#aph silla

[circlique]

Old Stories--

Three Kingdoms era! I wanted to try a more nostalgic, storybook type style for their younger selves.

[temporal-scribe]

Hetalia Theory: A Brief Study of (Ancient) Korea

Aph Korea has been something that keeps going round in my mind. From what I can recall from Hima’s strip, he never exactly explicitly state what exactly aph Korea represents.

Canon-wise, we know that:

1) Aph Korea’s flag is S.Korea’s flag.

2) Korea and Japan apparently knew each other when both were kids. They look like kids in this painting at least... (this takes place at around 1300s or so... thus aph Korea's existence predate the recent separation)

And... actually that’s about it. :I

When I headcanon Ancient Korea, I tend to draw upon the HCs of kaylabow, ask-ancient-china and ask-north-korea. What wiki says about China-Korea history has it going something like this...

700 BCE- Earliest Chinese records of Gojoseon [Hetalian-brain-translator: first meeting between China and Gojoseon]

400 BCE- Capital shifted to Pyongyang

300 BCE- Jin arose in the South of the peninsula 

108 BCE- Han China VS Gojoseon: Han China won and Gojoseon was split into 4 commandaries. [Hetalian-Brain-Translator: ... *unable to process* I have seen darker fics/headcanons depicting this as China VS Gojoseon resulting in the death of the latter.]

100 BCE- Fall of Gojoseon. Gojoseon more or less disintegrated by this point. Eventually, the 4 commandries set up by Han China were completely taken over by Goguryeo by 313CE. Baekje and Silla arose in the area that was Jin.

57 BCE to 669 CE- 3 Kingdoms of Korea period proper starting at roughly 300CE. Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla.

600CE-700CE- ... Many Goguryeo and Sui/Tang China conflicts (aka when Goguryeo and China fought a lot) 

700 CE- Silla allied with Tang China successfully unified Korea against Goguryeo and Baekje-Japan alliance. Unified Silla is sometimes considered as the “first unified Korea” although there are disputes because there is still Balhae in the North. Thus, some consider the later Goryeo to be the “first unified Korea”. Much cultural import from China around this period. [Hetalian-brain-translator: I have seen HCs where aph Korea is Silla. Import of culture here, aka in hetalia-terms, probably the beginning of their brotherly relations. Otherwise, will happen in Goryeo’s time period] 

892 CE- Later 3 Kingdoms of Korea. [Hetalian-Brain-Translator: Wait.... Did Goguryeo and Baekje revive or were they just staying in other people’s houses all this while...???]

918 CE- Goryeo. I suppose this is more or less stabilized. Probably most likely is aph Korea by this point if he wasn’t already Silla.

So... the various headcanons be like...

Version 1: Gojoseon+Jin ship [predessors/parental figures]--> Goguryeo/Baekje/Silla [descendants] --> eventually today’s Korea

Version 2: Gojoseon > Goguryeo > North Korea. Jin > Silla > South Korea. Not very sure how Baekje fits in here... I guess North and South lived together during Goryeo era(?) It looks like an evolution chain... 

Version 3: Mama Gojoseon > Goguryeo/Silla/Baekje > Goguryeo eventually becomes North Korea, Silla becomes South Korea.

Version 4: There’s only ever 1 Korea. This is very unlikely imo, I can’t imagine Gojoseon calling China “aniki”. They may or may not dislike each other but it’s hard to imagine either of them acknowledging the other as “older brother’. Mostly because there aren’t records of formal cultural exchanges between the two. (aka currently the basis of some kind of familial relationship between personifications in Hetaverse) They traded though. Anyway, at least 1 predecessor feels more likely.

Basically, Gojoseon and Baekje die disappear in many timelines. :I  I wish I can get a Korean’s take on this... 

My personal HC is something along the line of, Gojoseon and Goguryeo are not Yong Soo and Yong Soo’s earliest form/name is Silla or Goryeo. And mainly everything is based on which one of them are likely to be ok with calling China aniki. :v  Tbh, everything else is kinda vague...orz

End of my ramblings for  now! Walloftext much. Orz. I wanna align everyone’s timelines at some point so that I have a reference while I art. uwu 

[mysticalmusicwhispers]

Imo Kiku wondered if Yao predicted his rise; as he grew he felt increasingly sure he did. Cuz Yao was keen to point out his flaws relative to Korea during "lessons." I hc that Korea got praised more often on seemingly easy tasks which irritated little Kiku. But as an adult he's like "old man liked me less because I had the traits to rival him," so after conquering Korea he'd mock him about it; said Yao liked him because he was weak. After all, it was highly plausible. The sentiment remains 2day.

