Hwangnyongsa ( Korean : 황룡사 ), alternatively Hwangnyong Temple or Hwangryongsa , was a Buddhist temple in the city of Gyeongju , South Korea .
117-497: Completed in the 7th century, the enormous 9-story structure was built entirely with wood with interlocking design with no iron nails. It had a standing total height of 68 m (223 ft) or 80 m (262 ft), making it one of the tallest structures in East Asia at the time of its construction. Only the massive foundation stones of the temple remain in current times. Hwangryongsa was the center of state-sponsored Buddhism during
234-644: A phonemic distinction between the non- aspirated velar stop /k/ and its aspirated equivalent, /kʰ/ . However, both are regularly reflected in Sino-Korean as /k/ . This suggests that /kʰ/ was absent in Old Korean. Old Korean phonology can also be examined via Old Korean loanwords in other languages, including Middle Mongol and especially Old Japanese . All Old Korean was written with Sinographic systems , where Chinese characters are borrowed for both their semantic and phonetic values to represent
351-469: A "sacred" and a "true bone" parent were considered as "true bones". There were also many ways for a "sacred bone" to be demoted to a "true bone", thus making the entire system even more likely to collapse eventually. The king (or queen) theoretically was an absolute monarch, but royal powers were somewhat constrained by a strong aristocracy. The " Hwabaek " (화백,和白) served as royal council with decision-making authorities on some vital issues like succession to
468-577: A Korean kingdom that existed between 57 BCE – 935 CE and was located on the southern and central parts of the Korean Peninsula . Silla, along with Baekje and Goguryeo , formed the Three Kingdoms of Korea . Silla had the lowest population of the three, approximately 850,000 people (170,000 households), significantly smaller than those of Baekje (3,800,000 people) and Goguryeo (3,500,000 people). Its foundation can be traced back to
585-513: A Korean scholar were made by Yang Chu-dong in 1942 and corrected many of Ogura's errors, for instance properly identifying 只 as a phonogram for *-k. The analyses of Kim Wan-jin in 1980 established many general principles of hyangga orthography. Interpretations of hyangga after the 1990s, such as those of Nam Pung-hyun in the 2010s, draw on new understandings of early Korean grammar provided by newly discovered Goryeo texts. Nevertheless, many poems remain poorly understood, and their phonology
702-402: A brief period of about a century from the late 7th to late 8th centuries the monarchy made an attempt to divest aristocratic officialdom of their landed base by instituting a system of salary payments, or office land ( jikjeon , 직전, 職田), in lieu of the former system whereby aristocratic officials were given grants of land to exploit as salary (the so–called tax villages, or nog-eup , 녹읍, 祿邑). By
819-408: A comprehensive catalog of hitherto discovered slips was published in 2004. Since its publication, scholars have actively relied on the mokgan data as an important primary source. Mokgan are classified into two general categories. Most surviving slips are tag mokgan , which were attached to goods during transport and contain quantitative data about the product in question. Document mokgan , on
936-468: A dozen vernacular poems called hyangga . Hyangga use hyangchal writing. Other sources include inscriptions on steles and wooden tablets, glosses to Buddhist sutras , and the transcription of personal and place names in works otherwise in Classical Chinese. All methods of Old Korean writing rely on logographic Chinese characters , used to either gloss the meaning or approximate the sound of
1053-480: A mid-sixth century document mokgan first deciphered in full by Lee Seungjae in 2017. This slip, which contains a report by a village chieftain to a higher-ranking official, is composed according to Korean syntax and includes four uncontroversial examples of Old Korean functional morphemes (given below in bold), as well as several potential content words. Old Korean glosses have been discovered on eighth-century editions of Chinese-language Buddhist works. Similar to
1170-458: A nine-story wooden pagoda at the site, and labored with two hundred artisans to complete the pagoda. This fact indicates that the Baekje had superior knowledge of wooden architecture. The nine stories supposedly represented the nine nations of East Asia and Silla's future conquest of those states. The pagoda stood until it was burned by Mongolian invasions in 1238. No wooden architecture from
1287-566: A strong military force. Silla helped Baekje drive Goguryeo out of the Han River ( Seoul ) area, and then wrested control of the entire central western Korea region from Baekje in 553, breaching the 120-year Baekje-Silla alliance. Also, King Jinheung established the Hwarang . The early period ended with the death of Jindeok of Silla and the demise of the "hallowed bone" ( 성골 ; seonggol ) rank system. The royal title Maripgan ( 마립간 )
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#17327650963131404-481: A tonal system similar to that of Middle Korean. Phonetic glosses in Silla Buddhist texts show that as early as the eighth century, Sino-Korean involved three tonal categories and failed to distinguish rising and departing tones. On the other hand, linguists such as Lee Ki-Moon and S. Roberts Ramsey argue that Old Korean originally had a simpler prosody than Middle Korean, and that influence from Chinese tones
1521-622: Is analyzed as a low tone followed by a high tone within a bimoraic syllable. Middle Chinese was also a tonal language, with four tones : level, rising, departing, and entering. The tones of fifteenth-century Sino-Korean partially correspond to Middle Chinese ones. Chinese syllables with level tone have low tone in Middle Korean; those with rising or departing tones, rising tone; and those with entering tone, high tone. These correspondences suggest that Old Korean had some form of suprasegmentals consistent with those of Middle Chinese, perhaps
1638-460: Is analyzed into two elements in many popular explanations, with the first element alleged to be from the Korean root or from a word related to Middle Korean marh meaning "stake, post, pile, picket, peg, pin (of a tent)". The second element, gan ( Hangul : 간), is a likely cognate to han ( Hangul : 한) and the word for "big, great" keun, first attested as Late Old Korean 黑根 *hùkú-n. Both carry
