[WHY] Are all Kims related?

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Published: 23 Mar. 2024, 07:00 Updated: 23 Mar. 2024, 20:37

[WHY] Are all Kims related?

Left, BTS member RM, whose real name is Kim Nam-joon, is known as a Gangreung Kim. Jin and V, whose real names are Kim Seok-jin and Kim Tae-hyung, respectively, are Gwangsan Kims. [BIGHIT MUSIC]

Jin, V and RM — three out of the seven members of BTS are surnamed Kim.

Kim Jin-su, Kim Young-gwon, Kim Min-jae, Kim Moon-hwan, Kim Seung-gyu — all four of Team Korea's defenders, as well as its goalie, in its game against Uruguay at the FIFA World Cup Qatar in 2022, were also Kims. In fact, over 20 percent of the total Korean population share that surname.

Family names are known to have been introduced to Korea during the country's Three Kingdoms Period (57 B.C. to A.D. 668), but their usage was mostly limited to members of the royal family.

King Taejo (877–943), the first king of the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) handed out family names to distinguish and recognize founding members of the Kingdom and close aristocrats. Many family names were awarded during that era, including Wang, the family name of the King.

More than 55 percent of Koreans had a family name by the 17th century during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910). Nowadays, all Koreans have a family name by law.

But are all Kims one big family? Or do they have different roots?

Are all Kims related?

No — there are different clans. BTS member RM, whose real name is Kim Nam-joon, is known as a Gangreung Kim. His fellow members Jin and V, whose real names are Kim Seok-jin and Kim Tae-hyung, respectively, are Gwangsan Kims.

What differentiates the two groups is called a bongwan, which Goryeo's first king awarded to citizens alongside their family names. A bongwan is either the home region of the surname's progenitor or one that was important to his family. Those bongwans, today, continue to separate one Kim from another Kim and one Lee from another Lee.

The largest Kim clan, for example, is named Gimhae Kim after the South Gyeongsang city of Gimhae. Gimhae was the home of the clan's progenitor, King Suro of the Gaya Confederacy (42–562).
Bongwan, alongside the family name, is inherited from paternal side of the family. All Korean nationals, with the exception of naturalized Koreans and those who are unable to trace their biological father, have a bongwan attached to their family name.

More than 100 different bongwan are tied to the family name Kim. Gyeongju, Gangneung, Naju, Gwangsan, Ulsan and Andong are just a few.

Tomorrow X Together's Yeonjun, Soobin and Beomgyu all share the same last name Choi, but the three members' bongwan all differ: Jeonju, Gangneung and Gyeongju [BIGHIT MUSIC]

There are even a few distinct clans that share both a family name and a bongwan. There are two Indong Jang clans, both tracing their roots to Gumi, North Gyeongsang, that share a completely different history and roots.

Those sharing the same surname and bongwan, until very recently, were legally considered familial relations and were banned from marrying each other until 2005. Some families didn't permit their offspring to take spouses of the same bongwan, even if the surnames were different; Gimhae Kims were famously discouraged from marrying Gimhae Heos, as the two families were both descended from King Sejo of Gaya.

Intra-bongwan marriages are now permitted for those with more than eight degrees of familiar separation — that is, those who are more distant than grandparents' cousins' grandchildren.

Is it possible to form a new bongwan?

Actor and politician Lee Charm established the Dokil Lee clan. Lee emigrated from Germany and Dokil is Korean for Germany. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Only under specific circumstances.

In the past, it was common for families to establish novel bongwans when they moved to new regions or to evade systems that discriminated against descendants of concubines. Kings could also bestow bongwans upon those who made contributions.

These days, bongwan and surname are almost always inherited, with one exception: New bongwans are sometimes formed when immigrants to Korea become citizens. Naturalized Koreans are given the opportunity to create a Korean family name alongside a bongwan.

While some choose to keep their foreign names upon naturalization, others create new bongwans.

Most famously, Japanese general Sayaka (1571 – 1642) who defected to Joseon during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592 was given a bongwan, Gimhae, and a Korean name, Kim Chung-seon, by then-King Seonjo. His bongwan, Gimhae Kim, is recognized separately from the existing Gimhae Kim clan. More recently, TV personality Robert Holley founded the Yeongdo Ha clan when he became a citizen, a nod to the Busan district where he'd lived when he'd first moved to Korea.

There are also cases of bongwans derived from one’s home country, like Taeguk Tae from Thailand, Mongol Kim from Mongolia, or Dokil Lee, established by actor and politician Lee Charm who emigrated from Germany. Dokil is Korean for Germany.

A nationwide search conducted in 2015 found that there were 5,582 family names and 36,744 bongwan in Korea. Only 4,179 bongwan were recorded in 2000.

What are jokbo?

Jokbo of the Hwasan Lee clan [JOONGANG PHOTO]

Jokbo, the Korean term for genealogy book, were a key factor in recording and validating the history of a clan. There is evidence to suggest that the Goryeo Dynasty's noble class recorded its family tree, the importance and availability of jokbo expanded hugely during the Joseon Dynasty. Jokbo, during that period, became a tool to prove one's class and establish family ties.

In particular, they were used to verify one's status as yangban, or gentry. Yangban, starting from the middle of the Joseon Dynasty, were exempted from military service.

“The power of a family came from the number of people under that clan,” said Professor Jang In-jin at the Academia Koreana of Keimyung University. “More population meant more workforce and, most importantly, more people in higher ranks serving in the government.

“If someone is registered in a jokbo, you are considering them a part of your larger family, a part of the same group.”

Are jokbo definitive proof of genetics?

Not really.

With the decline of the Joseon Dynasty and its long-lasting class system, it became easier for families to forge their own jokbo. Some created jokbo from scratch, while others chose to put their names in the jokbo of well-known families. This wasn’t a difficult job late in the Joseon Dynasty; many jokbo were written by third parties, rather than the families they traced, and it was hard to prove their authenticity.

Jokbo were forged not only for familial pride or to claim powerful ancestry, but also to abuse the system that honors and benefits the descendants of those who worked for Korea’s independence. By convincing the government that they were descended from an independence fighter, families could claim financial benefits and honorary titles.

Even legitimate jokbo may not fully follow genetic lines, as nobi, or slaves, were sometimes written into the records of the yangban families they belonged to.

Instead of forgery, Jang feels, this practice was “a way of acknowledging servants and slaves to the larger family.

“They might not share the same blood per se, but they are nevertheless in the same 'family,'” the professor added.

But that doesn't mean that bongwan and jokbo are meaningless. While they may not prove blood relations, they function as a record of linking Korea's current generations to those of the past.

“Even when jokbo cannot prove your parental blood relationship, most Koreans, even nowadays, can link themselves to the larger family tree from the past,” said Son Byunggiu, a professor at Sungkyunkwan University's Academy of East Asian Studies. “I haven't heard of such cases found in any other countries outside Korea. That must mean something.”

That's why people, in modern times, use bongwans not as proof of genetics, but as a way to link to someone else; a way to feel closer to others. If you ask this reporter, he will tell you that he proudly shares his bongwan with many great people such as actor Cho Seung-woo, singers Cho Kyu-hyun of Super Junior, Cho Mi-yeon of (G)I-DLE, comedian Cho Se-ho and more.

So next time you make Korean friends who are surnamed Kim, don't forget to ask their bongwan. Are they aware of their roots? Do any famous figures share their clan?

BY CHO YONG-JUN [cho.yongjun1@joongang.co.kr]

korea joongAng daily

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[WHY] Are all Kims related?

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