Today, many people in Korea regard Chosŏn as a state founded by a figure called Tan’gun. This is based on a mythological account, which cannot be shown to predate the thirteenth century, that describes Tan’gun’s divine origins and his establishment of Chosŏn in the twenty-fourth century BCE. There is, however, no evidence for a Chosŏn polity existing in such early times and every reason to view the Tan’gun tale as a myth of much later times. While acknowledging the importance of Tan’gun in Korean culture today, for our present purposes, we will limit our estimate of Chosŏn’s origins to what historical and archaeological evidence provide.

The earliest written references to Chosŏn are found in various Chinese works dating from the Warring States period (480–221 BCE) to the Western Han period (206 BCE–9 CE); however, there is rarely scholarly consensus as to the dates of these references, as many of them were edited or otherwise altered in later centuries. The work called the Guanzi (Writings of Master Guan) makes mention of Chosŏn as the source of valued skins or pelts, and these references are made in the context of conversations said to have taken place between two men of the mid-seventh century BCE. Although it is possible that Chinese knowledge of some people or polity called Chosŏn dates to this early period, some scholars suggest that these portions of the Guanzi date as late as the first century BCE, and in any case they tell us little about Chosŏn itself.

Another work, the Zhanguoce (Records of the Warring States), compiled in the late first century BCE, relates a more substantial description of Chosŏn in the fourth century BCE as lying to the east of the Chinese state of Yan. Based on the extent of Yan’s territories at that time, Chosŏn appears to have been located in or near the Liao River basin in the present Chinese province of Liaoning. Scholars specializing in the subject today generally look for the earliest attested location of Chosŏn in the Liao basin or the adjacent regions of the Liaodong peninsula, or both. Unfortunately, neither written texts nor archaeological data presently shed much light as to what exactly Chosŏn was at this early time. Was “Chosŏn” the name of a state? a tribal group? or was it a toponym? Archaeological advances in northeast China and northern Korea may eventually help us better to understand these questions, but for the present it is best to acknowledge that these are things we simply do not know.

A Chinese work of the late third century CE preserves an account which, if genuine, would appear to represent the earliest specific event in the history of Chosŏn. The Sanguozhi (Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms), citing a slightly earlier now-lost work, relates that around 323 BCE, when the ruler of Yan usurped the title of “king” (which rightly belonged only to the ruler of Zhou) and sought to attack the regions to his east, the “Marquis of Chosŏn,” who evidently ruled that target region, likewise took the title of “king” and made preparations for a preemptive strike at Yan. But when the Chosŏn Grandmaster Ye counseled against this move, the Chosŏn attack was canceled, and open hostilities between Chosŏn and Yan were evidently averted for the time being. The relative lateness of the work that preserves this account, along with the suspicious description of the Chosŏn ruler as a marquis (suggesting that he had been enfeoffed by the Zhou ruler) invite us to treat this account with caution. Later events would create a situation that might make it convenient for a Chinese account to portray Chosŏn of the late fourth century BCE as a dependency of Zhou. The account should not necessarily be accepted at face value.

The circumstances concerning Chosŏn are a blank for the next four decades, until circa 280 BCE, when there occurred a momentous event that would have a profound and long-term impact on the indigenous populations of the regions extending eastward from the Liao basin to the Korean peninsula and into central Manchuria. This was the sudden and extensive expansion of the Yan state, the details of which are spread through a number of later Chinese texts. The basic narrative describes the expansion of Yan under the military commander Qin Kai, who forced the northward withdrawal of the Donghu people from the region to the west of the Yiwulu Mountains and the eastward withdrawal of Chosŏn from the Liao basin. Yan then established five commanderies in the conquered territory, the easternmost of which was Liaodong, based at the town of Xiangping (modern Liaoyang). Yan constructed a long wall along the northern frontier of its new territories and evidently settled its border with Chosŏn at a place called Manbŏnhan. Although the location of Manbŏnhan is much contested in scholarship, it seems to have been the name of a river and is possibly the modern Ch’ŏngch’ŏn River in North Korea. From this time, Chosŏn’s territories would have been limited to the northwestern part of the Korean peninsula, with its center at the modern city of Pyongyang.

