Hanpu

Hanpu (Chinese: 函普; pinyin: Hánpǔ), later Wanyan Hanpu (Chinese: 完顏函普), was a leader of the Jurchen Wanyan clan in the early tenth century. According to the ancestral story of the Wanyan clan, Hanpu came from Goryeo when he was sixty years old, reformed Jurchen customary law, and then married a sixty-year-old local woman who bore him three children. His descendants eventually united Jurchen tribes into a federation and established the Jin dynasty in 1115. Hanpu was retrospectively given the temple name Shizu (始祖) and the posthumous name Emperor Yixian Jingyuan (懿憲景元皇帝) by the Jin dynasty.

Chinese historians have long debated whether Hanpu was of Silla, Goryeo, or Jurchen ethnicity. Since the 1980s, they have chiefly argued that he was a Jurchen who had lived in Silla, the state that had dominated the Korean peninsula until it was destroyed by Goryeo in 935. Western scholars usually treat Hanpu's story as a legend, but agree that it hints to contacts between some Jurchen clans and the states of Goryeo and Balhae (a state located between Jurchen lands and Silla until it was destroyed in 926) in the early tenth century. In Korea, a recent KBS history special treated Hanpu as a native Silla man who moved north and settled in Jurchen lands during the demise of Silla.^[1]

Name

Hanpu is known under different transliterations in Chinese sources. He is called Kanfu (龕福) in the Songmo Jiwen (松漠紀聞; after 1155), the memoirs of a Song Chinese ambassador who was forced to stay in Jin territory for more than 10 years starting in 1131. The Shenlu Ji 神麓記, a lost book cited in the Collected Documents on the Treaties with the North during Three Reigns (三朝北盟會編; c. 1196), refers to him as Kenpu (掯浦), whereas Research on the Origin of the Manchus (滿洲源流考; 1777) calls him Hafu (哈富).^[2]

Ancestor of the Wanyan clan

Because the early Jurchens had no written records, the story of Hanpu was first transmitted orally.^[3] According to the History of Jin (compiled in the 1340s), Hanpu was originally from Balhae.^[4] He arrived from Goryeo at the age of sixty and settled among the Jurchen Wanyan clan.^[5] Other sources claim that Hanpu was from Silla, the state that had ruled the Korean peninsula but was annexed by the kingdom of Goryeo in 935.^[6] The same story recounts that when Hanpu left Goryeo, his two brothers remained behind, one in Goryeo and one in the Balhae area.^[7] Because the Jurchens considered Hanpu to be the sixth-generation ancestor of Wanyan Wugunai (1021–1074), historians postulate that Hanpu lived in the early tenth century, when the Jurchens still consisted of independent tribes, or sometime between the founding of Goryeo in 918 and its destruction of Silla in 935.^[8]

The Wanyan clan then belonged to a group of Jurchen tribes that Chinese and Khitan documents called "wild", "raw", or "uncivilized" (shēng 生).^[9] These "wild Jurchens" lived between the Changbai Mountains in the south (now at the border between North Korea and Northeast China) and the Sungari River in the north, outside the territory of the rising Liao dynasty (907–1125) and little influenced by Chinese culture.^[10]

To resolve an endless cycle of vendettas between two clans, Hanpu managed to make both parties accept a new rule: from then on, the family of a killer would compensate the victim's relatives with a gift of horses, cattle, and money.^[11] Historian Herbert Franke has compared this aspect of Jurchen customary law to the old Germanic practice of Wergeld.^[12] As a reward for putting an end to the feuds, Hanpu was married to a sixty-year-old woman who then bore him one daughter and two sons.^[13] A lost book called the Shenlu Ji states that Hanpu's wife was 40 years old.^[14] Hanpu and his descendants were then formally received into the Wanyan clan.^[13]