1755-641: Is called mareum cheomgi ( Korean : 말음첨기 ; Hanja : 末音添記 ), literally "final sounds transcribed in addition". A phonogram is used to mark the final syllable or coda consonant of a Korean word already represented by a logogram. Handel uses an analogy to "-st" in English 1st for "first". Because the final phonogram can represent a single consonant, Old Korean writing has alphabetic properties. Examples of mareum cheomgi are given below. Unlike modern Sino-Korean, most of which descends from Middle Chinese, Old Korean phonograms were based on
1872-456: Is characterized by the rising power of the monarchy at the expense of the jingol nobility. This was made possible by the new wealth and prestige garnered as a result of Silla's unification of the peninsula, as well as the monarchy's successful suppression of several armed aristocratic revolts following early upon unification, which afforded the king the opportunity of purging the most powerful families and rivals to central authority. Further, for
1989-626: Is found even in the oldest surviving Silla inscription, a stele in Pohang dated to either 441 or 501 . These early inscriptions, however, involved "little more than subtle alterations of Classical Chinese syntax". Inscriptions of the sixth and seventh centuries show more fully developed strategies of representing Korean with Chinese characters. Some inscriptions represent functional morphemes directly through semantic Chinese equivalents. Others use only Classical Chinese vocabulary, but reorder them fully according to Korean syntax. A 551 stele commemorating
2106-454: Is now lost, and only twenty-five works survive. Fourteen are recorded in the Samguk yusa , a history compiled in the 1280s by the monk Iryeon , along with prose introductions that detail how the poem came to be composed. These introductions date the works to between 600 and 879. The majority of Samguk yusa poems, however, are from the eighth century. Eleven additional hyangga , composed in
2223-455: Is particularly unclear. Due to the opaqueness of data, it has been convention since the earliest Japanese researchers for scholars to transcribe their hyangga reconstructions using the Middle Korean lexicon , and some linguists continue to anachronistically project even non-lexical Middle Korean elements in their analyses. Silla inscriptions also document Old Korean elements. Idiosyncratic Chinese vocabulary suggestive of vernacular influence
2340-490: Is pronounced Silla . According to the Samguk sagi , the name of 新羅 ( Silla ), consisting of the components sin ( 新 ), as in deogeobilsin ( 德業日新 ) and ra , as in mangnasabang ( 網羅四方 ) is thought to be a later Confucian interpretation. The modern Seoul is a shortened form of Seorabeol, meaning "capital city", and was continuously used throughout the Goryeo and Joseon periods even in official documents, despite
2457-573: Is used to host events, including conferences, banquets, and meetings. It also operates as a hotel, with 45 guest rooms available. Hwangnyongsa was built during the Silla period, under the patronage of the Silla royal family, on a plain encircled by mountains near the royal palace compound of Banwolseong (Half-Moon Palace). Construction began in 553 under the reign of King Jinheung , and was not fully completed until 644. King Jinheung originally intended for
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#17327650963132574-517: The Shinsen Shōjiroku , Inahi no Mikoto the brother of the mythological Emperor Jimmu was the ancestor to the kings of Silla. Another source found in Samguk sagi claims that a Japanese man named, Hogong helped build the kingdom of Silla. In its early days, Silla started off as a city-state by the name of Saro ( 사로국 ; 斯盧國 ), initially founded by Yemaek refugees from Gojoseon . It has also accepted dispersed people fleeing from
2691-713: The Nakdong River basin attacked the Silla-friendly Aragaya , the prince of Aragaya asked Silla for a rescue army, and the king ordered Crown Prince Seok Uro to gather his troops and attack the eight kingdoms. Crown Prince SeokUro saved Aragaya and rescued 6,000 of the pro-Silla Gaya people who had been captured and returned to their homeland. Three years later, three among the eight countries (浦上八國), Golpo-guk, Chilpo-guk, and Gosapo-guk, will launch counterattacks against Silla. A battle took place in Yeomhae ,
2808-600: The Old Chinese pronunciation of characters. For instance, characters with Middle Chinese initial *j were used to transcribe an Old Korean liquid , reflecting the fact that initial *j arose from Old Chinese *l . The characters 所 and 朔 had the same vowel in Old Korean orthography, which was true in Old Chinese where both had *a , but not in Middle Chinese, where the former had the diphthong *ɨʌ and
2925-595: The Samhan . Silla began as "Saro-guk", a statelet within the 12-member confederacy known as Jinhan . Saro-guk consisted of six clans later known as the Six Clans of Jinhan ( 진한 6부 ; 辰韓六部 ) from Gojoseon. According to Korean records, Silla was founded by Bak Hyeokgeose of Silla in 57 BCE, around present-day Gyeongju . Hyeokgeose is said to have been hatched from an egg laid from a white horse, and when he turned 13, six clans submitted to him as king and established
3042-594: The Silla and Unified Silla eras which were cultural beacons of Buddhism during its time. Its name means "Emperor/Imperial Dragon Temple." Archaeological excavations and other scientific studies of the temple began in April 1976 (OCPRI 1984) and continue today. A replica of the building called Hwangnyongwon ( Korean : 황룡원 ) now exists in Gyeongju, within the Bomun Tourism Complex. The building
3159-901: The Tang dynasty during the Silla–Tang War . The pike unit, called Changchangdang that would later be known as the Bigeum Legion ( 비금서당 ) as part of the Nine Legions ( 구서당 ) and which was consisted of Silla folks, had a special purpose to counter the Göktürks cavalries operated by the Tang army during the Silla-Tang War . In addition, Silla's central army, the Nine Legions ( 구서당 ), were consisted of Silla, Goguryeo , Baekje , and Mohe people. These nine legions aimed at defending
3276-561: The capital became complete in formation and compilation after Silla unified the Three Kingdoms . Each Legions were known for their representative colors marked on their collars and were constituted by different groups. The Golden, Red, and Dark Blue Legion employed Goguryeoans while the Blue and White Legion accepted Baekje folks into their ranks. The Bigeum (also Red in color), Green, and Purple Legion were formed by Sillan people whilst
