Paekche

Paekche

One of three kingdoms into which Korea was divided before AD 660. It is traditionally said to have been founded in 18 BC by the legendary leader Onjo. In the 3rd century AD Paekche emerged as a fully developed kingdom, and by the 4th century it had extended its territory from the southwestern tip of the Korean peninsula to the whole Han River basin in central Korea. By then it was a centralized aristocratic state. Confucianism and Buddhism flourished, and Paekche's visual arts revealed technical maturity and warm human qualities. In the 5th century it was pushed back south by the northern Korean kingdom of Koguryo, and in 660 it fell to an alliance of the southern Korean state of Silla and the Tang-dynasty China.