Hanpu's ethnicity

Chinese scholars have debated the ethnicity of Hanpu. They usually agree that Hanpu's "coming from Goryeo" does not mean he was of Goryeo ethnicity, since Goryeo territory was populated by several ethnic groups back then.^[15] The people of the time did not always distinguish between state and ethnic group, so that in modern terms Hanpu may have been a Jurchen from the state of Silla, a man of Goryeo, or a Silla man.^[16] According to Songmo Jiwen, Hanpu's surname was already Wanyan before he moved from Goryeo. Historian Sun Jinji has therefore argued that Hanpu was a Jurchen whose family had lived in Silla and then Goryeo before moving back to Jurchen land.^[16] Chinese historians Menggutuoli and Zhao Yongchun both argue that Hanpu's ancestors were Jurchens who had lived in Silla and had been absorbed into Goryeo after the latter defeated Silla.^[17] Furthermore, Zhao theorizes that Wanyan Yingge calling Goryeo his "parent country" may have been part of the Jurchens' diplomatic efforts to obtain Goryeo's help in fighting the Liao dynasty.^[18]

Meanwhile, some Korean scholars support the idea that Hanpu was likely an ethnic Sillan from Goryeo that fled north towards Jurchen territories during the Later Three Kingdoms. Overall, it is believed that his ethnicity is unclear.^[19]^[20]^[21]^[22]^[23]^{[non-primary source needed]} Korean historians such as Kang Jun-young and Kim Wi-hyeon, as well as Chinese historians such as Jin Yufu also weigh on the hypothesis that Hanpu was likely "a man of Silla" that lived in the Goryeo dynasty following Silla's downfall.^[24] According to official Qing dynasty sources, the founder of Jin was from either Silla or Goryeo but came from the Tungusic Sushen tribes.^[25]^{[better source needed]}

The annals of King Yejong (r. 1105–1122) in the History of Goryeo report that Wanyan Wugunai's son Yingge (盈歌; 1053–1103) considered Goryeo as his "parent country" (父母之邦) because his clan's ancestor Hanpu had come from Goryeo.^[26] However Wanyan Yingge initiated an invasion of the Korean peninsula and Yingge's paternal nephew Wanyan Wuyashu fought against the Koreans, forcing them to submit and recognize Jurchens as overlords after "pacifying" the border between the Koreans and Jurchens.^[27]

Western scholars usually consider Hanpu's story legendary. Herbert Franke explains that this Jurchen "ancestral legend" probably indicates that the Wanyan clan absorbed immigrants from Goryeo and Balhae sometime in the tenth century.^[13] Frederick W. Mote, who calls this account of the founding of the Wanyan clan a "tribal legend", claims that Hanpu's two brothers (one who stayed in Goryeo and one in Balhae) might have represented "the tribe's memory of their ancestral links to these two peoples."^[7] One Western historian of Jurchens has even proposed that Hanpu was not even from the Korean peninsula, instead what really happened was that a power on the peninsula ruled the Jurchen tribe he came from, or that he was from the Eastern Jurchens (Changbai Mountain Jurchens) who did not live in the Korean peninsula.^[28]

Legacy

The Wanyan clan rose to prominence among the Jurchens after 1000 CE.^[29] Hanpu's sixth-generation descendant Wanyan Wugunai (1021–1074) started to consolidate the dispersed Jurchen tribes into a federation.^[3] Wugunai's grandson Aguda (1068–1123) defeated the Jurchens' Khitan overlords of the Liao dynasty and founded the Jin dynasty in 1115.^[30] By 1127, the Jin had conquered all of north China from the Song dynasty.^[31]

In 1136 or 1137, soon after Emperor Xizong of Jin (r. 1135–1150) had been crowned, Hanpu was given the posthumous name "Emperor Jingyuan" (景元皇帝) and the temple name "Shizu" (始祖), meaning "first ancestor."^[32] In 1144 or 1145, Hanpu's burial site was named "Guangling" (光陵).^[33] In December 1145 or January 1146, his posthumous title was augmented to that of "Emperor Yixian Jingyuan" (懿憲景元皇帝).^[34]

Family members

Hanpu's wife posthumously received the title of Empress Mingyi 明懿皇后 in 1136.^[35] The History of Jin, an official history that was compiled by Mongol scholar Toqto'a in the 1340s, lists Hanpu's family members as follows:^[36]

Children:

Wulu 烏魯 (eldest son and successor)
Wolu 斡魯 (second son)
Zhusiban 注思板 (daughter)

Siblings:

Agunai 阿古廼 (elder brother, who is said to have liked Buddhism and to have stayed in Goryeo when Hanpu left)
Baohuoli 保活里 (younger brother)