3393-489: The 6th century, when Silla acquired a detailed system of law and governance, social status and official advancement were dictated by the bone rank system . This rigid lineage-based system also dictated clothing, house size, and the permitted range of marriage. Since its emergence as a centralized polity Silla society had been characterized by its strict aristocratic makeup. Silla had two royal classes: "sacred bone" ( seonggol , 성골, 聖骨) and "true bone" ( jingol , 진골, 眞骨). Up until
3510-511: The 960s by the Buddhist monk Gyunyeo , are preserved in a 1075 biography of the master. Lee Ki-Moon and Ramsey consider Gyunyeo's hyangga to also represent "Silla poetry", although Nam Pung-hyun insists on significant grammatical differences between the works of the Samguk yusa and those of Gyunyeo. Because centuries passed between the composition of hyangga works and the compilation of
3627-548: The Black Legion took dispersed Mohe refugees into their fold that came along with Goguryeo refugees after the Fall of Goguryeo . Silla is also known for its maritime prowess shown by the navy backed with master shipbuilding and seamanship. The boats employed were usually called Sillaseon ( 신라선 ), which had an international reputation for its solid durability and effective capabilities that were said to 'enable men surf across
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3744-441: The Buddhist canon. He identifies grammatical commonalities between Silla-period texts and glosses from before the thirteenth century, which contrast with the structures of post-thirteenth century glosses and of fifteenth-century Middle Korean. Such thirteenth-century changes include the invention of dedicated conditional mood markers, the restriction of the former nominalizing suffixes -n and -l to attributive functions alone,
3861-735: The Japanese kanbun tradition, these glosses provide Old Korean noun case markers, inflectional suffixes , and phonograms that would have helped Korean learners read out the Classical Chinese text in their own language. Examples of these three uses of glossing found in a 740 edition of the Avatamsaka Sutra (now preserved in Tōdai-ji , Japan) are given below. Portions of a Silla census register with Old Korean elements, likely from 755 but possibly also 695, 815, or 875 , have also been discovered at Tōdai-ji. Though in Classical Chinese,
3978-520: The Kim clan established a hereditary monarchy and took the royal title of Maripgan (麻立干; 마립간). However, in the Samguk sagi , Naemul of Silla still appears as a title of Isageum (泥師今; 이사금). He is considered by many historians as the starting point of the Gyeongju Kim period, which lasted more than 550 years. However, even when the Kim monopolized the throne for more than 500 years, the veneration of
4095-478: The Korean Language and the 2015 Blackwell Handbook of Korean Linguistics . The only Korean-language literature that survives from Silla are vernacular poems now called hyangga ( Korean : 향가 ; Hanja : 鄕歌 ), literally "local songs". Hyangga appears to have been a flourishing genre in the Silla period, with a royally commissioned anthology published in 888. That anthology
4212-525: The Korean histories Samguk sagi and Samguk yusa offer Old Korean etymologies for certain native terms. The reliability of these etymologies remains in dispute. Non-Korean texts also provide information on Old Korean. A passage of the Book of Liang , a seventh-century Chinese history, transcribes seven Silla words: a term for "fortification", two terms for "village", and four clothing-related terms. Three of
4329-406: The Korean words. Thus, the phonetic value of surviving Old Korean texts is opaque. Its phoneme inventory seems to have included fewer consonants but more vowels than Middle Korean . In its typology, it was a subject-object-verb , agglutinative language, like both Middle and Modern Korean. However, Old Korean is thought to have differed from its descendants in certain typological features, including
4446-551: The Lelang Commandery after Goguryeo's invasion, while later on incorporating native Jin people in the vicinity and Ye people to the North. Talhae of Silla (57 CE–80 CE) was the son-in-law of Namhae of Silla (4 CE–24 CE). According to the Samguk sagi , Seoktalhae was the prince of Yongseongguk (龍成國) or Dapana (多婆那國), located 1,000- ri (里), northeast of Japan (?). Following the will of Namhae of Silla, he became
4563-472: The Mongolian word solgoi "left, east"; (7) It comes from the name of the medieval kingdom of Goryeo (via * Hoɾyo > * Solo(n)- ). The authors of this paper have ended up supporting the sixth hypothesis, i.e. that Mongolian Solongos "Korea, Koreans" ultimately should be cognate with Mongolian soluγai > solγoi "left, wrong side of the body, left-handed, enemy to the east (from the perspective of
4680-582: The Mongols)"." Silla was also referred to as Gyerim ( 계림 ; 鷄林 ), literally "rooster forest", a name that has its origins in the forest near the Silla capital. Legend has it that the state's founder was born in the same forest, hatched from the egg of a cockatrice ( 계룡 ; 雞龍 ; gyeryong ; lit. rooster-dragon). During the Proto–Three Kingdoms period, central and southern Korea consisted of three confederacies called
4797-519: The Old Korean names of 居西干 Geoseogan (1st century BCE), 次次雄 Chachaung (1st century CE), 泥師今 Isageum (Old Korean: *nisokum) and 麻立干 Maripkan (5th-6th century) instead. It began as a chiefdom in the Jinhan confederacy, part of the Samhan , and after consolidating its power in the immediate area, conquered the Gaya confederacy. Eventually allying with Sui China and then Tang China , it conquered
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4914-417: The Old Korean period to the mid-thirteenth century, although this new periodization is not yet fully accepted. This article focuses on the language of Silla before the tenth century. Old Korean is poorly attested. Due to the paucity and poor quality of sources, modern linguists have "little more than a vague outline" of the characteristics of Old Korean. The only surviving literary works are a little more than
5031-588: The Old Korean phonemes, using Chinese characters as phonograms , and one that translates the Old Korean morphemes, using Chinese characters as logograms . This is especially true for place names; they were standardized by royal decree in 757, but the sources preserve forms from both before and after this date. By comparing the two, linguists can infer the value of many Old Korean morphemes. The modern Korean language has its own pronunciations for Chinese characters, called Sino-Korean. Although some Sino-Korean forms reflect Old Chinese or Early Mandarin pronunciations,
