Silla

During the Proto–Three Kingdoms period, central and southern Korea consisted of three confederacies called the Samhan. Silla began as Saro-guk, a statelet within the 12-member confederacy known as Jinhan. Saro-guk consisted of six villages and six clans.

According to Korean records, Silla was founded by Bak Hyeokgeose of Silla in 57 BC, around present-day Gyeongju. Hyeokgeose is said to have been hatched from an egg laid from a white horse, and when he turned 13, six clans submitted to him as king and established Saro-guk (also called Seona). He is also the progenitor of the Bak (박) clan, now one of the most common family names in Korea.

The Samguk Sagi and History of the Northern Dynasties state that the original Lelang Commandery which later became the Jinhan confederacy (辰韓) was the origin of Silla.[5][6][7] Although archaeological evidence is lacking, the people claimed they were descendants of Chinese Qin dynasty (秦, also pronounced as "Jin" in Korean) migrants who, fleeing Qin's forced labour policies, moved to the Mahan confederacy, which gave them land to the east.[8][9][5][6][7][10][11][12]

In various inscriptions on monuments on the 13th king Munmu of Silla, it is recorded that King Munmu possibly has partial Xiongnu ancestry, via the Han dynasty general Jin Midi.[13][14][15] According to several historians, it is possible that this unknown tribe was originally of Koreanic origin and joined the Xiongnu confederation. Later the tribes ruling family returned to Korea and married into the royal family of Silla. There are also some Korean researchers that point out that the grave goods of Silla and of the eastern Xiongnu are alike,[13][14][15][16][17] and some researchers insist that the Silla king is descended from Xiongnu.[18][19][13][14][20][15] The Korean public broadcaster KBS has produced a documentary about this subject.[21][22][23]

Placename evidence, particularly placename glosses in the Samguk sagi, suggests that Japonic languages were spoken in central and southern parts of the Korean peninsula in the early centuries of the current era. Several linguists and historians concluded that a Peninsular Japonic language was natively spoken in these areas and subsequently displaced by later arriving Korean.[24] Alexander Vovin concluded that there is a Japonic substratum in the Sillan language and in its descended dialects such as modern Korean and Jeju language.[25]

Similarly, Whitman (2012) concluded that the Korean-speakers arrived in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula at around 300 BC and coexist with the descendants of the Japonic Mumun cultivators (or assimilated them). Both had influence on each other and a later founder effect diminished the internal variety of both language families.[26]

By the 2nd century, Silla existed as a distinct state in the southeastern area of the Korean peninsula. It expanded its influence over neighboring Jinhan chiefdoms, but through the 3rd century was probably no more than the strongest city-state in a loose federation.

To the west, Baekje had centralized into a kingdom by about 250, overtaking the Mahan confederacy. To the southwest, Byeonhan was being replaced by the Gaya confederacy. In northern Korea, Goguryeo, a kingdom by about 50 AD, destroyed the last Chinese commandery in 313 and had grown into a threatening regional power.

Naemul of Silla (356–402) of the Gim clan established a hereditary monarchy and took the royal title of Maripgan (麻立干; 마립간). However, in Samguk Sagi, Naemul of Silla still appears as a title of Isageum (泥師今; 이사금). He is considered by many historians as the starting point of the Gyeongju Gim (Kim) dynasty, which lasted more than 550 years. However, even when Gim monopolized the throne for more than 500 years, the worship of the founder Bak Hyeokgeose continued.

In 377, Silla sent emissaries to China and established relations with Goguryeo. Facing pressure from Baekje in the west and Japan in the south,[27] in the later part of the 4th century, Silla allied with Goguryeo. However, when Goguryeo began to expand its territory southward, moving its capital to Pyongyang in 427, Nulji of Silla was forced to ally with Baekje.

By the time of Beopheung of Silla (514–540), Silla was a full-fledged kingdom, with Buddhism as state religion, and its own Korean era name. Silla absorbed the Gaya confederacy during the Gaya–Silla Wars, annexing Geumgwan Gaya in 532 and conquering Daegaya in 562, thereby expanding its borders to the Nakdong River basin.

Jinheung of Silla (540–576) established a strong military force. Silla helped Baekje drive Goguryeo out of the Han River (Seoul) area, and then wrested control of the entire strategic region from Baekje in 553, breaching the 120-year Baekje-Silla alliance. Also, King Jinheung established the Hwarang.

The early period ended with the death of Jindeok of Silla and the demise of the "hallowed bone" (Hangul: 성골 seonggol) rank system.

The royal title Maripgan (Hangul: 마립간) is analyzed into two elements in many popular explanations, with the first element alleged to be from the Korean root

• mari (마리) or meori (머리), meaning "head"/ countable of "head / per head" or "hair"
• mang-rip or mang-nip (網笠), "a traditional-style hat made of horsehair"
• mo-rip (毛笠), "a kind of hat worn by servants in the old days"
• mi-rip or mi-reup, meaning "a knack, a trick, the hang of something"
• madi (맏이) or maji (맏히), meaning "the firstborn, the eldest (child of a family); an elder, a senior, a person whose age is greater than someone else's age"
• mat-jip (맛집), meaning "the house in which the head of a household lives, the main house on an estate"
• mŏrŏ or maru (마루), meaning "ridge, peak, crest (of a roof, a mountain, a wave, etc.); zenith, climax, prime; the first, the standard"
• maru (마루) or mallu, meaning "floor"

or from a word related to Middle Korean marh meaning "stake, post, pile, picket, peg, pin (of a tent)".

