ABSTRACT
Intellectual thought and development in Korea have always been influenced, though never dominated, by its geographical proximity to China. As in China, the three major traditions of Daoism, Confucianism and Buddhism were early to be found in the Korean peninsula. During the Three Kingdoms period (57 BCE–668 CE), before Korea was unified, adherents of each tradition were to be found amongst the members of each society. Daoism never achieved a position of pre- eminence, and thus the history of Korean thought for the past twenty centuries has been dominated by Buddhism and Confucianism, which throughout most of that time have coexisted without conflict.
