Jinhan confederacy
Encyclopedia
Jinhan was a loose confederacy of chiefdoms that existed from around the 1st century BC to the 4th century AD in the southern Korean peninsula
Korean Peninsula
The Korean Peninsula is a peninsula in East Asia. It extends southwards for about 684 miles from continental Asia into the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by the Sea of Japan to the south, and the Yellow Sea to the west, the Korea Strait connecting the first two bodies of water.Until the end of...

, to the east of the Nakdong River
Nakdong River
The Nakdong River is the longest river in South Korea, and passes through major cities such as Daegu and Busan.-Geography:...

 valley, Gyeongsang
Gyeongsang
Gyeongsang was one of the eight provinces of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty. Gyeongsang was located in the southeast of Korea....

 Province. Jinhan was one of the Samhan
Samhan
The Samhan period of Korean history comprises confederacies of Mahan, Jinhan, and Byeonhan in central and southern Korean peninsula, during the final century BCE and the early centuries CE....

 (or "Three Hans"), along with Byeonhan
Byeonhan confederacy
Byeonhan, also known as Byeonjin, was a loose confederacy of chiefdoms that existed from around the beginning of the Common Era to the 4th century in the southern Korean peninsula...

 and Mahan
Mahan confederacy
Mahan was a loose confederacy of statelets that existed from around the 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE in the southern Korean peninsula in the Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces. Arising out of the confluence of Gojoseon migration and the Jin state federation, Mahan was one of the Samhan , along...

. Apparently descending from the Jin
Jin (Korean history)
Jin state was an early Korean, Iron Age state which occupied some portion of the southern Korean peninsula during the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC, bordering the Korean kingdom Gojoseon to the north. Its capital was somewhere south of the Han River...

 state of southern Korea, Jinhan was absorbed by the later Silla
Silla
Silla was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and one of the longest sustained dynasties in...

, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea
Three Kingdoms of Korea
The Three Kingdoms of Korea refer to the ancient Korean kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla, which dominated the Korean peninsula and parts of Manchuria for much of the 1st millennium...

.

History

Jinhan, like the other Samhan confederacies, arose out of the confusion and migration following the fall of Gojoseon
Gojoseon
Gojoseon was an ancient Korean kingdom. Go , meaning "ancient," distinguishes it from the later Joseon Dynasty; Joseon, as it is called in contemporaneous writings, is also romanized as Chosŏn....

 in 108 BC.

Culture

Its relation to the earlier state of Jin
Jin (Korean history)
Jin state was an early Korean, Iron Age state which occupied some portion of the southern Korean peninsula during the 2nd and 3rd centuries BC, bordering the Korean kingdom Gojoseon to the north. Its capital was somewhere south of the Han River...

 is not clear, although the contemporary Chinese chronicle San Guo Zhi alleges that Jinhan was identical with Jin (while another record describes Jin as the predecessor of the Samhan as a whole). Jinhan and Byeonhan shared essentially the same culture, with varying religious customs, and apparently were not separated by a clear boundary.

The people claimed they were descendants of Qin dynasty
Qin Dynasty
The Qin Dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China, lasting from 221 to 207 BC. The Qin state derived its name from its heartland of Qin, in modern-day Shaanxi. The strength of the Qin state was greatly increased by the legalist reforms of Shang Yang in the 4th century BC, during the Warring...

 migrants, fleeing Qin's force labor policies moved to the Mahan confederacy
Mahan confederacy
Mahan was a loose confederacy of statelets that existed from around the 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE in the southern Korean peninsula in the Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces. Arising out of the confluence of Gojoseon migration and the Jin state federation, Mahan was one of the Samhan , along...

 which give them the east land. The confederacy was also called Qinhan (秦韓). As immigrants, the kings have to be Mahan people. But there is no further archeleogical evidences to prove this is true.

Statelets

According to the San Guo Zhi , Jinhan consisted of 12 statelets of 600 to 5000 families each divided from 6 statelets:
  • Saro (사로국, 斯盧國), most powerful state in Jinhan, it is also called Seorabeol. In 503, Saro state renamed itself "Silla
    Silla
    Silla was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and one of the longest sustained dynasties in...

    ".
  • Gijeo (기저국, 己柢國), present-day Andong
    Andong
    Andong is a city in Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, South Korea. It is the largest city in the northern part of the province with a population of 167,821 in October 2010. The Nakdong River flows through the city...

    .
  • Bulsa (불사국, 不斯國), present-day Changnyeong
    Changnyeong
    Changnyeong County is a county in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea.In the early Three Kingdoms period, Changnyeong was the seat of Bihwa Gaya, a member of the Gaya confederacy which was later conquered by Silla....

    .
  • Geun-gi (근기국, 勤耆國), present-day Pohang
    Pohang
    Pohang is a city in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, and a main seaport in the Daegu-Gyeongbuk region. The built-up area of Pohang is located on the alluvium of the mouth of the Hyeongsan River...

     or Cheongdo.
  • Nanmirimidong (난미리미동국, 難彌理彌凍國), present-day Miryang
    Miryang
    Miryang, often spelled Milyang, is a city in Gyeongsangnam-do Province, South Korea. Neighboring cities include Changnyeong to the west, Cheongdo to the north, Ulsan to the east, and Yangsan, Gimhae, and Changwon to the south. The city bird is the Korean magpie, the city tree is the pine, and the...

    . It is also called "Mirimidong".
  • Yeomhae (염해국, 冉奚國), present-day Ulsan
    Ulsan
    Ulsan , officially the Ulsan Metropolitan City, is South Korea's seventh largest metropolis with a population of over 1.1 million. It is located in the south-east of the country, neighboring Busan to the south and facing Gyeongju to the north and the Sea of Japan to the east.Ulsan is the...