Prev

ooh this is interesting! I can see that happening but I think the timeline might be a little off? I think Kiku would’ve been taking “lessons” from Yao until like 1000-ish AD/CE when relations cooled and official ties were cut, but Korea (I’m going with the theory that Silla = Im Yong Soo and Goguryeo = North Korea’s personification) wasn’t really officially “under” China until ~700 CE ish (when Silla conquered the Korean peninsula with Tang Chinese help, and then drove out the Chinese army that was planning to squash Silla). So imo they only spent a small-ish period of time together; however if we’re going with the interpretation that Kiku was at Yao’s house even after 1000 AD (because unofficial trade and all that continued) or Korea was at Yao’s before 700 AD (because of the trade and cultural borrowing stuff) I can see that happening: Korea being more obedient and “enthusiastic” to borrow stuff from China and “learn” from him than Kiku. Or maybe Kiku thinks they’re all equally eager, but somehow China sees Korea through rose tinted glasses, and favors him/them unfairly. Definitely with you on how a younger Kiku (idk what’s his age at this point, maybe like 10-13? sksk opinions welcome) would be eager for praise (especially from his most powerful neighbor) and the satisfaction/acknowledgement that comes from Yao’s approval of his society and civilization. The whole thing ties into how you mentioned earlier that Japan looked up to Yao as a model of sophistication and therefore wanted his approval and favor in that respect.

Also 100% yes @ the point of how Kiku justifies Yao’s treatment of him after, warping it to make himself seem more powerful. Also goes along with how Kiku has shed Yao’s influence fully, since he doesn’t care anymore about if Yao approves, and mocks Korea for Yao’s approval of him/them. I also saw something about how Imperial Japan saw the Korean peninsula as a rabbit vs the Koreans seeing it as a tiger and that also goes along with Korea’s perceived weakness.

But I don’t know enough about how Japan (ie Japanese citizens) sees South Korea today to comment about that sentiment persisting. From the bits of reading I did, it seems that it would be accurate because the Japanese superiority complex over Asia seems to be pretty prominent :|||||||| (apparently there’s a phrase “so stupid a Korean can do it”?), but I’m not sure if that’s just in the older generations or throughout Japanese society.

FACT CHECKS VERY WELCOME for any part of this

Also some additional reading for Ancient Chinese/Korean and Ancient Chinese/Japanese r/ships because I’m going to forget where I got the information from later

Edit: also I can definitely see Kiku being like “hmm did Yao know I was going to be this strong someday?” Because, honestly, Yao probably did. but just brushed the thought off until it was too late. So it’s very clever for Kiku to realize that, but it also shows some of his feelings of superiority I think. Him thinking that he’s the golden child (bad metaphor but it’ll do for now) and thinking that Yao saw himself, an empire, mirrored in Kiku, and therefore trying to push him down and belittle him to prevent it. V in character for Kiku.

[ask-north-korea]

In the ancient past, there was Three Kingdoms in Korea, Silla, Baekje, and Goguyreo. If SK and NK represented at least two of these kingdoms in when they were young, who represented the third kingdom?

There was a third brother when we were young. His name was Seung-min and he represented Baekje. He was an easy-going boy who knew the names and habitats of every last sea creature and talked about drowning as if it were something casual to happen on a boring afternoon. He was strange at times, maybe from spending too much time in the sun and at sea.

Meanwhile, South and I were going by the names Silla and Goguryeo. My kingdom, Goguryeo, was known for being militaristic and having a powerful army. Baekje was known for his sea power and extensive diplomacy and trade in faraway places such as Japan. Silla was also a very cunning diplomat who could make friends with anyone if he wanted to and navigated the intricacies of international relations with ease. 

For a while, this is what Korea looked like. We were in constant struggles against one another, sometimes friends and sometimes enemies. Each of us wanted to have power over the entire peninsula.

In the end, Silla ended up being friends with China, and went after Baekje. I was friends with Baekje at the time, but I could not defend him. Silla and China were too strong for both of us.Baekje was also good friends with Japan, who he reached out to for help, but in the end...it wasn’t enough.

[morkee]

You know how Prussia likes calling himself that and not East Germany? I like to imagine the Korea's mom prefers to call herself Silla rather than Goryeo/Joseon

[morkee]

So I keep seeing Korea family drawings on the timeline and that got me really excited. So I pulled up my old comic draft for the Hetalia Korea family series I never got to finish!

[morkee]

I like to hc ancient Silla become Goryeo and Joseon and she's the Korea twins mom. Because she was from the south herself originally, she favored SK over NK which caused some resentment....

just in general SK was the golden child because he's more academically intelligent and cheerful but NK has more hands-on intelligence and has better leadership qualities (example: SK would not know how to bargain for deals or make stuff from scratch as well as NK can)