5148-591: The Siljikgok and Apdok, which were frightened by Silla, also surrendered. Six years later, it entered the inland area and attacked and merged Dabulguk , Bijigukuk, and Chopalguk. During the Naehae of Silla period (196–230), the Eight Port Kingdoms War (浦上八國 亂) broke out to determine hegemony in the southern part of the peninsula. In 209, when the "eight upper countries (of the estuary)" (浦上八國) in
5265-512: The Silla king is descended from Xiongnu. Nonetheless, this hypothesis in respect to the origins of Silla royalty are not accepted in mainstream academia, but rather stand as a minor opinion. Considering the situation of the era when the Monument of King Munmu was created, it is presumed to be propaganda created for friendship with China and northerners and the legitimacy of the dynasty. Nihon Shoki and Kojiki also mentions Silla as
5382-403: The Silla kingship was fixed in the house of Wonseong of Silla (785–798), though the office itself was continually contested among various branches of the Kim lineage. Nevertheless, the middle period of Silla witnessed the state at its zenith, the brief consolidation of royal power, and the attempt to institute a Chinese style bureaucratic system. The final century and a half of the Silla state
5499-414: The Silla monarchy stressed Buddhism, and the Silla monarch's role as a "Buddha-king". Another salient factor in post-unification politics were the increasing tensions between the Korean monarchy and aristocracy. The early Silla military was built around a small number of Silla royal guards designed to protect royalty and nobility and in times of war served as the primary military force if needed. Due to
5616-484: The Silla people survives today but the ruins of Hwangnyongsa suggest a Goguryeo influence. The temple site in a valley within Gyeongju National Park near Toham Mountain and about 150 yards (140 m) from Bunhwangsa Temple, was excavated in 1972, revealing the temple layout and covering 40,000 artifacts. Buddhism was strongly resisted by the nobles of Silla while the king personally supported
5733-520: The Silla–Tang alliance conquered Goguryeo to its north after the Goguryeo–Tang War . Silla then fought against the Tang dynasty for nearly a decade to expel Chinese forces on the peninsula intent on creating Tang colonies there to finally establish a unified kingdom as far north as modern Pyongyang. The northern region of the defunct Goguryeo state later reemerged as Balhae . Silla's middle period
5850-567: The South Korean government. Since the tombs were harder to break into than those of Baekje, a larger number of objects has been preserved. Notable amongst these are Silla's elaborate gold crowns and jewelry. The massive Bronze Bell of King Seongdeok the Great of Silla is known to produce a distinctive sound. Cheomseongdae near Gyeongju is the oldest extant astronomical observatory in East Asia but some disagree on its exact functions. It
5967-736: The Unified Silla period continue to use only words from Classical Chinese, even as they order them according to Korean grammar. However, most inscriptions of the period write Old Korean morphemes more explicitly, relying on Chinese semantic and phonetic equivalents. These Unified-era inscriptions are often Buddhist in nature and include material carved on Buddha statues, temple bells , and pagodas . Ancient Korean scribes often wrote on bamboo and wooden slips called mokgan . By 2016, archaeologists had discovered 647 mokgan , out of which 431 slips were from Silla. Mokgan are valuable primary sources because they were largely written by and reflect
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#17327650963136084-544: The Western knights or chevaliers). Originally a social group, due to the continuous military rivalry between the Three Kingdoms of Korea , they eventually transformed from a group of elite male aristocratic youth into soldiers and military leaders. Hwarang were key in the fall of Goguryeo (which resulted in the unification of the Korean Peninsula under Unified Silla ) and the Silla–Tang Wars , which expelled Tang forces in
6201-492: The ancestor of Gyeongju Kim , was adopted by Talhae of Silla. The territory outside the capital was greatly conquered during the period of Pasa of Silla (80–112). As soon as he ascended the throne, he ordered officials to encourage agriculture, silkworm farming and train soldiers. There was a territorial dispute between the Eumjipbeol and Siljikgok , and the two countries first asked Pasa of Silla to mediate, Pasa of Silla
6318-403: The architect of Silla's unification of the peninsula. Hyegong's demise was a bloody one, the culmination of an extended civil war involving most of the kingdom's high–ranking noble families. With Hyegong's death, during the remaining years of Silla, the king was reduced to little more than a figurehead as powerful aristocratic families became increasingly independent of central control. Thereafter
6435-820: The biggest of waves' amongst the Chinese and Japanese according to the Shoku Nihon Koki . During the Silla-Tang War, the Silla navy under the command of general Sideuk defeated the Tang Navy 22 times out of 23 engagements in Gibeolpo, today's Seocheon County . Jang Bogo, a prominent maritime figure of Silla, was also famous for his navy based on the Cheonghaejin Garrison. A significant number of Silla tombs can still be found in Gyeongju,
6552-476: The capital of Silla. Silla tombs consist of a stone chamber surrounded by a soil mound. The historic area around Gyeongju was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2000. Much of it is also protected as part of Gyeongju National Park . Additionally, two villages near Gyeongju named Hahoe and Yangdong Folk Village were submitted for UNESCO heritages in 2008 or later by related cities and
6669-402: The central dialect of Gaegyeong during this time. Following Lee Ki-Moon's work in the 1970s, the end of Old Korean is traditionally associated with this tenth-century change in the country's political center. In 2003, South Korean linguist Nam Pung-hyun proposed that the Old Korean period should be extended into the mid-thirteenth century. Nam's arguments center on Korean-language glosses to
6786-523: The clothing words have Middle Korean cognates, but the other four words remain "uninterpretable". The eighth-century Japanese history Nihon Shoki also preserves a single sentence in the Silla language, apparently some sort of oath, although its meaning can only be guessed from context. The Samguk sagi , the Samguk yusa , and Chinese and Japanese sources transcribe many proper nouns from Silla, including personal names, place names, and titles. These are often given in two variant forms: one that transcribes
