Daeheung (Balhae)

Daeheung (大興) was the first era name of Balhae under King Munwang (文王). It was used for 38 years, from 737 to 774, and from 774 Balhae used the era name Bolyeok (寶曆) for at least seven years before returning to the Daeheung era name, which it used until 793. According to the records of the 《New Book of Tang》, in 737 King Mu (武王) died and his successor, Munwang, changed the era name to Daeheung. When Munwang died in 793, his clan younger cousin Dae Won-ui (大元義) ascended the throne and continued to use the era name for several months. The king who deposed Dae Won-ui and took the throne, King Seong, changed the era name.

The epitaph of Tomb of Princess Jeonghye mentions the era name Bolyeok, and since a record of Princess Jeonghye's funeral appears in the seventh year of Bolyeok, it appears that the Bolyeok era name was used for at least seven years. The first year of Bolyeok, calculated from the day-stem-branch (日干支) on the epitaph of Princess Jeonghye's tomb, is 774. However, the era years Daeheung 56 and Daeheung 57 later reappear in the epitaph of Tomb of Princess Jeonghyo and in the 《日本逸史》 (Nihon Isshi), suggesting that after the seventh year of Bolyeok (780) and before the eighteenth year of Bolyeok (791) at the latest, the state reverted to the Daeheung era name.¹

각주

Footnotes

1. 송기호, 〈발해 정혜공주묘비의 고증에 대하여〉, 《한국문화》2, 서울대학교, 1981 ↩