Jin (Korean state)

This article is about a state in the Korean Peninsula. For the Chinese state, see Jin (Chinese state). For other uses, see Jin.

Not to be confused with the later Balhae kingdom, originally named Jin.

Jin state 진국 辰國
4th century BCE–2nd century BCE
Korea in 108 BCE
Capital	Not specified
Common languages	Unknown
Religion	Shamanism
Government	Tribal confederacy
Chief
Historical era	Ancient
• Establishment	4th century BCE
• Succeeded by Samhan	2nd century BCE
Succeeded by Mahan confederacy Byeonhan confederacy Jinhan confederacy
Today part of	South Korea North Korea

Jin
Hangul	진국
Hanja	辰國
Revised Romanization	Jin-guk
McCune–Reischauer	Chin'guk

The state of Jin (Korean pronunciation: [tɕin]) was a confederacy of statelets which occupied some portion of the southern Korean peninsula from the 4th to 2nd centuries BCE, bordering the Korean Kingdom of Gojoseon to the north. Its capital was somewhere south of the Han River. It preceded the Samhan confederacies, each of which claimed to be the successor of the Jin state.^[1]

Name

"Jin" is the Revised Romanization of Korean 진, originally written 辰 in Korean Chinese characters (hanja). This character's Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as /*[d]ər/^[2] and originally referred to the 5th earthly branch of the Chinese and Korean zodiacs, a division of the orbit of Jupiter identified with the dragon. This was associated with a bearing of 120° (between ESE and SE) but also with the two-hour period between 7 and 9 am, leading it to be associated with dawn and the direction east.

A variant romanization is Chin.

History

The degree of the organization of Jin as a formal political state is unclear. It seems likely that it was a federation of small states much like the subsequent Samhan.^{[citation needed]} For the state to be able to contend with its contemporary Wiman Joseon and send embassies to the court of the Western Han dynasty, there was probably some level of stable central authority. Korean historian Ki-baek Lee (1984, p. 24) also suggests that the kingdom's attempt to open direct contacts "suggests a strong desire on the part of Chin [Jin] to enjoy the benefits of Chinese metal culture." However, for the most part Wiman Joseon prevented direct contact between Jin and China.^[3]

King Jun of Gojoseon is reported to have fled to Jin after Wiman seized his throne and established Wiman Joseon. Some believe that Chinese mentions of Gaeguk or Gaemaguk (蓋馬國,literally means Kingdom of armored horses,located near Kaema Plateau) refers to Jin.^{[citation needed]} Goguryeo is said to have conquered "Gaemaguk" in 26 AD, but this may refer to a different tribe in northern Korea. An official of Gojoseon called Yeok Gye Gyeong(歷谿卿),after failing to persuade Ugeo, is said to have defected from Gojoseon to Jin, which is described to be located at the East of Gojoseon.^[4]

Records are somewhat contradictory on Jin's demise: it either became the later Jinhan,^[5] or diverged into the Samhan as a whole.^[6] Archeological records of Jin have been found centered in territory that later became Mahan.^[1]

Language

Alexander Vovin, among others, suggests that Japonic languages, which he classifies as Peninsular Japonic, were spoken in large parts of southern Korea and Jeju before they were replaced by proto-Koreanic languages.^[7][8] While it is believed that Koreanic/proto-Koreanic and Japonic/proto-Japonic (i.e. Peninsular Japonic) co-existed in the southern Korean Peninsula for an extended period of time,^[9][10][11] the establishment of Koreanic speakers and their assimilation of Japonic speakers may have played a role in a Yayoi migration to the Japanese archipelago, believed to have occurred between 1,000 BC – 300 AD, which overlaps with the period in which Jin is attested.^{[12][13][14][15][16]} Given this overlap, it is possible that, as Kōno Rokurō and Vovin suggest was the case with the later Korean kingdom of Baekje with regards to Puyŏ languages and Han languages,^[17][18] Jin may have been a bilingual state with regards to Koreanic languages and Peninsular Japonic.

