Ours is a resourceful and hardworking nation that has created and developed brilliant culture on this land since the early days of human history. In particular, since the initial period when national economy was formed as a result of the founding of Kojoson, the first ancient state of our nation, our ancestors created lots of excellent national cultural heritage while working hard to transform nature by fully displaying their wisdom and skill.
The respected Marshal
"We should value the precious creations and good manners and customs that are permeated with the wisdom and talents of our nation and have been handed down from one generation to the next, and inherit and develop them in line with the demands of the times."
Kojoson is the first ancient state of our nation that was founded by Tangun in early 30th century B.C. Since the early days of the founding of the state, people of Kojoson further developed Bronze Age culture shining in history, thus brining Oriental culture into bloom.
Production of bronze ware began during the second half of the 4000s B.C., before the founding of the state, but technical level was low and the variety of the products was small and production was meager.
But from the time of Kojoson, bronze processing technology gradually improved to a high level, the variety and production of the bronze ware increased rapidly and casting technique developed at a very fast rate.
Representative bronze ware unearthed recently around Pyongyang are of a wide variety, including Pipha-shaped spearhead and bronze button exposed in the house sites in the relics in Phydae in Honam-ri, Samsok district, Pyongyang and in the relics in Namyang-ri, Tokchon city, South Phyongan Province; Pipha-shaped spearhead and bronze button unearthed in the dolmens No. 4 and 5 in Ryonggok-ri, Sangwon county, North Hwanghae Province; and bronze chisel, bronze ring, bronze two-people circus ornaments unearthed in the dolmen No. 1 in Changri, Sangwon county. If we add other relics unearthed before such as Pipha-shaped daggers of the early and middle ages and bronze axe, the variety and quantity of bronze products produced during the early days of Kojoson was very large.
The main feature of bronze processing technology in Kojoson is, first of all, good combination of the practical function and artistic value of bronze ware.
Bronze products like Pipha-shaped dagger and spear, axe in the shape of the nose of the Korean socks, accessories of a cart and bodily ornaments were closely associated with real life of people of Kojoson, and they were also unique craftworks with original form and pattern decoration, which could never be imitated by others.
Among many kinds of bronze ware, Pipha-shaped dagger is an excellent bronze relic which combines practical function and artistic value well.
Being named as such because the contour of its blade is in a shape similar to Pipha, a kind of ancient musical instruments, Pipha-shaped dagger has unique and formative appearance.
The dagger is an assembly of components. It consists of the body, handle, matching part etc.; they can be assembled as one set. In the middle of the double-edged body is the basal part whose end is made round. The dagger body is convexed vertically and below the protrusion is often the blade. The dagger is 30-40cm long and very few are over 40cm.
Like this, Pipha-shaped dagger is refined and balanced as a whole and its blade, while being sharp, is made in a harmonious round form, with soft appearance. This can be regarded as a formative representation of the progressive spirits and gentle character of people of Kojoson.
In the course of being used for a long time in a wide region, Pipha-shaped dagger was changed and developed in line with practical function and aesthetic feeling of people of Kojoson. That is, in later periods, the contour of its blade became less curved, protrusion slight and the round part below the protrusion became much smaller, thus making it more useful in practice. The handle also changed from wood to bronze and its appearance was in the shape of "ㅗ,"with sophisticated geometric pattern on its façade. Like this, Pipha-shaped dagger in the later period was more refined than the one of the early days in every aspect, with slender body suitable for stabbing, bronze handle comfortable to hold etc.
This is a form of dagger that reflects the social environment of that time when anti-aggression struggle was waged continuously in Kojoson and shows that practical function and artistic value was combined at a higher level.
Pipha-shaped dagger is widely distributed not only in Kojoson, but also in almost all parts of northeast China except the regions north of the Songhua River and north of Mudan River.
The dagger originated in the basin of Taedong River centering on Pyongyang, but later spread gradually to Liaodong, Liaoxi, Jilin, Changchun and southern part of Korea.
As described so far, Pipha-shaped dagger is a unique weapon made by people of Kojoson. Daggers with such appearance can not be found among any bronze weapons of the ancient times. Tagar-type dagger disseminated around the great wall in Inner Mongolia was made by casting the blade and handle at the same time. Ancient daggers which appear in China proper have blade made of bronze and handle made of wood. Also in terms of the form, their appearance does not have formative attraction like Pipha-shaped dagger. This shows that Pipha-shaped dagger is an original one unique to Kojoson.
Besides Pipha-shaped dagger, various kinds of bronze ware were manufactured from the early period in Kojoson, such as spear, shield, helmet, ring, button, mirror, bamboo-like slender gem, cart rod end with rings, and copper thread. These were made with relatively sophisticated method and were craftworks which expressed artistic value through certain patterned decoration.
In particular, Pipha-shaped brass spear, which was basically the same as Pipha-shaped dagger of the early days, did not have rod in the lower part, but had a hole to insert a spear rod. While being an important weapon during the early days of Kojoson, this was a sort of craftwork with good form and balance and with its bending finished smartly. All this shows clearly that even when they made practical weapons, people of Kojoson paid much attention to making sure that they reflected sufficiently their feeling, emotion and progressive character and at the same time had sufficient formative and artistic value.