The second element, gan (Hangul: 간), is generally believed to be related to the Middle Korean word han (Hangul: 한) meaning "great, grand, many, much", which was previously used for ruling princes in southern Korea, and may have some relationship with the Mongol/Turkic title Khan.

In the 7th century Silla allied itself with the Chinese Tang dynasty. In 660, under Muyeol of Silla (654-661), Silla subjugated Baekje. In 668, under King Munmu of Silla (King Muyeol's successor) and General Gim Yu-sin, Silla conquered Goguryeo to its north. Silla then fought for nearly a decade to expel Chinese forces on the peninsula intent on creating Tang colonies there to finally establish a unified kingdom as far north as modern Pyongyang.[28] The northern region of the defunct Goguryeo state later reemerged as Balhae.

Silla's middle period is characterized by the rising power of the monarchy at the expense of the jingol nobility. This was made possible by the new wealth and prestige garnered as a result of Silla's unification of the peninsula, as well as the monarchy's successful suppression of several armed aristocratic revolts following early upon unification, which afforded the king the opportunity of purging the most powerful families and rivals to central authority. Further, for a brief period of about a century from the late 7th to late 8th centuries the monarchy made an attempt to divest aristocratic officialdom of their landed base by instituting a system of salary payments, or office land (jikjeon, 직전, 職田), in lieu of the former system whereby aristocratic officials were given grants of land to exploit as salary (the so–called tax villages, or nog-eup, 녹읍, 祿邑).

By the late 8th century, however, these royal initiatives had failed to check the power of the entrenched aristocracy. The mid to late 8th century saw renewed revolts led by branches of the Gim clan which effectively limited royal authority. Most prominent of these was a revolt led by Gim Daegong that persisted for three years. One key evidence of the erosion of kingly authority was the rescinding of the office land system and the re-institution of the former tax village system as salary land for aristocratic officialdom in 757.

The middle period of Silla came to an end with the assassination of Hyegong of Silla in 780, terminating the kingly line of succession of Muyeol of Silla, the architect of Silla's unification of the peninsula. Hyegong's demise was a bloody one, the culmination of an extended civil war involving most of the kingdom's high–ranking noble families. With Hyegong's death, during the remaining years of Silla, the king was reduced to little more than a figurehead as powerful aristocratic families became increasingly independent of central control.

Thereafter the Silla kingship was fixed in the house of Wonseong of Silla (785–798), though the office itself was continually contested among various branches of the Gim lineage.

Nevertheless, the middle period of Silla witnessed the state at its zenith, the brief consolidation of royal power, and the attempt to institute a Chinese style bureaucratic system.

The final century and a half of the Silla state was one of nearly constant upheaval and civil war as the king was reduced to little more than a figurehead and powerful aristocratic families rose to actual dominance outside the capital and royal court.

The tail end of this period, called the Later Three Kingdoms period, briefly saw the emergence of the kingdoms of Later Baekje and Later Goguryeo, which were really composed of military forces capitalizing on their respective region's historical background, and Silla's submission to the Goryeo dynasty.

Centuries after Buddhism originated in India, the Mahayana Buddhism arrived in China through the Silk Route in 1st century CE via Tibet, then to Korea peninsula in 3rd century during the Three Kingdoms Period from where it transmitted to Japan. In Korea, it was adopted as the state religion of 3 constituent polities of the Three Kingdoms Period, first by the Goguryeo (Gaya) in 372 CE, by the Silla in 528 CE, and by the Baekje in 552 CE.[34] Buddhism was introduced to Silla in 528.[35] Silla had been exposed to the religion for over a century during which the faith had certainly made inroads into the native populace. The Buddhist monk Ado introduced Silla to Buddhism when he arrived to proselytize in the mid 5th century.[36] The Samguk yusa and Samguk sagi record following 3 monks among the first to bring Buddhist teaching, or Dharma, to Korea: Malananta (late 4th century) - an Indian Buddhist monk who brought Buddhism to King Baekje of Baekje in the southern Korean peninsula in 384, Sundo - a Chinese Buddhist monk who brought Buddhism to Goguryeo in northern Korea in 372, and Ado - a Buddhist monk who brought Buddhism to Silla in central Korea.[37][38] However, according to legend, the Silla monarchy was convinced to adopt the faith by the martyrdom of the Silla court noble Ichadon, who was executed for his Buddhist faith by the Silla king in 527 only to have his blood flow the color of milk.

The importance of Buddhism in Silla society of the late early period is difficult to exaggerate. From King Beopheung and for the following six reigns Silla kings adopted Buddhist names and came to portray themselves as Buddhist–kings.[39]

Silla's strong Buddhist nature is also reflected by the thousands of remnant Buddhist stone figures and carvings, mostly importantly on Namsan. The international influence of the Tang Dynasty on these figures and carvings can be witnessed in the hallmarks of a round full form, a stern expression of the face, and drapery that clings to the body, but stylistic elements of native Korean culture can still be identified.[40]

• Connor, Mary E. (2009). The Koreas. ABC-CLIO, LLC.
• Keown, Damien; Prebish, Charles S., eds. (2010). Encyclopedia of Buddhism. New York: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-203-49875-0.
• Lee, Ki-baik (1984), A New History of Korea, translated by Wagner, Edward W.; Schultz, Edward J., Harvard University Press, ISBN 9780674615762