomb attack per citizen. Pyongyang was almost leveled and most of its monuments were destroyed. A U.S. Army commander once lamented that the vast ruins would not be restored even in another 100 years.

In the history of urban reconstruction in the world after World War II, the reconstruction of Pyongyang occupies a relatively important position. After the double devastation of the Anti-Japanese War and the Korean War, Pyongyang's urban facilities were destroyed to a degree comparable to that of Stalingrad in the U.S.S.R. (present-day Volgograd, Russia.) In May 1952, before the war was over, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) People's *** and the Cabinet of Ministers of the People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) had begun to work on a plan for the revitalization of the city. Kim Jung-hee, the North Korean architect in charge of redesigning Pyongyang, exclaimed to Liang Sicheng and Lin Huiyin during an exchange with their Chinese counterparts that Pyongyang had truly become "Pyongyang". In the 21st century, Pyongyang has become a modern metropolis.