Story 24, Episode 2. The eldest descendants of the three sons of the Golden Jar

 

Episode 2. The eldest descendants of the three sons of the Golden Jar

“Golden Jar” Geumhaeng (今幸, 金幸) had three sons. They are the three brothers named “Churluk Mergen,” “Kubaisire,” and “Tusbuda” in <Tarikh-e Monghul, 集史 History of Mongolia>. At first glance, their names seem very unfamiliar. However, their names were titles based on the Korean language, Malgal, Tungus, and Chinese characters. The true identities of these three Kubaisire brothers were actually the three Hambo brothers, the founders of Daegeum (大金) in <Geum History>, namely, Kagorai (Agorae, 阿古迺[Nae], Goguryeo), Hambo (函普, Keunbo, Keunka, Geolga, Geolssi, Daessi), and Bokori (Bohwari, Muguri, Goguryeo).

The etymology of the names of the three brothers, which were the same as the unfamiliar names mentioned by the <Tarikh-e Monghul, 集史 History of Mongolia>, is later explained. The lineage of the founder of the Konggrat tribe, Geumhaeng, who succeeded in the long journey of battle to recover the lost territory in the south of Balhae by running away from the Arcana army under the instructions of the former king of Balhae, however, after about a generation and a half, the eldest brother Kagorai (Agorae, Chulurk Mergen, i.e. Joseon Malgal) remained in his hometown, while the younger brother Hambo (Kubai Sire, Kkeulgasine) and the youngest brother Bohwari (Tousbuda, Daesibujang) left their hometown and entered Joseon (Jurchen, i.e. Joseon, Suksin) Wanyanbu Bokgansu (完顔部僕幹水), which is today's Gilju (吉州), and Yara (耶懶), which is today's Hamheung, separately. Why did the two brothers leave their older brother in Pyeongsan, Hwanghae-do today, or Pyeongju at the time, and go there separately?

 

Regarding the reason why the two sons of Geumhaeng, the founder of the Konggrat tribe, entered the land of Josin (Jurchen), the Korean academic scholars has come up with a rather absurd explanation. “Geumhaeng (金幸)” was the Silla person “Gimhaeng (金幸)”, and his second son, Geum, the founder Hambo, and his 7th-generation descendant Agolta (阿骨打, Kagori Da/Goguryeo chief) were from the Kim (金氏) royal family of Silla and entered the Jurchen (女眞) to revive the declining Silla.

The reason the two brothers entered the Josin (Jurchen) was due to two internal and external circumstances that occurred in Balhae. One was the external problem, in the southern part of the Balhae land they had reclaimed, Silla was disturbing Balhae, capturing Balhae people and selling them to the slave market of the Tang Dynasty. These Balhae people were mistakenly known in our history as “Silla people” who were sold as slaves to the Tang Dynasty during the Jang Bogo era. Those who were sold as slaves were not “Silla people” but refugees from the fallen dynasty of Goguryeo. That was why Jang Bogo, who was originally a member of the Goguryeo royal family but changed his surname from “Jang(張)” to “Gungpa(弓巴)”, could not stand to see this and came to Silla from the Tang Dynasty. He not only rescued the Goguryeo people who were being taken as slaves and bought back Goguryeo slaves from the Tang Dynasty and brought them back to their homeland, but later formed a maritime empire that dominated the seas of Northeast Asia. A more detailed historical story about this will be covered later when we discuss Jang Bogo, the late Silla coup, and Gung Ye.

Another reason is the internal problem of Balhae. Within the Balhae royal family, just like in Silla, there was repeated chaos as Banan-gun (盤安郡) was divided into two ethnic groups and fought each other due to successive changes of royal power. Because of this, the two brothers went to Banan-gun (盤安郡, north of Gilju) and Yara (耶懶, Hamheung) in the interior of Balhae, led by their ancestor, Banan-gun Daeyabal, to resolve this crisis, while the older brother Ago-rae (阿古迺[nae]) had to remain in his hometown of Pyeongju, Hwanghae-do, to prevent external invasions by Silla. At that time, in Banan-gun, the territory of the 4th generation ancestor Daeyabal, later Wanan-bu (完顔部), along with the struggle for the throne in the central government, as the preface of <Geum Dynasty History>, “Segi (世紀)” says, “the villagers were divided into two tribes and fighting.” Also, in his hometown Pyeongju, as our historical books suggest, there were disturbances and interference from Silla in the south. For this reason, among the three sons of Geumhaeng, the eldest brother Kagorai (Agorae) remained in Pyeongju to block the invasion of Silla, while the two younger brothers Hambo and Bohwali entered Banan-gun (present-day Gilju) and Yara (Hamheung), and became the chieftains of the region, thereby taking over the local government.

