Namhae of Silla was the second king of Silla

Silla

Silla was one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, and one of the longest sustained dynasties in...

, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea

Three Kingdoms of Korea

The Three Kingdoms of Korea refer to the ancient Korean kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla, which dominated the Korean peninsula and parts of Manchuria for much of the 1st millennium...

. He is commonly called Namhae Chachaung, chachaung being an early Silla title.

Namhae is the only king who is called Chachaung. According to the Samguk Sagi

Samguk Sagi

Samguk Sagi is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of Korea: Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. The Samguk Sagi is written in Classical Chinese and its compilation was ordered by Goryeo's King Injong Samguk Sagi (History of the Three Kingdoms) is a historical record of the Three Kingdoms of...

, Kim Dae-Mun

Kim Dae-Mun

Kim Dae-mun was a Silla historian. He was the governor of Hansan in 704. According to book 46, biography section of Samguk Sagi, he wrote several books.* Tales from Gyerim...

 explained that the title "Chachaung" meant a shaman in Old Korean

Old Korean

Old Korean corresponds to the Korean language from the beginning of Three Kingdoms of Korea to the latter part of the Unified Silla, of which period is roughly from 1 AD to 1000 AD. There are many theories to differentiate the Korean language histories. It is distinct from Proto-Korean , which is...

.

Background

He was the eldest son of Park Hyeokgeose

Bak Hyeokgeose of Silla

Hyeokgeose of Silla , commonly called Bak Hyeokgeose, was the founding monarch of Silla, one of the Three Kingdoms of Korea...

, Silla's founder, and Lady Aryeong. His surname was Park

Park (Korean name)

Park is a common and time-honoured Korean surname, founded by King Hyeokgeose. All Parks are descendants of him in principle except naturalized people...

, and his wife was Lady Unje (운제, 雲帝).

Reign

His reign was characterised by a series of foreign invasions. In 4, the Nangnang

Lelang Commandery

Lelang was one of the Chinese commanderies which was established after the fall of Gojoseon in 108 BC until Goguryeo conquered it in 313. Lelang Commandery was located in the northern Korean peninsula with the administrative center near modern P'yongyang....

 army surrounded Geumseong, the Sillan capital, but was repelled.

The Wa

Wa (Japan)

Japanese is the oldest recorded name of Japan. Chinese, Korean, and Japanese scribes regularly wrote Wa or Yamato "Japan" with the Chinese character 倭 until the 8th century, when the Japanese found fault with it, replacing it with 和 "harmony, peace, balance".- Historical references :The earliest...

 of Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 invaded Silla in 14, and while Silla stopped them, Nangnang invaded again. A comet shower was said to have scared the Nangnang soldiers, however, and they retreated.

He was buried in Sareung-won.

See also

• List of Korea-related topics
• History of Korea
  History of Korea
  The Korean Peninsula was inhabited from the Lower Paleolithic about 400,000-500,000 years ago. Archeological evidence indicates that the presence of modern humans in northeast Asia dates to 39,000 years ago. The earliest known Korean pottery dates to around 8000 BC, and the Neolithic period began...
  
  
• List of Korean monarchs