The Four Commanderies and the Samhan因分此地爲四郡
1The land is divided into four commanderies
因分此地爲四郡, 各置郡長綏民編.
Thereupon this land was divided and made into four commanderies, and in each a commandery chief was set to soothe the people and bind them together.
2Jinbeon, Imdun, Nangnang and Hyeondo
眞番臨屯在南北, 樂浪玄菟東西偏.
Jinbeon and Imdun lay to the south and to the north, Nangnang and Hyeondo leaned to the east and to the west.
3The rule is cut off
胥匡以生理自絶, 風俗漸醨民未安.
The way of rule by which they set one another straight and lived was cut off of itself. The customs grew thin little by little, and the people were not at peace.
4Of themselves they part into the Samhan
隨時合散浮沈際, 自然分界成三韓.
As the times drew them together and scattered them, as they rose and sank, the borders parted of themselves and made the Samhan.
5Districts among the lakes and the hills
三韓各有幾州縣, 蚩蚩散在湖山間.
Each of the Samhan had some few provinces and districts, and simple folk lived scattered among the lakes and the hills.
6More than seventy small states
各自稱國相侵凌, 數餘七十何足徵.
Each called itself a state and they encroached upon one another. They were more than seventy in number. How could all of them be set down?
Interlinear notes 1
稱國者, 馬有四十, 辰有二十, 幷有十二.
Those that called themselves states were forty in Mahan, twenty in Jinhan, and twelve in Byeonhan.
7Which among them were great states
於中何者是大國.
Which among them were the great states?
8Buyeo and Biryu
先以扶餘 沸流稱, 次有尸羅與高禮, 南北沃沮穢貊膺.
First are counted Buyeo and Biryu, next Sira (Silla) and Gorye (Goguryeo), and then North and South Okjeo and the Ye and the Maek.
Interlinear notes 5
檀君本紀曰, “與非西岬河伯之女婚而生男, 名夫婁.” 東明本紀曰, “扶餘王夫婁, 老無子, 祭山川, 求嗣. 所御馬, 至鯤淵, 見大石流殘. 王怪, 而使人轉石, 有小兒, 金色蛙形. 王曰, ‘天錫我令胤乎?’ 立爲太子, 名曰金蛙. 其相阿蘭弗曰, ‘日者, 天降我曰, 「將使吾子孫, 立國於此, 汝其避之. 東海濱有地, 號迦葉原, 土宜五穀, 可都也.」’ 勸王移都, 號東扶餘云云.” 臣嘗使於上國, 至遼濱路傍, 有立墓, 其人曰, “扶餘駙馬大王墓也.” 又賈耽曰, “大原南, 鴨綠血, 扶餘舊地.” 則北扶余者, 宜在遼濱. 其開國, 蓋自後朝鮮, 而至此, 幾矣.
The Dangun bongi says, "He married a daughter of Habaek of Biseogap and bore a son, whose name was Buru." The Dongmyeong bongi says, "Buru, king of Buyeo, grew old without a son, and he made offering to the mountains and the rivers and sought an heir. The horse he rode came to Gonyeon and saw a great stone shedding tears. The king thought it strange and had men roll the stone aside, and there was a small child in the shape of a frog of golden color. The king said, 'Has heaven granted me a worthy heir?' He set him up as crown prince and named him Geumwa. His chief minister Aranbul said, 'The other day heaven came down to me and said, I shall have my own descendants set up a state in this place, and you are to withdraw from it. By the shore of the Eastern Sea there is a land called Gaseopwon. Its soil suits the five grains, and a capital may be made there.' He urged the king to move the capital, and it was named Dongbuyeo." I, your servant, once went as an envoy to the great country, and when I came to the bank of the Liao there was a mound raised beside the road, and the people there said, "It is the tomb of the Buma Daewang (駙馬大王), the prince-consort king, of Buyeo." Jia Dan (賈耽) also said, "South of Daewon (大原), by the waters of the Amnok, is the old land of Buyeo." Then North Buyeo should have lain by the Liao. Its founding was from about Later Joseon, and the span down to this point is long.
東明本紀曰, “沸流王松讓謂曰, ‘予以仙人之後, 累世爲王, 今君造國, 日淺, 爲我附庸, 可乎?’” 則此亦疑檀君之後也.
The Dongmyeong bongi says, "Songyang, king of Biryu, said, 'I am the descendant of an immortal, and for generations my house has been kings. Now you have made your state only a little while ago. Would it not be right for you to be my vassal?'" Then this one too may be a descendant of Dangun.
見大石流殘 — the base text writes 「流殘」, which does not read as it stands, and it is taken here as "shedding tears." ― translator
鴨綠血 — the base text writes 「血」, which does not read as it stands, and it is taken here as "the waters of the Amnok." ― translator
而至此, 幾矣 — read as "the span down to this point is long." Taking 幾 as "not long at all" gives the opposite sense, and that reading also stands. ― translator
9All of them descended from Dangun
此諸君長問誰後, 世系亦自檀君承.
If it is asked whose descendants all these chiefs were, their line of descent (世系) too was received from Dangun.
10What the records cannot tell
其餘小者名何等, 於文籍中推未能.
As for the rest, the lesser ones, what their names were there is no way to make out from among the written records.
11Traces left in the by-names of districts
今之州府別號是, 諺說那知應不應.
The by-names of the provinces and prefectures (府) of today are those names, but by common talk how is one to know whether they fit or do not fit?
12Silla, Goguryeo and Baekje rise one after another
想得漢皇綏遠意, 定黎蒸處害黎蒸, 辰馬弁人終鼎峙, 羅與麗濟相次興.
It seems that the purpose of the Han emperor to soothe the far places harmed the teeming people in the very place where it was to settle them. The men of Jinhan and Mahan and Byeonhan stood at last like the three feet of a cauldron, and Silla and Goguryeo and Baekje rose one after another.
13Seventy-two years
自分爲郡至羅起, 計年七十二算零.
From the dividing into commanderies to the rising of Silla, the years counted are seventy-two and a little more.