Among our scholars, there are those who put forth theories that do not match historical facts, such as the father of these three brothers, Geum-haeng, was the founder of the Andong Gwon clan, Gwon-haeng (權幸), originally named “Kim-haeng (金幸) from Silla,” and that his two sons went to the Jurchen Wan’an clan in order to revive Silla. Many scholars are also joining this theory.

Now, the three brothers lived in different regions, and as time passed, these three brothers formed three different tribes based on their separate hometowns (hometowns of their surnames), called by their own tribes or “tribes.” The eldest brother, Ago-rae, has the “Konggrat tribe (tribe),” the second brother, Geum, had the “Yekiras tribe (tribe),” and the youngest brother, Bohwal-ri, has the “Korras tribe (tribe).” Interestingly, the youngest of the three brothers, Bo-Hwal-Ri's great-grandson "Korras", was the ancestor of the "Korras tribe" tribe, the ancestral tribe of Genghis Khan. His eldest brother and the eldest son of his father, Geum-Haeng, A-Gorae (阿古迺[nae], old pronunciation 'Ka-Gorae'=Goguryeo) had a son named "Kong-Grat (Big Goryeo clan=Goguryeo clan)." As the <Butler> says, this "Kong-Grat" was one of the "three Kong-Grat tribes" and became the ancestor of the "Kong-Grat tribe (tribe)" in a narrow, unique sense. This was the clan of “Burte Ujin (Burte’s wife, Buyeo Dae clan’s wife)” who later became Genghis Khan’s wife and gave birth to Jochi, Aguedei, Chagadai, and the youngest Tolui. Her clan (tribe) “:Konggrat” was the old sound of “Great Goryeo clan”, or “Goguryeo clan”, which was a Mongolian-Turkicized word.

Among the three brothers, the second, Hambo, became the founder of the Great Jin (大金) nation. He was the very person who was said to have come from the Wanyan clan (←Ban’an Gun=ban’an county) of the Jurchen tribe(女眞族) in history. He had two sons, the eldest of whom was “Koro (烏魯, Oro)”, or “Korai (胡來, Horae = Goryeo)” as mentioned in the “Great Jin State Chronicles (大金國志)”. The 6th generation descendant of that Koro (烏魯) was Wanyan (完顔) “Kagori-da (阿骨打, Agolta)” who founded the Jin (金) dynasty, also known as “Kagori-da (阿骨-打, Goguryeo Dynasty)”. This family was the tribe that <Tarikh-e Monghul, 集史 History of Mongolia> called the “Yekiras tribe”, and surprisingly, Silhak scholars (realist school of Confucianism) of the Joseon Dynasty recorded this tribe as “Yakra-ssi (役拏氏, Yeokna-ssi) of the Three Hans (三韓)”. These were the “Ikires (Yekiras) tribe” that <Tarikh-e Monghul, 集史 History of Mongolia>

 speaks of, and they were our tribe. This tribe, along with its brother tribe, the “Konggrat tribe,” was famous as the second empress tribe of the Yuan emperor during the Yuan Dynasty established by Kublai Khan (Kebuyeo=Kebuyeo=Goguryeo), the grandson of Genghis Khan.

<Taikh-I Arba' Ulus, 四汗國, Four Khan Countries>

<Tarikh-e Monghul, 集史 History of Mongolia>

The youngest Bo Hwal-ri (保活里) family was called the “Korras tribe” during the time of his great-grandson “Korras,” otherwise known as “Koriraddai Mergen” or “Kori Mergen.” This refered to a clan village living in Hamheung, South Hamgyong Province. That is to say, the name “Hapranro Clan (合蘭路氏, Koraras)”, which was a place name in the form of Hamheung with “-씨 (氏)” attached, was the “Goryeo Na Clan (高麗那氏)” mentioned in the <Hwangjo Tongji=empire famly lineage (皇朝通志)>, which revealed the genealogy of the Manchu and Mongolian clans by order of the emperor during the Qing Dynasty. The person who came from this clan was “Alan Gowa,” the daughter of “Korra” and the 10th ancestor of Genghis Khan, who was called “the mother of all Mongols.” This clan of Genghis Khan destroyed the Jin Dynasty established by his brother clan, the “Yekiras clan” during the time of his son Agaday, and took over its land and people. After that, starting from the time of Kublai Khan, who was Agaday Khan’s nephew and Genghis Khan’s grandson, this Yekiras clan became the second empress clan of the Mongol emperors of the Yuan Dynasty. The three tribes, descendants of the three sons of the “Golden Jar,” or “Khan of Gold,” maintained a continuous relationship with each other even as time passed.