The Han韓

Han (韓) lies south of Daebang. On the east and the west the sea is its limit, and on the south it adjoins Wa (倭). It is about four thousand li square. There are three peoples. The first is Mahan, the second Jinhan, the third Byeonhan. Jinhan is the ancient state of Jin (辰國).

Mahan lies in the west. Its people are settled on the land. They plant grain, they know the rearing of silkworms, and they weave cotton and hemp cloth. Each has its own chief. The great ones call themselves sinji (臣智), and those below them eupcha (邑借). They are scattered among the mountains and the sea, and they have no walled towns.

There are Wonyang (爰襄國), Mosu (牟水國), Sangoe (桑外國), Soseoksak (小石索國), Daeseoksak (大石索國), Uhyumotak (優休牟涿國), Sinbungo (臣濆沽國), Baekje (伯濟國), Songnobulsa (速盧不斯國), Ilhwa (日華國), Gotanja (古誕者國), Gori (古離國), Noram (怒藍國), Wolji (月支國), Jarimoro (咨離牟盧國), Sowigeon (素謂乾國), Gowon (古爰國), Mangno (莫盧國), Biri (卑離國), Jeomnibi (占離卑國), Sinheun (臣釁國), Jichim (支侵國), Guro (狗盧國), Bimi (卑彌國), Gamhaebiri (監奚卑離國), Gopo (古蒲國), Chiriguk (致利鞠國), Yeomno (冉路國), Arim (兒林國), Saro (駟盧國), Naebiri (內卑離國), Gamhae (感奚國), Mallo (萬盧國), Byeokbiri (辟卑離國), Gusaodan (臼斯烏旦國), Illi (一離國), Bulmi (不彌國), Jiban (支半國), Guso (狗素國), Cheomno (捷盧國), Morobiri (牟盧卑離國), Sinsodo (臣蘇塗國), Mangno (莫盧國), Gorap (古臘國), Imsoban (臨素半國), Sinunsin (臣雲新國), Yeoraebiri (如來卑離國), Chosandobiri (楚山塗卑離國), Illan (一難國), Guhae (狗奚國), Burun (不雲國), Bulsabunsa (不斯濆邪國), Wonji (爰池國), Geonma (乾馬國) and Chori (楚離國) — more than fifty states in all.

A great state has more than ten thousand households, a small one a few thousand, and in all there are more than a hundred thousand households. The Jin king (辰王) governs from Wolji.

To a sinji they sometimes add a higher name. Sinungyeonjibo (臣雲遣支報), Anyachukjibun (安邪踧支濆), Sinriabullye (臣離兒不例) and Guyajinjiryeom (狗邪秦支廉) are such titles. Among their offices there are the Wei Who Leads to Good (魏率善), the Lord of a Settlement (邑君), the Marquis Who Returns to Right (歸義侯), the General of the Gentlemen of the Household (中郎將), the commandant and the Chief of a Hundred (伯長).

The marquis (侯) Jun (准) presumed to call himself king, and he was attacked and despoiled by Wiman, a man who had fled from Yan,

The Wei lue (魏略) says: Long ago the marquis of Joseon, a descendant of Gija, saw that Zhou had grown weak and that Yan had raised itself up and called itself a kingdom and meant to take land in the east. So the marquis of Joseon also called himself king, and he wished to raise troops and strike Yan in order to honor the house of Zhou. His grand officer Ye (禮) remonstrated with him, and he gave it up. He sent Ye west to persuade Yan, and Yan gave up and did not attack.

Later his descendants grew proud and cruel by degrees, and Yan sent its general Qin Kai to strike their western side. He took more than two thousand li of land and made Manbeonhan (滿番汗) the border, and Joseon at last grew weak.

When Qin brought all under heaven together, it set Meng Tian to build the Long Wall as far as Liaodong. At that time Bu (否), king of Joseon, had ascended the throne. He feared that Qin would fall upon him, so he submitted to Qin after a fashion, but he would not go to court. Bu died and his son Jun ascended the throne.

More than twenty years later Chen Sheng and Xiang Yu arose and all under heaven was in disorder. The people of Yan, Qi and Zhao were troubled and in hardship, and little by little they fled to Jun, and Jun settled them in the west.

When Han made Lu Wan king of Yan, Joseon and Yan took the Paesu (浿水) as their border. When Lu Wan revolted and went in to the Xiongnu, Wiman, a man of Yan, fled his country. He put on Hu dress, crossed the Paesu eastward, went to Jun and surrendered. He persuaded Jun, asking to live on the western border, and said that with those who had fled from China he would be a fence and a screen for Joseon.

Jun trusted him and favored him. He made him a scholar (博士), gave him a jade tablet (圭), enfeoffed him with a hundred li, and set him to guard the western frontier. Wiman enticed the bands that had fled, and his people grew many by degrees. Then he sent a man with a false word to tell Jun that Han soldiers were coming by ten roads, and he asked to enter and stand guard. So he turned back and attacked Jun. Jun fought with Wiman, but he was no match for him.

