Editing Samhan (section)

{{short description|Period of Korean history}}
{{for|the Gaelic festival|Samhain}}
{{Infobox Korean name|
hangul=삼한 |
hanja={{linktext|三|韓}} |
rr=Samhan |
mr=Samhan |

|title=Korean name}}
[[File:Samhan.PNG|right|thumb|Samhan]]
'''Samhan''', or '''Three Han''', is the collective name of the [[Byeonhan confederacy|Byeonhan]], [[Jinhan confederacy|Jinhan]], and [[Mahan confederacy|Mahan]] confederacies that emerged in the first century BC during the [[Proto–Three Kingdoms period|Proto–Three Kingdoms of Korea]], or Samhan, period. Located in the central and southern regions of the [[Korea|Korean Peninsula]], the Samhan confederacies eventually merged and developed into the Baekje, Gaya, and Silla kingdoms.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Injae |first1=Lee |last2=Miller |first2=Owen |last3=Jinhoon |first3=Park |last4=Hyun-Hae |first4=Yi |title=Korean History in Maps |date=2014 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107098466 |page=18 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=46OTBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA18 |access-date=16 April 2019 |language=en}}</ref> The name "Samhan" also refers to the [[Three Kingdoms of Korea]].<ref name="kyunghyang">{{cite news |author=이기환 |script-title=ko:[이기환의 흔적의 역사]국호논쟁의 전말…대한민국이냐 고려공화국이냐 |url=http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201708300913001&code=960100&www |script-newspaper=ko:경향신문 |trans-newspaper=[[Kyunghyang Shinmun]] |access-date=2 July 2018 |language=ko |date=30 August 2017}}</ref>

''Sam'' ({{lang|ko|三}}) is a [[Sino-Korean vocabulary|Sino-Korean word]] meaning "three" and ''Han'' is a Korean word meaning "great (one), grand, large, much, many".<ref>{{Citation | url = https://ko.dict.naver.com/detail.nhn?docid=41454800 | title = Naver Korean dictionary}}</ref> ''Han'' was transliterated into Chinese characters {{lang|ko|韓}}, {{lang|ko|漢}}, {{lang|ko|幹}}, or {{lang|ko|刊}},{{Citation needed|date=April 2019}} but is believed by foreign linguists to be unrelated to the ''Han'' in [[Han Chinese]] and the Chinese kingdoms and dynasties also called ''Han'' (漢) and ''Han'' (韓). The word ''Han'' is still found in many Korean words such as ''Hangawi (한가위)'' — archaic native Korean for [[Chuseok]] (秋夕, 추석), ''Hangaram (한가람)'' — archaic native Korean for [[Han River (Korea)|Hangang]] (漢江, 한강), ''Hanbat (한밭)'' — the original place name in native Korean for [[Daejeon]] (大田, 대전), ''hanabi'' (하나비) — a [[Joseon]]-era (Late Middle Korean) word for "grandfather; elderly man" (most often 할아버지 ''harabeoji'' in present-day Korean, although speakers of some dialects, especially in North Korea, may still use the form ''hanabi''). ''Ma'' means south, ''Byeon'' means shining and ''Jin'' means east.<ref>{{cite thesis |url=http://www.mosan.or.kr/book/2/14.pdf |script-title=zh:在韓國使用的漢字語文化上的程 |trans-title=A Historical Study on the Culture in Chinese Characters in Korea  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110722141342/http://www.mosan.or.kr/book/2/14.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-22 |url-status=dead |language=zh |author=Lu Guo-Ping }}</ref>

Many historians have suggested that the word ''Han'' might have been pronounced as ''Gan'' or ''Kan''. The [[Silla]] language had a usage of this word for king or ruler as found in the words 마립간 (麻立干; Maripgan) and 거서간 / 거슬한 (居西干 / 居瑟邯; [[Hyeokgeose of Silla|Geoseogan / Geoseulhan]]). Alexander Vovin suggests this word is related to the Mongolian ''[[Khan (title)|Khan]]'' and Manchurian ''Han'' meaning ruler, and the ultimate origin is [[Xiongnu]] and [[Yeniseian languages|Yeniseian]].<ref name=vov>{{cite journal |title=Once again on the etymology of the title ''qaγan'' |author-link=Alexander Vovin |last=Vovin |first=Alexander |journal=Studia Etymologica Cracoviensia |volume=12 |year=2007 |url=http://ejournals.eu/sj/index.php/SEC/article/viewFile/1100/1096 |pages=177–187}}</ref>

The Samhan are thought to have formed around the time of the fall of [[Gojoseon]] in northern Korea in 108 BC. [[Kim Bu-sik]]'s [[Samguk Sagi]], one of the two representative history books of Korea, mentions that people of Jin Han are migrants from Gojoseon, which suggests that early Han tribes who came to Southern Korean peninsula are originally Gojoseon people; this coincides with the state of [[Jin (Korean state)|Jin]] in southern Korea also disappearing from written records. By the 4th century, Mahan was fully absorbed into the [[Baekje]] kingdom, Jinhan into the [[Silla]] kingdom, and Byeonhan into the [[Gaya confederacy]], which was later annexed by Silla.

Beginning in the 7th century, the name "Samhan" became synonymous with the Three Kingdoms of Korea. The "Han" in the names of the [[Korean Empire]], ''Daehan Jeguk'', and the [[South Korea|Republic of Korea]] (South Korea), ''Daehan Minguk'' or ''Hanguk'', are named in reference to the Three Kingdoms of Korea, not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula.<ref name="kyunghyang" /><ref name="chosun">{{cite news |author=이덕일 |script-title=ko:[이덕일 사랑] 대~한민국 |url=http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2008/08/14/2008081401512.html |newspaper=[[The Chosun Ilbo]] |date=14 August 2008 |access-date=2 July 2018 |language=ko}}</ref>