    .
  • Gunmi (군미국, 軍彌國), present-day Sacheon
    Sacheon
    Sacheon is a city in South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. Sacheon's chief fame comes from its being the site of two naval battles in the Seven Year War....

    .
  • Yeodam (여담국, 如湛國), present-day Gunwi.
  • Horo (호로국, 戶路國), present-day Sangju
    Sangju
    Sangju is a city in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. Although Sangju is rather rural, it is very old and was once a key city. Along with Gyeongju, it gives rise to half of the name of the Gyeongsang provinces...

    .
  • Juseon (주선국, 州鮮國), present-day Gyeongsan
    Gyeongsan
    Gyeongsan is a city in North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. Its western border abuts the metropolitan city of Daegu, and much of Gyeongsan lies within the Daegu metropolitan area....

    .
  • Mayeon (마연국, 馬延國), present-day Miryang
    Miryang
    Miryang, often spelled Milyang, is a city in Gyeongsangnam-do Province, South Korea. Neighboring cities include Changnyeong to the west, Cheongdo to the north, Ulsan to the east, and Yangsan, Gimhae, and Changwon to the south. The city bird is the Korean magpie, the city tree is the pine, and the...

    .
  • U-yu (우유국, 優由國), present-day Cheongdo or Yeongdeok.


According to Samguk Sagi
Samguk Sagi
Samguk Sagi is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. The Samguk Sagi is written in Classical Chinese and its compilation was ordered by Goryeo's King Injong Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of...

, the Silla
Silla
Silla was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and one of the longest sustained dynasties in...

 Kingdom (around present-day Gyeongju
Gyeongju
Gyeongju is a coastal city in the far southeastern corner of North Gyeongsang province in South Korea. It is the second largest city by area in the province after Andong, covering with a population of 269,343 people according to the 2008 census. Gyeongju is southeast of Seoul, and east of the...

), was founded by Bak Hyeokgeose
Bak Hyeokgeose of Silla
Hyeokgeose of Silla , commonly called Bak Hyeokgeose, was the founding monarch of Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea...

 in 57 BC, who united the six clans of Jinhan under his rule. The records are sparse and conflicting regarding the relationship of the names Jinhan, Saro, Seorabeol, and the later Silla kingdom.

We know little of the daily life of Jinhan people. The religion appears to have been shamanistic
Shamanism
Shamanism is an anthropological term referencing a range of beliefs and practices regarding communication with the spiritual world. To quote Eliade: "A first definition of this complex phenomenon, and perhaps the least hazardous, will be: shamanism = technique of ecstasy." Shamanism encompasses the...

, and to have played an important role in politics
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

 as well. Agriculture
Agriculture
Agriculture is the cultivation of animals, plants, fungi and other life forms for food, fiber, and other products used to sustain life. Agriculture was the key implement in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the...

 was heavily dominated by rice
Rice
Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

, but also included substantial rearing of livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...

 including horse
Horse
The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

s, cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...

, and chicken
Chicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...

s.

Location

Most theories indicate that Jinhan was located in the area later occupied by the Silla kingdom: the Gyeongju Basin
Gyeongju Basin
The Gyeongju Basin is a landform in Gyeongju city, North Gyeongsang province, South Korea. It forms part of the watershed of the Hyeongsan River, which flows north through the basin where it is joined by the Bukcheon, Namcheon, Daecheon, and Sogyeon-cheon streams.The basin is surrounded by low...

 and adjacent Sea of Japan
Sea of Japan
The Sea of Japan is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean, between the Asian mainland, the Japanese archipelago and Sakhalin. It is bordered by Japan, North Korea, Russia and South Korea. Like the Mediterranean Sea, it has almost no tides due to its nearly complete enclosure from the Pacific...

 coast. It would have been neighbored by the Byeonhan confederacy
Byeonhan confederacy
Byeonhan, also known as Byeonjin, was a loose confederacy of chiefdoms that existed from around the beginning of the Common Era to the 4th century in the southern Korean peninsula...

 on the southwest, and by the much larger Mahan confederacy
Mahan confederacy
Mahan was a loose confederacy of statelets that existed from around the 1st century BCE to 3rd century CE in the southern Korean peninsula in the Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces. Arising out of the confluence of Gojoseon migration and the Jin state federation, Mahan was one of the Samhan , along...

 on the west. On the north it would have been bounded by the Chinese commanderies and the small coastal state of Dongye
Dongye
Dongye, which means the Eastern Ye, was a Korean chiefdom which occupied portions of the northeastern Korean peninsula from roughly 3rd-century BCE to around early 5th-century. It bordered Goguryeo and Okjeo to the north, Jinhan to the south, and China's Lelang Commandery to the west...

. However, some scholars place Jinhan in the Han River
Han River (Korea)
The Han River is a major river in South Korea and the fourth longest river on the Korean peninsula after the Amnok, Duman, and Nakdong rivers. It is formed by the confluence of the Namhan River , which originates in Mount Daedeok, and the Bukhan River , which originates on the slopes of Mount...

 valley, bounded by Mahan on the north and Byeonhan on the south.

See also

  • List of Korea-related topics
  • History of Korea
    History of Korea
    The Korean Peninsula was inhabited from the Lower Paleolithic about 400,000-500,000 years ago. Archeological evidence indicates that the presence of modern humans in northeast Asia dates to 39,000 years ago. The earliest known Korean pottery dates to around 8000 BC, and the Neolithic period began...

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