He led away the palace people about him and fled over the sea. He lived in the land of Han and called himself king of Han (韓王). Afterward his line died out, but even now there are those among the people of Han who keep up his sacrifices. In the time of Han they belonged to the commandery of Nangnang, and they went to pay their respects in the four seasons.

The Wei lue says: At first, when Ugeo had not yet been broken, Yeokgyegyeong, the chief minister of Joseon, remonstrated with Ugeo and was not heeded, so he went east to the state of Jin. At that time more than two thousand households of the people went out and lived with him, and they too did not go back and forth with those who paid tribute to Joseon.

In the Dihuang years of Wang Mang, Chi (鑡), a man of Yeomsa (廉斯), became a right chief of Jinhan. He heard that the land of Nangnang was good and its people rich and happy, and he meant to flee there and give himself up.

As he went out from his village he saw a man in a field driving off sparrows, and his speech was not that of a man of the Han of this land (韓). He asked him, and the man said, "We are people of the Han empire (漢). My name is Hulai. Fifteen hundred of us were cutting timber when we were seized by the Han of this land (韓). All of us had our hair cut off and were made slaves, and it is now three years."

Chi said, "I am going to give myself up to Nangnang of Han. Will you go?" Hulai said, "I will."

So Chi took Hulai out with him and came to the county of Hamja, and the county reported it to the commandery. The commandery at once made Chi an interpreter, and from Geumjung they took a great ship into Jinhan and brought back Hulai's company. Of the companions who gave themselves up a thousand were still living, and five hundred had already died.

Then Chi spoke plainly to Jinhan and said, "Give back the five hundred. If you do not, Nangnang will put ten thousand soldiers on ships and send them to strike you."

Jinhan said, "The five hundred are already dead. We shall pay out their price."

So they put out fifteen thousand people of Jinhan and fifteen thousand bolts of Byeonhan cloth, and Chi took the price and went back. The commandery memorialized the merit and the righteousness of Chi and gave him a cap and a headcloth, fields and a house, and for several generations, down to the fourth year of Yanguang in the time of Emperor An, his descendants received exemption from service.

At the end of the reigns of Huan and Ling, Han and Ye grew strong, and the commanderies and counties could not hold them down, and many of the people flowed into the country of Han. In the Jian'an years Gongsun Kang cut off the waste land south of the county of Dunyu and made it the commandery of Daebang. He sent Gongsun Mo and Zhang Chang and others to gather in the people who were left, and he raised troops and struck Han and Ye, and the old people came out little by little. After this Wa and Han belonged to Daebang.

In the Jingchu years Emperor Ming secretly sent Liu Xin, Grand Administrator of Daebang, and Xianyu Si, Grand Administrator of Nangnang, across the sea to settle the two commanderies. To the sinji of the several states of Han he gave in addition the seal and cord of an eupgun, and to those below them the rank of eupjang (邑長). Their custom is to love robes and headcloths, and when the lesser households went to the commandery to pay their respects they all borrowed robes and headcloths, and more than a thousand men wore seal and cord and robe and headcloth of their own.

Wu Lin, the attendant clerk of the division, held that Nangnang had governed the country of Han from the first, and he cut off eight states of Jinhan and gave them to Nangnang. But as the clerks and the interpreters passed the word along, differences arose. A sinji stirred Han up to anger, and they attacked the Giriyeong camp (崎離營) of the commandery of Daebang. At that time Gong Zun the Grand Administrator and Liu Mao, Grand Administrator of Nangnang, raised troops and struck them. Gong Zun fell in battle, and the two commanderies at last destroyed Han.

In their customs there is little of rule and order. Though the states and towns have their chief commanders, the villages live mixed together and cannot hold one another well in check. They have no rite of kneeling and bowing. For dwellings they make earth houses roofed with grass, shaped like a grave mound, with the door on top. The whole household stays together inside, with no distinction of old and young or of man and woman.

In burial they have an outer coffin but no inner one. They do not know how to ride oxen or horses, and their oxen and horses are all used to send off the dead. They take beads for wealth and treasure, and some sew them on their clothes for ornament, and some hang them at the neck or let them fall from the ears. They do not hold gold and silver and brocade and embroidery precious.

The people are strong and brave by nature. They bare their heads and tie up the topknot, which shines like a weapon. They wear robes of hemp cloth and leather shoes on their feet.

When there is work to do in the country, or when the officials set them to build walls, all the young and brave and strong men pierce the skin of the back and pass a great rope through it, and they also thrust in a piece of wood about ten feet long. They shout the whole day long and put out their strength, and they do not count it pain. By this they urge one another to work, and by this too they are held to be strong.

Always in the fifth month, when the sowing is done, they sacrifice to the spirits. They gather in crowds and sing and dance, and they drink wine day and night without rest. In their dance several tens of people rise together and follow one another, treading the ground and bowing low and rising high, with hand and foot answering each other, and the measure of it is like the bell dance (鐸舞). In the tenth month, when the farm work is finished, they do the same again.

