Korean Chinese Dynasty?

Dorozhand

Banned
What if a Korean kingdom had successfully conquered all or a large part of China?

Were there any historical Korean states that could have pulled something like this off if given the right kind of opportunity?

Assuming it's possible, what would this hypothetical state look like?

Would it be sinophilic enough to establish itself as a Chinese rather than Korean state, or slowly be absorbed by Chinese culture until they did (like the Mongols, Jurchen, and Tangut)?
 
Unless you go back and change things long before the initial Chinese Unification I really don't see it happening; throughout history not only has China controlled a good deal of Korean territory, but Korea has spent a very long time looking up to China and being Chinese vassals.
 

Dorozhand

Banned
Unless you go back and change things long before the initial Chinese Unification I really don't see it happening; throughout history not only has China controlled a good deal of Korean territory, but Korea has spent a very long time looking up to China and being Chinese vassals.

Maybe you could have a slightly more successful Sui invasion of Goguryeo that devolves into a stalemate instead of a complete Sui defeat. Then, you could get a Korea that comes to hate China.

Then, exhausted from the invasion and continuous campaigning, Sui collapses. Instead of a general seizing power and founding Tang, the country lapses back into multi-faceted civil war between rival kingdoms on the periphery and a rump Sui in north-central China.

During this war, Goguryeo, whose military is hardened and well-trained from the prolonged war against Sui, conquers Baekje and Silla. Then, having unified Korea, they go after the weak Sui remnant in China.
 
If such a dynasty would exist, it would become less Korean. It may meet the fate of the Manchus- they were a distinct entity that had the capacity to successfully conquer China, but were demographically and culturally overwhelmed until they simply disappeared, both the people and language. This actually may lead to a long-term Korea-screw than a Korea-wank.
 
If such a dynasty would exist, it would become less Korean. It may meet the fate of the Manchus- they were a distinct entity that had the capacity to successfully conquer China, but were demographically and culturally overwhelmed until they simply disappeared, both the people and language. This actually may lead to a long-term Korea-screw than a Korea-wank.

Pretty much agreed; Take, for example, the degree of Sinicization of the Manchus, and apply that to a country whose culture was already very heavily Sinitic before.
 
I'm literally working on this right now (see sig), although the pace is relatively slow at the moment, due to translation and details. Goguryeo was essentially the only state that could have done so, and it would require a PoD before 500 at the latest, given that the peninsula would have to be unified beforehand. Given that China was divided IOTL from around 220 to 581, with the exception of the Sima Jin, Goguryeo could have taken advantage of the chaos to essentially reunite China piece by piece, although it would be essentially impossible to hold everything together for more than two centuries. Assimilation is not necessarily a given, as Goguryeo was multiethnic and managed to retain its culture and language despite a significant Chinese population, but the repercussions after the conquerors are expulsed would become a major issue for both states afterward.

In terms of the population, the ratio of Chinese to Koreans could be around 3:1 in an optimal scenario, so the numbers themselves shouldn't be much of an issue.
 
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