Korean historian Ki-Moon Lee classified the Puyŏ languages leading to "Goguryo-Baekje-Wa" and the Han languages, the direct ancestor of modern Korean leading to "Gojoseon-Silla.”^[19]

While, Japanese historian Hideto Ito classified the Ye and Wa into the same language family.^[20]

Archeology

Archaeologically, Jin is commonly identified with the Korean bronze dagger culture, which succeeded the Liaoning bronze dagger culture in the late first millennium BCE.^[1] The most abundant finds from this culture have been in southwestern Korea's Chungcheong and Jeolla regions. This suggests that Jin was based in the same area, which roughly coincides with the fragmentary historical evidence.^{[citation needed]}

Artifacts of the culture also show some similarities to the Yayoi people of Kyūshū, Japan.^[21]

Archaeologically, the northern part of the Korean Peninsula is divided into "Violin-shaped daggers"(비파형동검, 琵琶形銅劍) and the southern part into “Slender daggers”(세형동검, 細形銅剣), but all of them are understood by modern scholars as data proving the southward movement of the Gojoseon. This is because it is a natural historical common sense for the civilized northerners of the Chinese continent to deliver to the southerners of the Korean Peninsula. Both "Violin-shaped daggers" and “Slender daggers” have been classified as Liaoning bronze dagger culture from a long time ago to today.^[22]

Jihouming(㠱侯名) bronze artwork was excavated in Lower Xiajiadian culture. This shows that the narrative of Gija Joseon(箕子朝鮮) in the literature is true.^[23][24][25] especially, Gija Joseon narrative was occurred in the northern Hebei Province.

Hypothesis that Gojoseon was a society with a ‘bury alive with the dead culture’ was claimed by N.Korean academia. However, the S.Korean academic community opposes the ‘bury alive with the dead culture’ theory, and the S.Korean academic community claims it as a "cemeteries of generational communities or blood ties." However, it is pointed that there is a contradictory description occurring in the study of social differentiation in Bronze Age, in the S.Korean academic community.^[26] Contrary to the claim that the displaced people of Gojoseon founded Silla, few northern relics have been identified in the southern part of the peninsula. On the other hand, in the northeastern Jin area, the "Jung-do archeological culture," which is determined as a Ye-type culture, is being discovered.^[27][28]

Legacy

Jin was succeeded by the Samhan: Mahan, Jinhan and Byeonhan. Chinese historical text, Records of the Three Kingdoms says that Jinhan is the successor of the Jin state,^[29] while the Book of the Later Han writes that Mahan, Jinhan and Byeonhan were all part of the former Jin state as well as 78 other tribes.^[30]

The name of Jin continued to be used in the name of the Jinhan confederacy and in the name "Byeonjin," an alternate term for Byeonhan. In addition, for some time the leader of Mahan continued to call himself the "Jin king," asserting nominal overlordship over all of the Samhan tribes.

