Founding During the
Proto–Three Kingdoms period, central and southern Korea consisted of three confederacies called 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 () 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 the kingdom of "Saro (pronounced [si.raʔ] at the time)" which later became the kingdom of Silla. However, this account was not attested during Silla times; Silla epigraphy instead mentions an obscure founding king named "Sŏnghan", while contemporary Chinese writings record that Silla originally consisted of Goguryeo refugees ruled by an unnamed king from
Mahan. 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. and some researchers insist that the Silla king is descended from Xiongnu. 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 the
Shinsen Shōjiroku,
Inahi no Mikoto the brother of the mythological
Emperor Jimmu was the ancestor to the kings of Silla. Another source referenced in
Samguk sagi claims that a man from the Japanese Archipelago named
Hogong helped build the kingdom of Silla.
Early period In its early days, Silla started off as a city-state by the name of Saro (), initially founded by
Yemaek refugees from
Gojoseon. 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 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, 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 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 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 the
Nakdong River basin attacked the Silla-friendly
Ara Gaya, the prince of Ara Gaya 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 Ara Gaya 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, 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 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.
Emergence of a centralized monarchy Naemul of Silla (356–402) of 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 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 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 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" (;
seonggol) rank system.
Etymology of title The royal title
Maripgan () is analyzed into two elements in many popular explanations, with the first element alleged to be from the
Korean root •
mari (마리) from Middle Korean 마리〮
màlí, "head"/
countable of "head / per head" or "hair" •
mang-rip or
mang-nip (網笠), "a
traditional-style hat made of horsehair" •
mo-rip (毛笠), "a kind of hat worn by servants in the old days" •
mi-rip or
mi-reup, meaning "a knack, a trick, the hang of something" •
madi (맏이) or
maji (맏히), meaning "the firstborn, the eldest (child of a family); an elder, a senior, a person whose age is greater than someone else's age" •
mat-jip (맛집), meaning "the house in which the head of a household lives, the main house on an estate" •
mŏrŏ or
maru (마루), meaning "ridge, peak, crest (of a roof, a mountain, a wave,
etc.); zenith, climax, prime; the first, the standard" •
maru (마루) or
mallu, meaning "floor" 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 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.
Unified Silla 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, 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 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 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 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 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, 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 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.
Decline and fall The final century and a half of the Silla state 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 composed of rebels originating from their respective regions' historical backgrounds. Silla was defeated first by Later Baekje and the era ended with Silla's submission to
Goryeo.
Restoration Movements Despite its destruction and annexation by Goryeo, for nearly three centuries loyalty to the old Silla kingdom and Silla traditions remained latent in the Kyŏngju area. Silla restoration revolts include those led by
Yi Ŭimin in 1186 and by
Kim Sami in 1193 as well as later revolts in 1202. == Society and politics ==