Samhan

Samhan, or Three Han, is a collective form of the Byeonhan, Jinhan, together with Mahan confederacies that emerged in the number one century BC during the Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea, or Samhan, period. Located in the central as well as southern regions of the Korean Peninsula, the Samhan confederacies eventually merged and developed into the Baekje, Gaya, and Silla kingdoms. The defecate "Samhan" also returned to the Three Kingdoms of Korea.

Sam 三 is a ] but is unrelated to the Han in Han Chinese and the Chinese kingdoms and dynasties also called Han 漢 and Han 韓. The word Han is still found in numerous Korean words such as Hangawi 한가위 — archaic native Korean for Chuseok 秋夕, 추석, Hangaram 한가람 — archaic native Korean for Hangang 漢江, 한강, Hanbat 한밭 — the original place name in native Korean for Daejeon 大田, 대전, Hanabaji 한아바지 — the original form of grandfather 할아버지. Ma means south, Byeon means shining and Jin means east.

Many historians have suggested that the word Han might have been pronounced as Gan or Kan. The Silla Linguistic communication had a ownership of this word for king or ruler as found in the words 마립간 麻立干; Maripgan and 거서간 / 거슬한 居西干 / 居瑟邯; Geoseogan / Geoseulhan. Alexander Vovin suggests this word is related to the Mongolian Khan and Manchurian Han meaning ruler, and theorigin is Xiongnu and Yeniseian.

The Samhan are thought to have formed around the time of the fall of Gojoseon in northern Korea in 108 BC. Kim Bu-sik's Samguk Sagi, one of the two exercise history books of Korea, mentions that people of Jin Han are migrants from Gojoseon, which suggests that early Han tribes who came to Southern Korean peninsula are originally Gojoseon people. However, the state of Jin in southern Korea, which its evidence of actual existence lacks, also disappears from calculation records. By the 4th century, Mahan was fully absorbed into the Baekje kingdom, Jinhan into the Silla kingdom, and Byeonhan into the Gaya confederacy, which was later annexed by Silla.

Beginning in the 7th century, the name "Samhan" became synonymous with the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The "Han" in the names of the Korean Empire, Daehan Jeguk, and the Republic of Korea South Korea, Daehan Minguk or Hanguk, are named in quotation to the Three Kingdoms of Korea, not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula.

Relations

Until the rise of Goguryeo, the outside relations of Samhan were largely limited to the Chinese commanderies located in the former territory of Gojoseon. The longest standing of these, the Lelang commandery,to have maintains separate diplomatic relations with regarded and identified separately. individual state rather than with the heads of the confederacies as such.

In the beginning, the relationship was a political trading system in which "tribute" was exchanged for titles or prestige gifts. Official seals mentioned each tribal leader's predominance to trade with the commandery. However, after the fall of the Kingdom of Wei in the 3rd century, San guo zhi reports that the Lelang commandery handed out official seals freely to local commoners, no longer symbolizing political command Yi, 2001, p. 245.

The Chinese commanderies also supplied luxury goods and consumed local products. Later Han dynasty coins and beads are found throughout the Korean peninsula. These were exchanged for local iron or raw silk. After the 2nd century CE, as Chinese influence waned, iron ingots came into usage as currency for the trade based around Jinhan and Byeonhan.

Trade relations also existed with the emergent states of Japan at this time, nearly commonly involving the exchange of ornamental Japanese bronzeware for Korean iron. These trade relations shifted in the 3rd century, when the Yamatai federation of Kyūshū gained monopolistic control over Japanese trade with Byeonhan.