Launch app →

East Asia · Sui, Tang and the khaganates

Balhae

698–926

Balhae (Bohai; 698–926) was founded by Dae Joyeong, a Goguryeo/Mohe leader, in Manchuria and the northern Korean peninsula after Goguryeo's fall. Claiming Goguryeo's heritage, it was called "the flourishing land of the East."

Existed
698–926
Shown on the map
AD 705–925
Peak area
494k km²
Region
East Asia

Overview

Balhae (Bohai; 698–926) was founded by Dae Joyeong, a Goguryeo/Mohe leader, in Manchuria and the northern Korean peninsula after Goguryeo's fall. Claiming Goguryeo's heritage, it was called "the flourishing land of the East." It maintained a Chinese-style administration (Five Capitals), traded with Tang and Japan, and produced refined Buddhist culture. It was destroyed in 926 by the Khitan Liao; refugees fled to Goryeo.

Common questions

What was Balhae?
Balhae (Bohai; 698–926) was founded by Dae Joyeong, a Goguryeo/Mohe leader, in Manchuria and the northern Korean peninsula after Goguryeo's fall. Claiming Goguryeo's heritage, it was called "the flourishing land of the East."
When did Balhae exist?
Balhae existed 698–926. On this map it is drawn AD 705–925.
How large was Balhae?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, Balhae covered about 494,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

See Balhae in its world

Open the atlas at AD 815 and every neighbour, rival and successor is on screen with it — then drag the slider and watch what happens next.

Open the map at AD 815 →