They believe in spirits. Each state and town sets up one man to take charge of the sacrifice to the god of heaven, and they call him cheongun (天君). Each of the several states also has a separate town, and they call it sodo (蘇塗). They set up a great tree there and hang bells and drums on it and serve the spirits. Whoever has fled and comes inside it is never sent back, and so they have come to love thieving. The meaning of their setting up a sodo has something like the Buddha (浮屠) in it, but what they do of good and of ill is different.

Those states to the north that lie near the commandery know something of rite and custom, but the far places are just as if convicts and slaves were gathered together.

They have no other rare treasures. Their birds and beasts and plants and trees are much the same as in China. Great chestnuts grow there, as big as pears. There are also fine-tailed fowl, and their tails are all more than five feet long. Their men now and then have patterns marked on the body.

There is also Juho (州胡), on a great island in the sea west of Mahan. Its people are somewhat short, their speech is not the same as that of Han, they all shave their heads like the Xianbei, they wear only leather, and they are fond of raising oxen and pigs. Their clothes have an upper part and no lower part, so that they are almost naked. They go back and forth by ship and buy and sell in Han.

Jinhan lies east of Mahan. Its elders have handed down from generation to generation that they were people who long ago fled the labor levies of Qin and came to the country of Han, and that Mahan cut off land on its eastern border and gave it to them. They have walls and stockades.

Their speech is not the same as that of Mahan. They call a state bang (邦), a bow ho (弧), a bandit gu (寇), and the passing of wine haengsang (行觴). They all call one another do (徒), which has something of the men of Qin in it, and it is not only the names and things of Yan and Qi.

They call the people of Nangnang ajan (阿殘). The people of the east call themselves a (阿), and the meaning is that the people of Nangnang were from the first the remnant of their own. Now there are those who call them the Qin Han (秦韓). At first there were six states, and by degrees they divided into twelve.

Byeonjin (弁辰) too has twelve states, and there are also several small separate towns, each with its own chief. The great ones are called sinji, and below them there is the heomcheuk (險側), and below that the beonye (樊濊), and below that the salhae (殺奚), and below that the eupcha.

There are Ijeo (已柢國), Bulsa (不斯國), Byeonjin Mirimidong (弁辰彌離彌凍國), Byeonjin Jeopdo (弁辰接塗國), Geungi (勤耆國), Nanmirimidong (難彌離彌凍國), Byeonjin Gojamidong (弁辰古資彌凍國), Byeonjin Gosunsi (弁辰古淳是國), Yeomhae (冉奚國), Byeonjin Ballo (弁辰半路國), Byeonnangno (弁樂奴國), Gunmi (軍彌國), Byeonjin Miojama (弁辰彌烏邪馬國), Yeodam (如湛國), Byeonjin Gamno (弁辰甘路國), Horo (戶路國), Juseon (州鮮國), Byeonjin Guya (弁辰狗邪國), Byeonjin Jujoma (弁辰走漕馬國), Byeonjin Anya (弁辰安邪國), Byeonjin Dongno (弁辰瀆盧國), Saro (斯盧國) and Uyu (優由國).

Byeonhan and Jinhan together are twenty-four states. A great state has four or five thousand households, a small one six or seven hundred, and in all there are forty or fifty thousand households. Twelve of them belong to the Jin king. The Jin king is always made from a man of Mahan, and it has passed on so from age to age. The Jin king cannot set himself up as king.

The soil is rich and good, fit for the five grains and for rice. They know the rearing of silkworms, they weave fine silk cloth (縑布), and they ride and drive oxen and horses. In the rites and customs of marriage there is a distinction between man and woman. They send off the dead with the feathers of great birds, and the meaning of it is that they wish the dead to fly up.

Iron comes from that country, and Han and Ye and Wa all take it from there. In all their buying and selling they use iron, as China uses coin, and they supply the two commanderies as well.

Their custom is to delight in singing and dancing and drinking wine. They have a se (瑟), shaped something like a chuk (築), and when it is plucked it too has a tune. When a child is born they press its head at once with a stone, wishing it to be flat. Now the people of Jinhan all have flat heads. Men and women are near to Wa, and they too mark patterns on the body. They are ready in fighting on foot, and their weapons are the same as those of Mahan. In their custom, when travelers meet on the road they all stand aside and give way.

Byeonjin lives mixed in with Jinhan, and it too has walled towns. Their clothing and their dwellings are the same as those of Jinhan. Their speech and their laws and customs are alike, but their sacrifices to the spirits differ, for they set the hearth always to the west of the door.

Their state of Dongno (瀆盧國) borders on Wa. The twelve states have kings as well, and their people are all large of body. Their clothes are clean and their hair is long. They also weave a fine cloth of broad width. Their laws and customs are especially strict and severe.