Byeonhan confederacy 弁韓 변한 | |||||||||
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| 194 BCE–42 CE | |||||||||
 Byeonhan confederacy inc. 1 CE. | |||||||||
| Common languages | Han | ||||||||
| Religion | Shamanism | ||||||||
| Government | Confederacy | ||||||||
| Historical era | Ancient | ||||||||
• Establishment | 194 BCE | ||||||||
• Transition to theGaya confederacy. | 42 CE | ||||||||
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| Today part of | South Korea | ||||||||
| Korean name | |||||||||
| Hangul | 변한 | ||||||||
| Hanja | 弁韓 | ||||||||
| RR | Byeonhan | ||||||||
| MR | Pyŏnhan | ||||||||
| IPA | [pjʌn.ɦan] | ||||||||
| Alternate name | |||||||||
| Hangul | 변진 | ||||||||
| Hanja | 弁辰 | ||||||||
| RR | Byeonjin | ||||||||
| MR | Pyŏnjin | ||||||||
| IPA | [pjʌn.dʑin] | ||||||||
Byeonhan (Korean:변한;Hanja:弁韓;pronounced[pjʌn.ɦan]), also known asByeonjin (변진;弁辰;[pjʌn.dʑin]),[1] was a loose confederacy of chiefdoms that existed from around the beginning of theCommon Era to the 4th century in the southernKorean peninsula. Byeonhan was one of theSamhan (or "Three Hans"), along withMahan andJinhan.[2]
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Byeonhan (弁韓) is believed to be a combination ofOld Korean words.Byeon (변) in native Korean meant "Shiny/Shimmering" whilehan (한) meant "big",[3] giving the meaning of Byeonhan, the "Big Nation of Shimmering".
As part of the Samhan, Jinhan meant "Big Nation of the East" and Mahan meant "Big Nation of the South".[4]
This early part of theThree Kingdoms period is sometimes called theProto–Three Kingdoms period. Byeonhan, like the other Samhan confederacies, appears to be descended from theJin state of southern Korea.
Archaeological evidence indicates an increase in military activity and weapons production among the Byeonhan in the 3rd century, especially an increase in iron arrowheads andcuirasses (Barnes 2000).[2] This may be associated with the decline of Byeonhan and the rise of the more centralizedGaya confederacy, which most Byeonhan states joined. Gaya was subsequently annexed bySilla, one of theThree Kingdoms of Korea.
Various cultural aspects supposedly unique to Byeonhan overlap with Jinhan, but are not universal in Byeonhan. One notable tradition wastattooing, which was done by both men and women.[5] Another tradition was the burying offeathers andpottery[6] ingraves alongside the dead body as it was believed that the feathers helped the afterlife souls fly into the sky.[5]
Byeonhan as a political grouping was also sometimes referred to by a calque ofByeon (弁) andJin (辰) as Byeonjin with the ethnonymHan (韓) being used by its inhabitants, identical to that of its neighbours.
There are also two hypotheses about the Byeonhan constituting a separate ethnicity distinct from the Jinhan:
However, there is no distinct evidence that indicates an ethnic separation of Byeonhan and Jinhan as the two shared essentially the same culture, with varying religious customs, and apparently were not separated by a clear boundary according to the contemporary Chinese chronicle,Records of the Three Kingdoms.
TheDongyi ("Eastern Barbarian") in theBook of Wei section of the Chinese book,Records of the Three Kingdoms states that the culture of Byeonhan was similar to that ofJinhan (言語法俗相似) and that their populations lived "intermingled together" (弁辰與辰韓雑居), while having similar language and customs.[9]
The fifth centuryBook of the Later Han, however, notes on differences in their language and customs as "languages and customs have differences" (言語風俗有異), after stating that their enclosed settlements and clothing are the same.[9]
Furthermore, theWei shu states that "Jinhan men and women are close to Wa (男女近倭)", the ethnonym for the contemporary inhabitants of the Japanese archipelago, and like theWa tattoo their bodies. TheBook of the Later Han however identifies this with Byeonhan, stating that "their country is close to Wa, therefore they frequently have tattoos."[9]
The linguist John Whitman summarizes the situation as such:
In fact, the texts indicate a more complex (and plausible) interrelationship between language, ethnicity, and protopolitical grouping. [...] The Jinhan population lives intermixed with Pyŏnhan; the Chinese reporters struggle to describe the resultant demographic complexity. Their languages may be similar, or different; some resemble the Wa, some tattoo their bodies. While Wa-like toponyms are more frequent in the Pyŏnhan grouping, one such toponym is identified with Jinhan. This is exactly the kind of complexity we might expect to be associated with the situation described by Ahn, where a population associated with Mumun wet rice growing culture lives alongside more recently arrived members of the Korean-style bronze dagger culture.[9]
Byeonhan may have simply been a political description for decentralized polities south and west of theNakdong river valley that were not formal members of the Jinhan confederacy.[10]
Byeonhan was internationally known for its production ofiron,[11] which was also its main export good to theLelang commandery to the northwest, the Japanese archipelago,[11][12] and the rest of theKorean peninsula.[13][14] It was also a center of stoneware manufacture.
According to theRecords of Three Kingdoms, Byeonhan consisted of 12 statelets:
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