五女山

Recently there has been a little bit of controversy over the ancient kingdom of Koguryo. This controversy has even caused the censorship of the Chinese version of a Korean newspaper in China. The newspaper will get no sympathy from me, afterall I didn't see them trying to get my website uncensored in South Korea. When I left Korea on the 20th I still couldn't look at my website or post to it. Now back in China, where my site is also censored, at least I can post to my web page just not look at it.

With all of this modern excitement over ancient history I thought I would take a trip to one of the sites of the ancient kingdom.

Outside of Huairen is a mountain called Wunvshan (Five Women Mountain), it is named for five 'Florence Nightingales' that were buried on the mountain. The mountain was also the home of the first king of Koguryo.

It was quite a climb to see the king's home. Not only was a great deal of climbing involved but we also had to get through some massive ancient walls.

The beautiful woman in the picture above then showed me the other major archaelogical finds on the mountain. First we saw the foudation of the main building of the settlement.

Not much to look at but don't forget it is over 2000 years old. Of interest is the trench through the foundation which was possibly used for heating or plumbing. Next to the main house was a couple of pools that were built 2000 years ago but are still in use today. In Koguryo times they were used for bathing and now for wishing.

So where do I stand on this controversy? Is ancient Koguryo Korean, Chinese, or Japanese? Frankly I think that it is as silly as asking if the Anasazi are American or Mexican. I do think it is important though to ask the people who live in the area what they think and so I did. The kingdom is dead but the remains are in the hometown of the people of Huairen. The people living there now also informed me that regardless of what the dictionary says the name of their town is not pronounced Huanren it is pronounced Huairen.

Comments

[Zeng Bo]

Nice pictures, good controversial story, and great links. One of your best posts to date! I definately want to go there now and check out the Koguryo ruins.