Founder of Koguryo

Ko Jumong is known as the founder king of Koguryo (277 BC–AD 668), the first feudal state of Korea. It is said that he was born a conspicuous and singular figure. At the age of seven, he made a bow and arrows by himself and never missed the targets, even tiny insects you could hardly see. He was named Jumong because they usually called a marvellous archer jumong in Korean.

Originally, he came from the aristocratic class, so lived in the royal palace of Puyo (mid-15th century BC–late 3rd century BC). Gradually the prince and bureaucrats were so jealous of his outstanding appearance and talents that they trapped him to reduce him to be a horse-keeper in the royal palace. In the course of contacting the wretched people, he understood the social contradiction to some extent and was determined to establish more reasonable social order.

Subjected to persecution and finally falling into danger of assassination, he escaped from Puyo and went south to Kuryo (mid-15th century BC–early 3rd century BC), one of the ancient countries of Korea, to carry out his ambition. On his way to the south with friends, some more people joined his ranks.

He settled down in a northern part of Kuryo and laid his politico-military foundation under the patronage of the local squire. He won the hearts of the local people by defeating a neighbouring tribe who had been harassing the locality, and thus grasped the local power. Attracted by Jumong’s fame, the King of Kuryo who was in the crisis in the then complicated situation decided to cast his lot to him and made Jumong his son-in-law. Some time later the king died leaving no son behind, and Jumong became the new king.

In the throne he began to realize his ambition. With the intention to develop Kuryo, a slave-owning state, into a powerful feudal state, he changed the name of the country into Koguryo by adding “ko”—it means great in English—to the original name Kuryo. He remodelled the system and order of the country as required by the feudal society in collaboration with the newly emerging forces, and fixed his surname as “ko” like the name of the new country.

Later, Koguryo merged with neighbouring minor countries of the homogeneous nation and emerged as a power in the East.