6903-437: The concerns of low-ranking officials, unlike other texts that are dominated by the high elite. Since the majority of discovered texts are inventories of products, they also provide otherwise rare information about numerals, classifiers , and common nouns. Modern mokgan research began in 1975. With the development of infrared imaging science in the 1990s, it became possible to read many formerly indecipherable texts, and
7020-840: The construction of a fort in Gyeongju , for instance, writes "begin to build" as 作始 (lit. "build begin") rather than the correct Classical Chinese, 始作 (lit. "begin build"), reflecting the Subject-object-verb word order of Korean. The Imsin Vow Stone, raised in either 552 or 612, is also illustrative: Other sixth-century epigraphs that arrange Chinese vocabulary using Korean syntax and employ Chinese semantic equivalents for certain Korean functional morphemes have been discovered, including stelae bearing royal edicts or celebrating public works and sixth-century rock inscriptions left at Ulju by royals on tour. Some inscriptions of
7137-475: The eighth-century poem Heonhwa-ga given below , for instance, the inflected verb 獻乎理音如 give- INTENT - PROSP - ESSEN - DEC begins with the SAL 獻 "to give" and is followed by three PAPs and a final SAP that mark mood, aspect, and essentiality. Hunju eumjong is a defining characteristic of Silla orthography and appears not to be found in Baekje mokgan . Another tendency of Old Korean writing
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#17327650963137254-450: The entering tone among the four Chinese tones. Middle Korean had a complex syllable structure that allowed clusters of up to three consonants in initial and two consonants in terminal position, as well as vowel triphthongs. But many syllables with complex structures arose from the merger of multiple syllables, as seen below. Middle Korean closed syllables with bimoraic "rising tone" reflect an originally bisyllabic CVCV form in which
7371-411: The erasing of distinctions between nominal and verbal negation, and the loss of the essentiality-marking suffix -ms . Nam's thesis has been increasingly influential in Korean academia. In a 2012 review, Kim Yupum notes that "recent studies have a tendency to make the thirteenth century the end date [for Old Korean]... One thinks that the general periodization of Korean language history, in which [only
7488-665: The etymology of the Mongolian word Solongos "Korea, Koreans," the following seven etymological hypotheses regarding the origin of Solongos have been enumerated: (1) It comes from the Mongolian word solongo meaning "rainbow"; (2) It comes from the Mongolian word solongo meaning " weasel "; (3) It comes from the Mongolian/Manchurian ethnonym Solon ; (4) It comes from the name of the ancient kingdom of Silla; (5) It comes from Jurchen * Solgo(r) ~ Solho which in turn stems from Old Korean 수릿골 suɾiskol > 솔골 solkol " Goguryeo "; (later) Korea, Korean"; (6) It comes from
7605-439: The examples below. Korean Sinographic writing is traditionally classified into three major systems: idu , gugyeol , and hyangchal . The first, idu , was used primarily for translation. In its completed form after the Old Korean period, it involved reordering Classical Chinese text into Korean syntax and adding Korean functional morphemes as necessary, with the result that "a highly Sinicized formal form of written Korean"
7722-547: The existence of clausal nominalization and the ability of inflecting verb roots to appear in isolation. Despite attempts to link the language to the putative Altaic family and especially to the Japonic languages , no links between Old Korean and any non- Koreanic language have been uncontroversially demonstrated. Old Korean is generally defined as the ancient Koreanic language of the Silla state (BCE 57–CE 936), especially in its Unified period (668–936). Proto-Koreanic ,
7839-518: The final vowel was reduced, and some linguists propose that Old Korean or its precursor originally had a CV syllable structure like that of Japanese, with all clusters and coda consonants forming due to vowel reduction later on. However, there is strong evidence for the existence of coda consonants in even the earliest attestations of Korean, especially in mareum cheomgi orthography. On the other hand, Middle Korean consonant clusters are believed not to have existed in Old Korean and to have formed after
7956-518: The first time in Silla texts of the mid- to late sixth century, and the use of such vernacular elements becomes more extensive by the Unified period. Initially only one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea , Silla rose to ascendancy in the sixth century under monarchs Beopheung and Jinheung . After another century of conflict, the kings of Silla allied with Tang China to destroy the other two kingdoms— Baekje in 660, and Goguryeo in 668—and to unite
8073-434: The following interpretation of the final line of the hyangga poem Anmin-ga (756): The text of this line uses all four strategies: In Old Korean, most content morphemes are written with SALs, while PAPs are used for functional suffixes . In Korean scholarship, this practice is called hunju eumjong ( Korean : 훈주음종 ; Hanja : 訓主音從 ), literally "logogram is principal, phonograms follow". In
8190-515: The formal name having been Hanyang or Hanseong. The name of the Silla capital changed into its Late Middle Korean form Syeobeul ( 셔블 ), meaning "royal capital city," which changed to Syeoul ( 셔울 ) soon after, and finally resulted in Seoul ( 서울 ) in the Modern Korean language. The name of either Silla or its capital Seorabeol was widely used throughout Northeast Asia as the ethnonym for
8307-502: The founder Bak Hyeokgeose continued. In 377, Silla sent emissaries to China and established relations with Goguryeo . Facing pressure from Baekje in the west and Japan in the south, in the later part of the 4th century, Silla allied with Goguryeo . However, after King Gwanggaeto's unification campaign , Silla lost its status as a sovereign country becoming a vassal of Goguryeo. When Goguryeo began to expand its territory southward, moving its capital to Pyongyang in 427, Nulji of Silla
