Today I will tell you guys something about the dynasties of Korea; Kings.
In Korea, we do not learn about the actual names of Kings, we instead use it off of names given to them after their death.
See, if you know that the Joeson Dynasty (1392-1910) Kings' last names are Lee and the Kings of the Dynasty right before that (Goryeo Dynasty) have the last name Wang, you might wonder why names of kings like Sejong or Jungjo do not contain last names. Same to history of older kings, and it's complicated.
See, the we don't learn the kings' names by their real name. I mean, many people do not know that Queen Elizabeth the Second of Great Britain and the Commonwealth's last name was Windsor. However, the Goryeo Dynasty (Where the name "Korea" was derived from) and Joeson Dynasty's names are way more complicated.
Before all of that, Just saying I'm not covering the Gojoeson Dynasty, the first dynasty of Korea, because most of its history is half-mythical and half-true. Tell you guys about that in another post. Not counting Gaya or Tamla Kingdom because those two were just minor kingdoms in South Korea and many people seem to ignore them in history, even in the old days.
Also, 70% of Korean words have a Chinese word, and all Korean kings' names can be translated into Chinese.
Let's start with Goguryeo (B.C.E. 37-C.E. 688). The kings of this dynasty was named 3-5 letters. Since Koreans and Chinese have some "Backwards" things (Like in our home addresses, the Western world count their street number first and in Korea, we count "The Republic of Korea" first), the"Wang" at the end of everything, means "king". Wait, I think I have to teach you guys the "levels" of kings. Shoot.
Maripgan (마립간): Lower level kings in which I'm not even sure if they're Sino-Korean, a term used for kings in Shilla Dynasty in their early days
Wang (왕): King
Daewang (대왕): the Great (Lit. Translation: Large King)
Taewang (태왕): the Greater (Lit. Translation: Larger King)
Hwangjae (황제): Emperor. Used in China. And later Korea.
REMINDER: These are put at the BACK of the name of every dead king. When they were alive, people just called the kings "Your highness" or something.
Now we can go. Goguryeo used sometimes King, Large King, and sometimes large(r) king for really awesome people. Also, their real name was different from their names used in history classes, however was just like any other name. Random. Same to Shilla Dynasty (B.C.E. 57- C.E. 935).
Now for Baekjae Dynasty (B.C.E. 18- C.E. 663). They just put their real first name and "Wang" on the back.
Phew. 2 Dynasties more to go- yet the one with the most recorded and accurate history!
Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) has a bunch of things you should remember about. For example, the after-death name at the time people given were very long in their early days, for example Jidukjanggyungjungsukyungingyungganjangwonmoonmyung Taewang (지덕장경정숙영인경간장원문명대왕). They were renamed into something called "Myoho" (묘호).
A myoho is an afterdeath name that has one random name at the front and a Jo or Jong at the back. If you are the first king of a dynasty, your myoho is always "Taejo" (태조). What is the difference between "Jo" and "Jong?" Well, if you are a king and you get a "Jo", you probably founded the country you are king of, or did something huge (Like a revolution or a massacre). If you get a "Jong", your father was once a king of your nation and/or you did something that helped your citizens a lot. (For example, King Sejong made the Korean writing system.)
In nations surrounding China, you were not to use the myoho system; only Chinese Emperors were able to. However, Goryeo Dynasty however, were allowed to use this. Then the Mongolians came. Oh, what a great time THAT was. The Mongolians banned the myoho system from Goryeo and they gave the kings their after death names/what they were called. That happened for 9 kings, until there was a revolution in both China, Korea, and Japan and everything was plain new.
In Joeson Dynasty (1392-1910) and the Korean Empire (1897-1910), the myoho system was used, except for two kings, Yeonsan-gun and Gwanghae-gun. Gun (pronounced Goon), in which Yeonsan-gun overspent, and was a mad person (but he was once awesome), and Gwanghae-gun, whom I do respect but somehow got to be a gun. Gun, by the way, is a term for princes. Actually, Taegun (Large Prince?) is the correct one. But the reason why they remained like that is because they were evil and made the citizens and the economy mad.
And now, in the Republic of Korea, we just call presidents president. Phew. This was one boring post. Maybe I should post fun posts from now.
A myoho is an afterdeath name that has one random name at the front and a Jo or Jong at the back. If you are the first king of a dynasty, your myoho is always "Taejo" (태조). What is the difference between "Jo" and "Jong?" Well, if you are a king and you get a "Jo", you probably founded the country you are king of, or did something huge (Like a revolution or a massacre). If you get a "Jong", your father was once a king of your nation and/or you did something that helped your citizens a lot. (For example, King Sejong made the Korean writing system.)
In nations surrounding China, you were not to use the myoho system; only Chinese Emperors were able to. However, Goryeo Dynasty however, were allowed to use this. Then the Mongolians came. Oh, what a great time THAT was. The Mongolians banned the myoho system from Goryeo and they gave the kings their after death names/what they were called. That happened for 9 kings, until there was a revolution in both China, Korea, and Japan and everything was plain new.
In Joeson Dynasty (1392-1910) and the Korean Empire (1897-1910), the myoho system was used, except for two kings, Yeonsan-gun and Gwanghae-gun. Gun (pronounced Goon), in which Yeonsan-gun overspent, and was a mad person (but he was once awesome), and Gwanghae-gun, whom I do respect but somehow got to be a gun. Gun, by the way, is a term for princes. Actually, Taegun (Large Prince?) is the correct one. But the reason why they remained like that is because they were evil and made the citizens and the economy mad.
And now, in the Republic of Korea, we just call presidents president. Phew. This was one boring post. Maybe I should post fun posts from now.
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