Names of Korea: Encyclopedia II - Names of Korea - History

Names of Korea - History

See also: History of Korea

The earliest records of Korean history are written in Chinese characters, despite the languages being unrelated. Even after the invention of hangul, Koreans generally recorded native Korean names with hanja, by translation of meaning, transliteration of sound, or even combinations of the two. Furthermore, the pronunciations of the same character are somewhat different in Chinese and Korean, and have changed over time.

For all these reasons, in addition to the sparse and sometimes contradictory written records, it is often difficult to determine the original meanings or pronunciations of ancient names.

Names of Korea - Ancient history

Until about 2000 years ago, northern Korea and Manchuria were controlled by Gojoseon. It was recorded as 朝鮮, which is pronounced in modern Korean as Joseon (조선). Go (古), meaning "ancient," distinguishes it from the later era described below.

The Chinese characters phonetically transcribed a native Korean name, thought to have been then pronounced something like "Jyusin". It may be the same indigenous name that has been transliterated in some Chinese records as 肅愼 (숙신, suksin), 稷愼 (직신, jiksin) or 息愼 (식신, siksin). Some believe the latter terms describe the ancestors of the Jurchen (여진, 女眞).

Other scholars believe 朝鮮, roughly meaning "morning calm" or "land where the fresh morning comes," was a translation of the native Korean Asadal (아사달), the capital of Gojoseon: asa meaning morning, and tar meaning land or mountain. The character 朝 can mean both "morning" (read as zhāo in Chinese) or "dynasty" (read as cháo in Chinese), while 鮮 may translate to "fresh" or "savory," often used to describe rarity.

Around the same time, various chiefdoms in southern Korea grouped into confederacies, collectively called the "Three Han" (Samhan; 삼한). Han is a native Korean root for "leader" or "great," as in maripgan ("king," archaic), halabeoji (originally hanabeoji, "grandfather"), and possibly hana ("one") and haneul ("sky"). Some speculate that it may be related to the Molgol/Turkic Khan.

Han was transliterated in Chinese records as 韓 (한, han), 幹 (간, gan), 刊 (간, gan), 干 (간, gan), or 漢 (한, han), but is unrelated to the Chinese people and states also called Han.

Around the beginning of the Common Era, remnants of the fallen Gojoseon were re-united and expanded by the kingdom of Goguryeo. It, too, was a native Korean word, probably pronounced something like "Guri", transcribed with various Chinese characters: 高駒麗 (고구려, goguryeo), 高麗 (고려, goryeo), 高離 (고리, gori), or 句麗 (구려, guryeo). In 高駒麗, the character 高, meaning "high," is an adjective , rather than a part of the transliteration. The character 麗 is sometimes pronounced ri.

The source native Korean name is thought to be either Guru (구루, walled city) or Gauri (가우리, center).

The theory that Goguryeo's founder's family name was Go has been largely discredited (the founder was renamed after the country).

Names of Korea - Goryeo Joseon and Han revived

In the south, the Han confederacies resolved into the kingdoms of Baekje and Silla, constituting, with Goguryeo, the Three Kingdoms of Korea. In 668, Silla unified the three kingdoms, and Unified Silla was overthrown in 935.

The new kingdom named itself Goryeo (고려; 高麗), in reference to Goguryeo. Through the Silk Road trade routes, Silla and Goryeo were known in India and the Middle East . Goryeo was transliterated into Italian as "Cauli," the name Marco Polo used when mentioning the country in his Travels, derived from the Mandarin Chinese form Gāolì. From "Cauli" came the English names "Corea" and the now standard "Korea" (see Western names below).

In 1392, a new dynasty revived the name Joseon (short name: 조선, 朝鮮, official name: 대조선국, 大朝鮮國). The Chinese characters were often translated into English as "morning calm," and Korea's English nickname became "The Land of the Morning Calm"; this interpretation is not often used in the Korean language, and is more familiar to Koreans as a back-translation from English.

In 1897, the nation was renamed, this time referring to the "Han" legacy: Daehan Jeguk (대한제국, 大韓帝國, literally, "Great Han Empire"; in English, Korean Empire).

Names of Korea - 20th century

When Korea came under Japanese rule in 1910, the name reverted to Joseon (officially, the Japanese pronunciation Chosen). During this period, many different groups outside of Korea fought for independence, including the Daehan Minguk Imsi Jeongbu (대한민국 임시정부, 大韓民國 臨時政府, literally, "Provisional Government of the Great Han People's Nation"; in English, Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea).

Korea became independent with Japan's defeat in 1945. The country was then divided into the Soviet-occupied north and American-occupied south.

The South in 1948 adopted the provisional government's name of Daehan Minguk (대한민국, 大韓民國, literally, "Great Han People's Nation"; in English, Republic of Korea). Meanwhile, the North became the Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk (조선 민주주의 인민공화국, 朝鮮民主主義人民共和國, literally, "Joseon Democratic People's Republic"; in English, Democratic People's Republic of Korea).

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki