The state of Jin () was a confederacy of statelets which occupied some portion of the southern Korean peninsula from the 4th to 2nd centuries BCE, bordering Gojoseon to the north. Its capital was somewhere south of the Han River. It preceded the

Samhan Samhan, or Three Han, is the collective name of the Byeonhan, Jinhan, and Mahan confederacies that emerged in the first century BC during the Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea, or Samhan, period. Located in the central and southern regions of t ...

confederacies, each of which claimed to be the successor of the Jin state.Lee Injae, Owen Miller, Park Jinhoon, Yi Hyun-Hae, 〈Korean History in Maps〉, 2014, pp.18-20

Name

"Jin" is the

Revised Romanization of Korean Revised Romanization of Korean () is the official Korean language romanization system in South Korea. It was developed by the National Academy of the Korean Language from 1995 and was released to the public on 7 July 2000 by South Korea's Min ...

, originally written in Korean Chinese characters ( hanja). This character's Old Chinese pronunciation has been reconstructed as and originally referred to the 5th earthly branch of the Chinese and

Korean zodiac The Chinese zodiac is a traditional classification scheme based on the Chinese calendar, lunar calendar that assigns an animal and its reputed attributes to each year in a repeating twelve-year cycle. Originating from China, the zodiac and its ...

s, a division of the orbit of Jupiter identified with the

dragon A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted as ...

. 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

It is not clear as to how well defined of an organized state Jin was. It seems likely that it was a federation of small states much like the subsequent

. For the state to be able to contend with 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 into enjoy the benefits of Chinese metal culture." However, for the most part Wiman Joseon prevented direct contact between Jin and China. 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, Kingdom of armored horses) refers to Jin. Goguryeo is said to have conquered " Gaemaguk" in 26 AD, but this may refer to a different tribe in northern Korea. Records are somewhat contradictory on Jin's demise: it either became the later Jinhan, or diverged into the

as a whole. Archeological records of Jin have been found centered in territory that later became

Mahan Mahan or Mahaan may refer to: * Mahan (name) * Mahan confederacy, chiefdoms in ancient Korea * Mahan, Iran, a city in Kerman Province * Mahan District, an administrative subdivision of Kerman Province * Mahan Rural District, an administrative subdi ...

Language

Alexander Vovin suggests that Japonic languages were spoken in large parts of southern Korea and Jeju before they were replaced by proto-Koreanic speakers. This replacement caused the Yayoi migration, dated 1,000 BC – 300 AD.

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. 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. Artifacts of the culture also show some similarities to the Yayoi people of

Kyūshū is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surround ...

, Japan.

Legacy

Jin was succeeded by the

: Mahan, Jinhan and Byeonhan. Chinese historical text, ''

Records of the Three Kingdoms The ''Records or History of the Three Kingdoms'', also known by its Chinese name as the Sanguo Zhi, is a Chinese historical text which covers the history of the late Eastern Han dynasty (c. 184–220 AD) and the Three Kingdoms period (220– ...

'' says that Jinhan is the successor of the Jin state, while the ''

Book of the Later Han The ''Book of the Later Han'', also known as the ''History of the Later Han'' and by its Chinese name ''Hou Hanshu'' (), is one of the Twenty-Four Histories and covers the history of the Han dynasty from 6 to 189 CE, a period known as the Later ...

'' writes that Mahan, Jinhan and Byeonhan were all part of the former Jin state as well as 78 other tribes."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》 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 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. Byeonhan was one of the Samhan (or "Three Hans"), alo ...

. In addition, for some time the leader of

continued to call himself the "Jin king," asserting nominal overlordship over all of the Samhan tribes.

References

Citations

Bibliography

*Lee, C.-k. (1996). The bronze dagger culture of Liaoning province and the Korean peninsula. ''Korea Journal'' 36(4), 17-27

*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. Early Korean history Former countries in Korean history 4th-century BC establishments 2nd-century BC disestablishments