Articles like the net woven densely with copper thread of 0.25 mm diameter unearthed in Kangsang grave and ringed cart rod end found in Ogumdang grave show excellent artistic skill of people of Kojoson and the high level of development of the unique bronze processing technique of that time.
It should be noted that patterned decoration of bronze ware is also unique and creative.
Common to bronze ware of the early days of Kojoson are delicate geometric patterns made of different lines, long and short, thick and thin. Sophisticated patterns of lightening and of continuous triangles visible on the handle of Pipha-shaped dagger, triangular and rectangular patterns on the tag used as ornaments, and triangular and long rectangular patterns on the cart rod end are decorative patterns unique to Kojoson, different from those of neighboring countries.
The next main feature of bronze processing technique in Kojoson is a high level of delicacy and sophistication.
Our ancestors, who pioneered Bronze Age, processed bronze ware in a delicate and sophisticated manner from the early days, using bronze alloy technique based on a reasonable mixing of metals such as copper, tin, lead and zinc, high casting technique such as agalmatolite, sand mould and waxe casting, mercury coating based on amalgam alloy, sheet metal skill, boring pattern skill, skill of inlaying with gold thread and other excellent techniques.
Bronze two-people circus ornaments unearthed in the dolmen No. 1 in Changri, Sangwon county, relic of the first half of the 3000s B.C. is a small work cast of bronze, 4.8 cm high and 5.1 cm wide. But it vividly depicts two acrobats who are in shoulder to shoulder, playing tricks on a ring with rings in both hands. Bronze ring unearthed in the same dolmen is also very small article, which looks like a cone-shaped bell, 3.6 cm high, with mouth in diameter of 1.7 cm and a pendulum 2 cm long. But it is an excellent craftwork, with the resonance box, ring and pendulum cast correctly and the highly refined workmanship of dividing the resonance box vertically into four parts and making a long hole. It shows the high level of bronze casting technique.
The mould used for casting bronze ware at that time also shows the development of bronze casting technique.
Found in the house site No. 22 of the relics in Namyang-ri, Tokchon city, South Phyongan Province was a mould for bronze ring, made of stones, in the shape of a match box. It has a ring-shaped, hollow concave in the centre and a groove on one side for pouring melted bronze. The concave was 5.4 cm long, 3.5 cm wide and 1.8 cm deep. This sort of mould was also found in the relics in the seat of Kumya county, South Hamgyong Province.
Delicacy and sophistication of bronze processing technique of Kojoson can be especially seen in the mirror with fine line pattern, the most peculiar craft work of Kojoson.
On the back side of the mirror are various types of triangles in a circle which are filled with many fine lines. Some of the fine line pattern mirrors known so far have thick stripes and parallel lines and some others have fine lines which are depicted sophisticatedly in circles, triangles and quadrangles.
But all mirrors have common features. First, the plane is round; second, most of them are concave mirrors whose reflective sides are depressed; third, most of them are made of cupronickel, with some bronze; fourth, the section of the rim is generally semi-circle while some are close to triangle; fifth, there are 2-3 rings (4 rings in rare cases) for hanging the mirror a little away from the centre of the circle; and sixth, in terms of pattern formation, triangles and quadrangles are engraved parallel to the fine lines in the circle. This sort of mirror is found only in Kojoson and its vicinities.
Silk pattern-like beauty of the fine line pattern mirrors, its cubic effect like reed mat pattern, its radiant pattern as if the rays shine from one point etc. are all decorative ideas which are aligned with the function of a mirror – reflecting everything brightly and clearly. The fine lines of the mirror is a pattern which originated from the engraved pattern dish and perfected in the course of mixing with the aesthetic feeling of people of Kojoson and which symbolizes their psychological characteristic of being cheerful and clean. Therefore, although the mirror has hundreds and thousands of triangles and fine lines, they never look complicated and vexatious and they are permeated with only simple and modest taste.
Fine line pattern mirror is unique to Kojoson. What has the back side similar to fine line mirror (some of them are engraved in relief) is a mirror of the Age of the Warring States of China. This mirror is in volute and straight-line pattern, so its appearance is different from that of the fine line mirror.
Fine line mirror is totally different from a mirror with mysterious pictorial pattern like monsters of the time of Han dynasty in China.
The sophisticated geometric pattern of the fine lines is a pattern that was handed over from the Neolithic era of our country when engraved pattern dishes were used and it is a unique pattern that can be found in earthenware of the early period of Kojoson as well as the whole period of the Bronze Age.
In conclusion, thanks to creative talent and hard work of our ancestors, bronze processing technique of Kojoson was developed with features unique to the Korean nation which can not be found in any other parts of the world.
A great number of bronze products which were created with the bronze processing technique are valuable national cultural heritage which should be handed down from generation to generation with a long history of our nation.