References

Notes

^ 류지열 (Director) (2009). [특별기획] 만주대탐사 2부작-2부 금나라를 세운 아골타, 신라의 후예였다! (Documentary). South Korea: Korean Broadcasting System.
^ Chen 1960, pp. 37–38.
^ ^a ^b Franke 1994, p. 219.
^ Kim 2011b, p. 173.
^ Franke 1990, pp. 414–15. History of Jin, chapter 1 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974), p. 2. (Original passage: 金之始祖諱函普，初從高麗來，年已六十餘矣).
^ Zhao 2006, pp. 68–69.
^ ^a ^b Mote 1999, p. 212.
^ Mote 1999, p. 212 ("little more than 100 years before the time of Wugunai"); Franke 1981, p. 219 ("beginning of the 10th century A.D."); Franke 1994, p. 219 ("around the year 900, which is about when the Jurchens appear on the diplomatic scene"); Tillman 1995, p. 25 ("early 10th cent."); Menggutuoli 2000, p. 65 (around 921, that is, 100 years before the birth of Wugunai); Wang 2010, p. 251, note 3 (Silla–Goryeo transition), citing Jin 1969.
^ Mote 1999, p. 212 (wild); Franke 1994, p. 219 (raw, uncivilized).
^ Chan 2003, p. 3.
^ Franke 1994, p. 218.
^ Franke 1981, p. 219.
^ ^a ^b ^c Franke 1990, pp. 414–15.
^ He 2004, p. 37.
^ Wang 2010, p. 250; Menggutuoli 2000, p. 65; Zhao 2006, p. 71.
^ ^a ^b Sun 1987, p. 81.
^ Menggutuoli 2000, pp. 65–67; Zhao 2006, p. 68.
^ Wang 2010, p. 251, note 3; Zhao 2006, p. 74.
^ "함보(函普) – Hanpu". Archived from the original on 2021-04-23. Retrieved 2021-12-06. 그가 본래부터 고려 사람인지 고려에서 살다가 들어온 여진 사람인지는 명확하지 않다.
^ 松漠紀聞 (1156) – Hong Hu (洪皓) of the Song Dynasty "女眞酋長乃新羅人號完顔氏" English Translation: "The Jurchen chieftain (Hanpu) is a Sillan by the surname of Wanyan."
^ 고려사 (Records of Goryeo, 1451) Book 14, 10th Year of the Reign of Yejong (1115) 或曰, “昔我平州僧今俊, 遁入女眞, 居阿之古村, 是謂金之先.” 或曰, “平州僧金幸之子克守, 初入女眞阿之古村, 娶女眞女, 生子曰古乙太師. 古乙生活羅太師, 活羅多子. 長曰劾里鉢, 季曰盈歌, 盈歌最雄傑, 得衆心. 盈歌死, 劾里鉢長子烏雅束嗣位, 烏雅束卒, 弟阿骨打立.” English Translation: "From what people say, the Monk Keumjun from Pyeongju (Today's Pyeongsan, North Korea) fled to Jurchen lands beyond and settled in a village called Ajigo, only to become the founder of Jin. Meanwhile, others say that the son of the Pyeongju monk Kim Haeng, Kim Geuksu, travelled into Jurchen territory and married a local woman. They gave birth to Goeultesa who gave birth to Hwallatesa. Then Hwallatesa gave birth to his elder son Heklibal and youngest Yeonga. Yeonga was said to be fierce and courageous. After the death of Yeonga, Heklibal's first son Wuyashu assumed leadership. He was succeeded by Aguda following his death."
^ History of Jin (1344) Book 1, Chapter 1 "金之始祖諱函普, 初從高麗來" English Translation: "The founder of Jin (Hanpu) comes from Goryeo"
^ History of Goryeo (1451), Records of August of Year 1119 - From Yejong of Goryeo to Aguda "···况彼源發乎吾土···" English Translation: "···Even the origins of your likes stems from my realms (Goryeo)···" Explanation: → Diplomatic feuds between the Korean Goryeo Dynasty and Jurchen Jin Dynasty continued despite peace agreements after Goryeo's failed attempt to conquer Jurchen territories in which two major military campaigns had mobilized at least 250,000 troops from Goryeo alone. The Jurchen's who won the war with a heavy cost with their lands devastated by the Koreans would later conquer the Northern Song Dynasty under Aguda's leadership. However, Goryeo during the reign of Yejong did not tolerate Aguda's self-proclamation as Emperor after his empire's ascension following the defeat of the Song Dynasty, seeing them nothing more than former vassals and servants of their Goguryeo ancestors and that of themselves until the advent of Wuyashu.
^ KANG, Jun-young (2017). "금나라 시조의 출자지(出自地)에 관한 재론(再論)". Danguk University: 74–75.
^ Hesei Toktobuha Manjusai Da Sekiyen-i Kimcin Bithe "Origins of the Manchurian People" (欽定滿洲源流考, 1778) Book 7 Chapter <Tribes: Wanyan)
^ History of Goryeo, fascicle 13, under the 6th month of Yejong's 4th year of reign (i.e., 1108). Cited in Wang 2010, p. 251, note 3.
^ Tillman 1995, p. 27.
^ Garcia, Chad D. (2012). Horsemen from the Edge of Empire: The Rise of the Jurchen Coalition (PDF) (A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy). University of Washington. p. 15. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2014. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
^ Franke 1990, p. 414.
^ Franke 1994, p. 221.
^ Franke 1994, p. 229–30.
^ Franke 1994, pp. 219 (for the date) and 313 (for translation of the title "Shizu"), History of Jin, chapter 1 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974), p. 3.
^ History of Jin, chapter 1 (Beijing, Zhonghua shuju, 1974), p. 3.
^ History of Jin, chapter 32 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974), p. 779, specifies the date as the intercalary 11th month of the 5th year of the Huangtong 皇統 era; that month spanned from 16 December 1145 to 13 January 1146.
^ History of Jin, chapter 32, p. 774, where the date is given as the 8th month of the 14th year of Tianhui 天會, an era name that Emperor Xizong (r. 1135–1150) continued to use from Emperor Taizong (r. 1123–1135).
^ History of Jin, chapter 1 (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1974), p. 2.