The next six decades is another blank in the history of Chosŏn. We are told, however, that when the Chinese state of Qin destroyed Yan in 222 BCE and created the first Chinese empire the following year, Chosŏn became subject to Qin, though its king Pu managed to avoid attending court in Qin. The lands of Chosŏn and a neighboring polity called Chinbŏn fell within territory referred to as the “outer boundary” of Liaodong, though the nature of this arrangement is unclear and open to interpretation. In any case, it did not last longer than the Qin empire itself, which collapsed in 207 BCE and was subsequently replaced by the Han empire. Although early Han surely exercised some influence over Chosŏn, the latter was considered to be too distant to manage effectively, and the former border Chosŏn had shared with Yan was restored. This border is specified as the P’ae River, evidently the lower course of the present-day Ch’ŏngch’ŏn. We know very little about Chosŏn at this time other than that its king Pu was succeeded by his son Chun.

The turmoil in China caused by the collapse of Qin and the rise of Han resulted in waves of refugees fleeing to Chosŏn. During the early Han period, Yan was administered as a princedom under the emperor’s friend Lu Wan. When he came to be suspected of treason, however, Lu Wan fled northward to the Xiongnu in 195 BCE, and many people of Yan subsequently fled to Chosŏn. One of these was a man named Wei Man, said to have gained the trust of King Chun, who enfeoffed him with land in the western part of Chosŏn, where he organized the many refugees from China. Sometime afterward, Wei Man deceived Chun and made himself ruler of Chosŏn. Chinese records state that Wei Man engaged with Han through Liaodong (now a commandery once more) as an “external vassal,” indicating a nominal acknowledgement of Han suzerainty while in practice operating independently. Wei Man had agreed to prevent his subjects and neighboring peoples from making incursions into Liaodong while not obstructing the passage of those who wished to seek diplomatic relations with Han. Despite this, Wei Man not only blocked efforts of neighboring groups to access Han, he also used weapons provided by Han to subjugate surrounding groups such as Chinbŏn (to the south of Chosŏn) and Imdun (on the peninsular east coast). Although this violated the agreement with Han, the latter evidently lacked the power or the will to use force against Chosŏn. Wei Man was succeeded by his son, whose name we do not know, and then by his grandson, Wei Qu, or Ugŏ in modern Korean. Ugŏ’s contemporary in Han was Emperor Wu (r. 141–87 BCE), who did not shrink from applying force against Chosŏn.

An initial attempt to exercise more direct control over Chosŏn occurred in 128 BCE, when a group neighboring Chosŏn led by its leader Namnyŏ, whom Han recognized with the title Ye Lord, submitted to Han and was incorporated into the empire as the commandery of Canghai. This commandery, if it ever existed other than in theory, did not last more than two years before it was abolished. Despite the importance of this event, even the location of Canghai is entirely unclear. Less than two decades later, however, Emperor Wu was prepared to impose his will upon Chosŏn by military force.

In 109 BCE the Han forces attacked by land and sea, but owing in part to supply difficulties and infighting among the Han commanders, the Chosŏn defenses held out for a year. Eventually, the siege of the capital prompted several ministers to surrender to Han, and soon afterward, in the summer of 108 BCE, Ugŏ was assassinated by one of his own ministers. Other ministers held out in the capital and refused to capitulate, but Ugŏ’s son and others affected the surrender of Chosŏn to Han, and the independent state of Chosŏn came to an abrupt end. Han then moved to incorporate the territories of Chosŏn as commanderies directly administered by Han. The territory of Chosŏn proper became the commandery of Lelang, based at Pyongyang, while those of Chinbŏn and Imdun became the commanderies of Zhenfan and Lintun. In 107 BCE, the land and people on the peninsular coast north of Lintun were incorporated as the commandery of Xuantu.

Although Chosŏn lost its independence from this time, the people of the region, representing an indigenous majority with a substantial emigrant component, continued in place, and archaeological data indicate the survival over time of much of the culture of the region. The influx of Han culture and the imposition of Han administrative control altered the cultural composition of the northern part of the peninsula. Written and archaeological evidence of the movement of people from Chosŏn to the southern part of the peninsula show that the conquest of 108 BCE sent ripples extending throughout the Korean peninsula, eventually reaching even the Japanese archipelago.