8424-529: The fourth king of Silla. One day, he found a low peak next to Mt. Toham (吐含山) and packed it with his own house, and he buried charcoal next to the house of a Japonic official named Hogong (瓠公), who lived there, and deceived him that his ancestors were blacksmiths, but the Hogong family took their home. Hogong was tricked into handing over his house and property to the Seoktalhae. During this period, Kim Al-chi ,
8541-460: The fragments of the three languages as representing three separate corpora". Earlier in 2000, Ramsey and Iksop Lee note that the three languages are often grouped as Old Korean, but point to "obvious dissimilarities" and identify Sillan as Old Korean "in the truest sense". Nam Pung-hyun and Alexander Vovin , on the other hand, classify the languages of all three kingdoms as regional dialects of Old Korean. Other linguists, such as Lee Seungjae, group
8658-440: The frequency of conflicts between Baekje and Goguryeo as well as Yamato Japan, Silla created six local garrisons one for each district. The royal guards eventually morphed into "sworn banner" or Sodang units. In 625 another group of Sodang was created. Garrison soldiers were responsible for local defense and also served as a police force. A number of Silla's greatest generals and military leaders were Hwarang (equivalent to
8775-485: The hypothetical ancestor of the Koreanic languages understood largely through the internal reconstruction of later forms of Korean, is to be distinguished from the actually historically attested language of Old Korean. Old Korean semantic influence may be present in even the oldest discovered Silla inscription, a Classical Chinese-language stele dated to 441 or 501. Korean syntax and morphemes are visibly attested for
8892-423: The king ordered his execution. Legend has it that when Ichadon was executed, a series of miracles occurred which proved the power and reality of the Buddhist faith, and the nobles converted to the new state religion. Ichadon's sacrifice was the impetus for the building of Hwangnyongsa Temple. Another legend concerns the giant golden Buddha statue that the temple possessed. It was cast in the reign of King Jinheung as
9009-537: The kingdom of "Saro (pronounced [si.raʔ] at the time)" which later became the kingdom of Silla. In various inscriptions on archaeological founding such as personal gravestones and monuments, it is recorded that Silla royals considered themselves having Xiongnu ancestry through the Xiongnu prince Kim Il-je, also known as Jin Midi in Chinese sources. According to several historians, it is possible that this unknown tribe
9126-509: The language of the Unified Silla period (668–935). The boundaries of Old Korean periodization remain in dispute. Some linguists classify the sparsely attested languages of the Three Kingdoms of Korea as variants of Old Korean, while others reserve the term for the language of Silla alone. Old Korean traditionally ends with the fall of Silla in 935. This too has recently been challenged by South Korean linguists who argue for extending
9243-403: The language] prior to the founding of Goryeo is considered Old Korean, is in need of revision." The Russian-American linguist Alexander Vovin also considers twelfth-century data to be examples of "Late Old Korean". On the other hand, linguists such as Lee Seungjae and Hwang Seon-yeop continue to use the older periodization, as do major recent English-language sources such as the 2011 History of
9360-472: The languages of Silla and Baekje together as Old Korean while excluding that of Goguryeo. The LINGUIST List gives Silla as a synonym for Old Korean while acknowledging that the term is "often used to refer to three distinct languages". Silla began a protracted decline in the late eighth century. By the early tenth century, the Korean Peninsula was once more divided into three warring polities :
9477-465: The languages of the other two kingdoms survive, but most linguists agree that both were related to the language of Silla. Opinion differs as to whether to classify the Goguryeo and Baekje languages as Old Korean variants, or as related but independent languages. Lee Ki-Moon and S. Roberts Ramsey argue in 2011 that evidence for mutual intelligibility is insufficient, and that linguists ought to "treat
9594-402: The late 8th century, however, these royal initiatives had failed to check the power of the entrenched aristocracy. The mid to late 8th century saw renewed revolts led by branches of the Kim clan which effectively limited royal authority. Most prominent of these was a revolt led by Kim Daegong that persisted for three years. One key evidence of the erosion of kingly authority was the rescinding of
9711-489: The latter *ʌ . Partly because of this archaism, some of the most common Old Korean phonograms are only partially connected to the Middle Chinese or Sino-Korean phonetic value of the character. Ki-Moon Lee and S. Robert Ramsey cites six notable examples of these "problematic phonograms", given below. Silla scribes also developed their own characters not found in China. These could be both logograms and phonograms, as seen in
9828-428: The main differences between them to be purpose rather than any structural difference. The phonological system of Old Korean cannot be established "with any certainty", and its study relies largely on tracing back elements of Middle Korean (MK) phonology. Fifteenth-century Middle Korean was a tonal or pitch accent language whose orthography distinguished between three tones: high, rising, and low. The rising tone
9945-507: The majority of modern linguists believe that the dominant layer of Sino-Korean descends from the Middle Chinese prestige dialect of Chang'an during the Tang dynasty . As Sino-Korean originates in Old Korean speakers' perception of Middle Chinese phones , elements of Old Korean phonology may be inferred from a comparison of Sino-Korean with Middle Chinese. For instance, Middle Chinese, Middle Korean, and Modern Korean all have
10062-660: The meaning of "great, leader", which was previously used by the princes of southern Korea, and is sometimes also speculated to have an external relationship with the Mongolic/Turkic title of Khan . In the 7th century, Silla allied itself with the Chinese Tang dynasty . In 660, under Muyeol of Silla (654–661), the Silla–Tang alliance subjugated Baekje after the Baekje–Tang War . In 668, under King Munmu of Silla (King Muyeol's successor) and General Kim Yu-sin ,
10179-538: The name "Silla" to the world outside the traditional East Asian sphere through the Silk Road . Geographers of the Arab and Persian world, including ibn Khurdadhbih , al-Masudi , Dimashiki , Al-Nuwayri , and al-Maqrizi , left records about Silla. Old Korean Old Korean (North Korean name: 고대 조선어 ; South Korean name: 고대 한국어 ) is the first historically documented stage of the Korean language , typified by
