Byeonhan
/ˈbjʌn.hɑːn/noun
An ancient Korean confederacy of small chiefdoms in the southern Korean Peninsula, traditionally dated to the first centuries BCE and CE.
Did you know?Byeonhan is known largely through Chinese historical records, and its exact name origin remains uncertain because 弁韓 was a Chinese transcription rather than a transparent Korean compound.
Etymological Timeline
1st century BCE
Korean/Chinese records
弁韓
“The name recorded in Chinese characters for the southern Korean confederacy later romanized as Byeonhan; its original Korean pronunciation and meaning are uncertain.”
3rd century CE
Classical Chinese
弁辰
“A related name, Byeonjin, used in the Chinese chronicle Sanguozhi for the same broader political and cultural sphere.”
4th–5th centuries
Korean historical tradition
변한
“The Korean form associated with one of the Samhan confederacies, although the surviving written evidence is later than the period itself.”
Early modern scholarship
Korean
변한
“The term was preserved in Korean historical writing as the name of the ancient confederacy.”
20th century–present
English
Byeonhan
“The Revised Romanization of 변한, now standard in English-language writing about ancient Korean history.”