Works cited

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—— (1990), "The forest peoples of Manchuria: Kitans and Jurchens", in Denis Sinor (ed.), Cambridge History of Early Inner Asia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 400–423, ISBN 0-521-24304-1.
—— (1994), "The Chin Dynasty", in Herbert Franke and Denis Twitchett (ed.), Cambridge History of China, vol. 6, Alien regimes and border states, 907–1368, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 215–320, ISBN 978-0-521-24331-5.
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Jin, Yufu 金毓黻 (1969), General History of Northeast China: The First Six Chapters 東北通史：上編六卷, Taipei: Tailian guofeng chubanshe 臺聯國風出版社. (in Chinese)
Kim, Alexander (2011b), On the Origin of the Jurchen People (A Study Based on Russian Sources)
Menggutuoli, 孟古托力 (2000), "On a Few Questions Concerning the Jurchens and the Jin Dynasty's Relations with Goryeo" 女真及其金朝与高丽关系中几个问题考论", Manchu Studies 满族研究, 2000/1: 64–76. (in Chinese)
Mote, Frederick W. (1999), Imperial China (900–1800), Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, ISBN 0-674-44515-5.
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Tillman, Hoyt Cleveland (1995), "An Overview of Chin History and Institutions", in Hoyt Cleveland Tillman; Stephen H. West (eds.), China Under Jurchen Rule, Albany, NY: State University of New York, pp. 23–38, ISBN 0-7914-2273-9 (hardback). ISBN 0-7914-2274-7 (paperback).
Wang, Minxin 王民信 (2010) [1985], "On the Thirty Jurchen Clan Surnames in the History of Goryeo" 高麗史女真三十姓部落考", Collected Articles by Wang Minxin on the History of Goryeo 王民信高麗史研究論文集 (in Chinese), Taipei: National Taiwan University Press 臺大出版中心, pp. 247–284, ISBN 9789860259094. Originally published in the Bulletin of the Institute of China Border Area Studies 邊政研究所年報 16 (1985): pp. 67–94.
Zhao, Yongchun 赵永春 (2006), "On the Ethnicity of Hanpu, First Ancestor of the Jin Dynasty" 金朝始祖函普族属考辨", Manchu Studies 满族研究, 2006/1: 68–74. (in Chinese)