The Han Commanderies in Early Korean History, edited by Mark E. Byington, is the product of the four-part workshop “Korea and the Han Commanderies,” organized by the Early Korea Project at the Korea Institute at Harvard University in 2008. It is comprised of an introduction, ten essays by scholars primarily from South Korea, and an index. The work was compiled with the intent to combine nuanced interpretations of the extant literary materials with the latest archeological finds. Because only a handful of scholars in the West work on early Korea, another purpose of the monograph is to make Korean scholarship accessible to Western scholars.
The understanding and interpretation of its early history is crucial to national identity in Korea. Disregarding material evidence to the contrary, the North Korean government and some South Korean nationalists hold the view that the four Han commanderies established by Han emperor Wu (r. 141–87...