10296-432: The new religion. The king's Grand Secretary, Ichadon , suggested that he forge the king's royal seal and create an order that the people adopt the new religion. When the forgery was discovered by the nobles, Ichadon suggested that he be made the scapegoat, and that through his death the power of Buddha be made manifest. The king agreed to the plan. The nobles were predictably outraged when they discovered Ichadon's forgery and
10413-513: The office land system and the re-institution of the former tax village system as salary land for aristocratic officialdom in 757. In Jinjin and Silla, the king was referred to as Gan, and during the Unified Silla Period, the title "Gan" was also used as Chungji Jagan and Agan. The middle period of Silla came to an end with the assassination of Hyegong of Silla in 780, terminating the kingly line of succession of Muyeol of Silla ,
10530-471: The other hand, contain administrative reports by local officials. Document mokgan of extended length were common prior to Silla's conquest of the other kingdoms, but mokgan of the Unified period are primarily tag mokgan . A small number of texts belong to neither group; these include a fragmentary hyangga poem discovered in 2000 and what may be a ritual text associated with Dragon King worship. The earliest direct attestation of Old Korean comes from
10647-596: The other two Korean kingdoms. Silla is known to have operated crossbows called the Cheonbono ( 천보노 ) that was said to have had a range of one thousand steps and a special pike unit called the Jangchang-Dang ( 장창당 ) to counter enemy cavalry. In particular, Silla's crossbows were prized by Tang China due to its excellent functions and durability. Silla would later employ special crossbow units against its Korean counterparts such as Goguryeo and Baekje , as well as
10764-457: The other two kingdoms, Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668. Thereafter, Unified Silla occupied most of the Korean Peninsula , while the northern part re-emerged as Balhae , a successor-state of Goguryeo . After nearly 1,000 years of rule, Silla fragmented into the brief Later Three Kingdoms of Silla, Later Baekje , and Taebong , handing over power to Goryeo in 935. Until the official adoption of Hanja names for its administration, Silla
10881-535: The people of Silla, appearing as Shiragi in Japanese and as Solgo or Solho in the language of the medieval Jurchens and their later descendants, the Manchus , respectively. Koreans are still known as Солонгос ( Solongos ) in Mongolian, which is according to popular folk etymology is believed to be derived from the Mongolian word for " rainbow " ( солонго solongo ). In a paper published in 2023 regarding
10998-494: The place where the Japanese god, Susanoo first descended from the heavens after his banishment in a place called "Soshimori" ( 曽尸茂梨 ). Up until the liberation of Korea in 1945, Meiji era Japanese historians claimed that Susanoo had ruled over Silla and that the Koreans were the descendants of him, thus finding justification and legitimizing the Japanese occupation of Korea through the use of Nissen dōsoron . According to
11115-472: The poems while acknowledging that the overall framework of the hyangga texts is Old Korean. The hyangga could no longer be read by the Joseon period (1392–1910). The modern study of Old Korean poetry began with Japanese scholars during the Japanese colonial period (1910–1945), with Shinpei Ogura pioneering the first reconstructions of all twenty-five hyangga in 1929. The earliest reconstructions by
11232-463: The reign of King Muyeol this aristocracy had been divided into "sacred bone" and "true bone" aristocrats, with the former differentiated by their eligibility to attain the kingship. This duality had ended when Queen Jindeok, the last ruler from the "sacred bone" class, died in 654. The numbers of "sacred bone" aristocrats had been decreasing for generations, as the title was only conferred to those whose parents were both "sacred bones", whereas children of
11349-477: The rump Silla state, and two new kingdoms founded by local magnates. Goryeo , one of the latter, obtained the surrender of the Silla court in 935 and reunited the country the next year. Korea's political and cultural center henceforth became the Goryeo capital of Gaegyeong (modern Gaeseong ), located in central Korea. The prestige dialect of Korean also shifted from the language of Silla's southeastern heartland to
11466-571: The semi-mythological figure of Hyeokgeose of Silla (Old Korean: *pulkunae, "light of the world"), of the Park clan . The country was first ruled intermittently by the Miryang Park clan for 232 years and the Wolseong Seok clan for 172 years and beginning with the reign of Michu Isageum the Gyeongju Kim clan for 586 years. Park, Seok and Kim have no contemporary attestations and went by
11583-407: The southeastern part of the capital, and the war ended when the Silla king came out to fight against it, and the soldiers of the three kingdoms were defeated. By the 2nd century, Silla existed as its own distinct political entity in the southeastern area of the Korean peninsula . It expanded its influence over the neighboring Jinhan chiefdoms, but throughout the 3rd century was probably no more than
11700-438: The southern two-thirds of the Korean Peninsula under their rule. This political consolidation allowed the language of Silla to become the lingua franca of the peninsula and ultimately drove the languages of Baekje and Goguryeo to extinction, leaving the latter only as substrata in later Korean dialects. Middle Korean, and hence Modern Korean, are thus direct descendants of the Old Korean language of Silla. Little data on
11817-570: The strongest constituent in the Jinhan confederacy. To the west, Baekje had centralized into a kingdom by about 250 CE, overtaking the Mahan confederacy . To the southwest, Byeonhan was being replaced by the Gaya confederacy . In northern Korea, Goguryeo , founded around 50 CE, destroyed the last Chinese commandery in 313 CE and had grown into the largest regional power. Naemul of Silla (356–402) of
11934-421: The system used to write purely Old Korean texts without a Classical Chinese reference. However, Lee Ki-Moon and S. Robert Ramsey note that in the Old Korean period, idu and hyangchal were "different in intent" but involved the "same transcription strategies". Suh Jong-hak's 2011 review of the Korean scholarship also suggests that most modern Korean linguists consider the three to involve the "same concepts" and