See also

• History of Korea
• Samhan

References

Citations

1. Lee Injae, Owen Miller, Park Jinhoon, Yi Hyun-Hae, 〈Korean History in Maps〉, 2014, pp.18-20
2. Baxter-Sagart.
3. Book of Han, "傳子至孫右渠 … 眞番 辰國 欲上書見天子 又雍閼弗通", vol.〈朝鮮〉
4. Records of the Three Kingdomsof the Biographies of the Wuhuan, Xianbei, and Dongyi
5. Records of the Three Kingdoms,Han dynasty(韓),"有三種 一曰馬韓 二曰辰韓 三曰弁韓 辰韓者古之辰國也"
6. Book of the Later Han,Han(韓),"韓有三種 一曰馬韓 二曰辰韓 三曰弁辰 … 凡七十八國 … 皆古之辰國也"
7. Vovin, Alexander (2013). "From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean". Korean Linguistics. 15 (2): 222–240.
8. Janhunen, Juha (2010). "Reconstructing the Language Map of Prehistorical Northeast Asia". Studia Orientalia (108). ... there are strong indications that the neighbouring Baekje state (in the southwest) was predominantly Japonic-speaking until it was linguistically Koreanized.
9. Janhunen (2010), p. 294.
10. Vovin (2013), pp. 222, 237.
11. Unger (2009), p. 87.
12. Vovin, Alexander. "Origins of the Japanese Language". {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
13. Serafim (2008), p. 98.
14. Whitman, John (2011-12-01). "Northeast Asian Linguistic Ecology and the Advent of Rice Agriculture in Korea and Japan". Rice. 4 (3): 149–158. doi:10.1007/s12284-011-9080-0. ISSN 1939-8433.
15. Miyamoto (2016), pp. 69–70.
16. Vovin (2017).
17. Vovin (2005), p. 119.
18. Kōno (1987), pp. 84–85.
19. Lee, Ki-Moon; Ramsey, S. Robert (2011), A History of the Korean Language, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-1-139-49448-9, pp. 34–36.
20. 伊藤英人(2021), 「濊倭同系論」, 『KOTONOHA』224 号、古代文字資料館, http://kodaimoji.her.jp/pdf15/yitou224.pdf
21. Kenneth B. Lee, 〈Korea and East Asia: The Story of a Phoenix〉, Greenwood Publishing, 1997, pp.23-25
22. 박진일 (2022), 삼한의 고고학적 시공간, 진인진, ISBN 9788963475271 / 8963475271.
23. 張博泉, 1984 「從東北出土殷周銅器說起」 遼寧文物」總 6期
24. 李治亭 主編,2003 「東北通史」(中國邊疆通史叢書), 中州古籍出版社,p.41
25. Jinho, Park (2020). "Trend and issue of Lower Xiajiadian culture in China－Focus on study history－". 한국학연구. 59: 343–372.
26. Ju-Young, Park (2022). "A Review of the Gangshang and Loushang : Korean Bronze Age Burial Aspects and its Implications for Social Differentiation Studies". 중앙고고연구. 38: 1–26. doi:10.20292/jcich.2022.38.1.
27. Jung-kuk, Park (2012). "The regionality of Jung-do archeological culture -reassessment on 'Jung-do cultural assemblage'-". Journal of Central Institute of Cultural Heritage. 11: 41–88.
28. Aikens, C.M., Zhushchikhovskaya, I.S., Rhee, S.N., 2009, Environment, Ecology, and Interaction in Japan, Korea and the Russian Far East, Asian Perspective, 48(2); 230-239
29. "辰韓者古之辰國也". 〈韓〉,《三國志》
30. "韓有三種 一曰馬韓 二曰辰韓 三曰弁辰 … 凡七十八國 … 皆古之辰國也"〈韓〉,《後漢書》

Works cited

• Kōno, Rokurō (1987), "The bilingualism of the Paekche language", Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko, 45: 75–86.
• Miyamoto, Kazuo (2016), "Archaeological Explanation for the Diffusion Theory of the Japonic and Koreanic Language" (PDF), Japanese Journal of Archeology, 4 (1): 53–75.
• Serafim, Leon A. (2008), "The uses of Ryukyuan in understanding Japanese language history", in Frellesvig, Bjarke; Whitman, John (eds.), Proto-Japanese: Issues and Prospects, John Benjamins, pp. 79–99, ISBN 978-90-272-4809-1.
• Unger, J. Marshall (2009), The role of contact in the origins of the Japanese and Korean languages, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, ISBN 978-0-8248-3279-7.
• Vovin, Alexander (2005), "Koguryŏ and Paekche: different languages or dialects of Old Korean?", Journal of Inner and East Asian Studies, 2 (2): 107–140.
• ——— (2013), "From Koguryo to Tamna: Slowly riding to the South with speakers of Proto-Korean", Korean Linguistics, 15 (2): 222–240, doi:10.1075/kl.15.2.03vov.
• ——— (2017), "Origins of the Japanese Language", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Oxford University Press, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.277, ISBN 978-0-19-938465-5.

Further reading

• Lee, C.-k. (1996). The bronze dagger culture of Liaoning province and the Korean peninsula. Korea Journal 36(4), 17-27. [1]
• Lee, K.-b. (1984). A new history of Korea. Tr. by E.W. Wagner & E.J. Schulz, based on the 1979 rev. ed. Seoul: Ilchogak. ISBN 89-337-0204-0.