12051-427: The temple centerpiece. The legend states that the gold for the statue came from King Ashoka of India. Ashoka had apparently attempted to cast a golden triad but failed. He then put the gold in a boat along with scale models of Bodhisattvas. Each country that received the boat was equally unable to cast the statues, and not until the boat had arrived in Silla could a statue be cast. Only the massive foundation stones of
12168-400: The temple remain in current times. The original complex took seventeen years to complete. 35°47′20″N 129°13′36″E / 35.78889°N 129.22667°E / 35.78889; 129.22667 Silla Silla ( Korean pronunciation: [ɕiɭ.ɭa] ; Old Korean : 徐羅伐 , Yale : Syerapel, RR : Seorabeol ; IPA : Korean pronunciation: [sʌɾabʌɭ] ) was
12285-464: The temple to be the site of a new palace but when a dragon was seen on the proposed site, a temple was commissioned instead. Hwangnyongsa was designed to be a place where monks prayed for the welfare of the nation by asking for the divine protection of the Buddha and a means to impress foreign dignitaries. Following the defeat of Baekje in the 660s, the Baekje architect, Abiji, was commissioned to build
12402-406: The throne or declarations of war. The Hwabaek was headed by a person ( Sangdaedeung ) chosen from the "sacred bone" rank. One of the key decisions of this royal council was the adoption of Buddhism as state religion. Following unification Silla began to rely more upon Chinese models of bureaucracy to administer its greatly expanded territory. This was a marked change from pre-unification days when
12519-520: The twelfth century with the loss of intervening vowels. Old Korean thus had a simpler syllable structure than Middle Korean. The consonant inventory of fifteenth-century Middle Korean is given here to help readers understand the following sections on Old Korean consonants. These are not the consonants of Old Korean, but of its fifteenth-century descendant. Three of the nineteen Middle Korean consonants could not occur in word-initial position: /ŋ/ , /β/ , and /ɣ/ . Only nine consonants were permitted in
12636-431: The vernacular language. The earliest texts with Old Korean elements use only Classical Chinese words, reordered to fit Korean syntax, and do not represent native morphemes directly. Eventually, Korean scribes developed four strategies to write their language with Chinese characters: It is often difficult to discern which of the transcription methods a certain character in a given text is using. For example, Nam 2019 gives
12753-507: The works where they now survive, textual corruption may have occurred. Some poems that Iryeon attributes to the Silla period are now believed to be Goryeo -era works. Nam Pung-hyun nevertheless considers most of the Samguk yusa poems to be reliable sources for Old Korean because Iryeon would have learned the Buddhist canon through a "very conservative" dialect and thus fully understood the Silla language. Other scholars, such as Park Yongsik, point to thirteenth-century grammatical elements in
12870-451: Was among the reasons for Korean tonogenesis. The hypothesis that Old Korean originally lacked phonemic tone is supported by the fact that most Middle Korean nouns conform to a tonal pattern, the tendency for ancient Korean scribes to transcribe Old Korean proper nouns with Chinese level-tone characters, and the accent marks on Korean proper nouns given by the Japanese history Nihon Shoki , which suggest that ancient Koreans distinguished only
12987-503: Was built during the reign of Queen Seondeok (632–647). It was from Silla that Korea's oldest extant genre of poems, known as hyangga , developed and were recorded. Additionally, among the three kingdoms, Silla has the best preserved ancient Korean literature written in Classical Chinese , which includes the hanshi poetry of Ch'oe Ch'i-wŏn , as well as the travelogue of Buddhist monk Hyecho . Muslim traders brought
13104-470: Was forced to ally with Baekje. By the time of Beopheung of Silla (514–540), Silla was a full-fledged kingdom, with Buddhism as state religion, and its own Korean era name . Silla absorbed the Gaya confederacy during the Gaya–Silla Wars , annexing Geumgwan Gaya in 532 and conquering Daegaya in 562, thereby expanding its borders to the Nakdong River basin. Jinheung of Silla (540–576) established
13221-492: Was handed over to King Suro of Gimhae , who was the local leader at the time. King Suro instead resolved the territorial issue and ruled in favor of Eumjipbeol. However, King Suro sent an assassin to kill the head of the six Silla divisions, who hid in the Eumjipbeol while the assassin was escaping, and King Tachugan (陀鄒干) protected the assassin. In response, Pasa of Silla invaded Eumjipbeol in 102 and Tachugan surrendered, and
13338-585: Was one of nearly constant upheaval and civil war as the king was reduced to little more than a figurehead and powerful aristocratic families rose to actual dominance outside the capital and royal court. The tail end of this period, called the Later Three Kingdoms period, briefly saw the emergence of the kingdoms of Later Baekje and Taebong , which were really composed of military forces capitalizing on their respective region's historical background, and Silla's submission to Goryeo . From at least
13455-438: Was originally of Koreanic origin in the Korean peninsula and joined the Xiongnu confederation. Later the tribe's ruling family returned to Korea from Liaodong peninsula where they thrive, and after coming back to the peninsula they got married into the royal family of Silla. There are also some Korean researchers that point out that the grave goods of Silla and of the eastern Xiongnu are alike, and some researchers insist that
13572-403: Was produced. The gugyeol system was created to aid the comprehension of Classical Chinese texts by providing Korean glosses. It is divided into pre-thirteenth century interpretive gugyeol , where the glosses provide enough information to read the Chinese text in the Korean vernacular, and later consecutive gugyeol , which is insufficient for a full translation. Finally, hyangchal refers to
13689-491: Was recorded using the Hundok reading of Hanja to phonetically approximate its native Korean name, including 斯盧 ( 사로 ; Saro ), 斯羅 ( 사라 ; Sara ), 徐那 (伐) ( 서나[벌] ; Seona[beol] ), 徐耶 (伐) ( 서야[벌] ; Seoya[beol] ), 徐羅 (伐) ( 서라[벌] ; Seora[beol] ), and 徐伐 ( 서벌 ; Seobeol ). In 504, Jijeung of Silla standardized the characters into 新羅 ( 신라 ), which in Modern Korean
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