상산 김씨(商山 金氏) — A Kim seat named for Sangsan, the old name of Sangju, North Gyeongsang, with two founding lines (Kim Su and Kim Jo). It produced Kim Deuk-bae of the Sixteen Merit Subjects and Left State Councillor Kim Gwi-yeong.
A Kim seat named for Sangsan, the old name of Sangju, North Gyeongsang, with two founding lines (Kim Su and Kim Jo). It produced Kim Deuk-bae of the Sixteen Merit Subjects and Left State Councillor Kim Gwi-yeong. Even among people surnamed 김, a different clan seat (bon-gwan, 상산) means a different lineage. New to these terms? See the bon-gwan, pa & hangnyeol guide.
The Sangsan Kim (商山 金氏) has its home in Sangju, North Gyeongsang. Sangsan is an old name for the Sangju area, so the same family is also written Sangju Kim. English Wikipedia's clan table lists the founder as Kim Su and the population as 91,558, while Korean Wikipedia gives 63,528 for the year 2000, so figures depend on the survey year. The 2015 census figure was not confirmed and is omitted.
According to Korean Wikipedia the founder Kim Su was a Goryeo civil official of the early period holding the rank of Boyun, whose family lived in Sangsan for generations. The line is said to descend from King Gyeongsun of Silla and to have moved its seat from Gyeongju to Sangju, citing the Jeungbo Munheon Bigo and the Joseon Ssijok Tongbo. Wikipedia itself notes that earlier generations cannot be verified, so treat the royal descent as a genealogical tradition.
The seat is a well-known case of two unrelated lines sharing one surname and seat. One descends from Kim Su; the other from Kim Jo, a Goryeo local clerk (hojang) of Sangju. Goryeosa records that Kim Jo's daughter Kim Man-gung married the local clerk Kim Il and bore Kim Rok; since Kim Il was Kim Su's eighth-generation descendant, Wikipedia concludes the two lines are separate kin groups. Which line a family belongs to must be checked in its own register.
Goryeo figures include Kim Hui-il, Kim Bi-gung and, in the late period, Kim Deuk-bae, counted among the Sixteen Merit Subjects of Goryeo for defeating the Red Turban invaders. In Joseon, Kim Gwi-yeong rose to Left State Councillor under King Seonjo, and Kim Deok-ham became Inspector-General as a Chongbaengni honest official; his tomb and spirit-way stele in Paju are Gyeonggi Monument No. 144. In modern times the independence activist Kim Seong-suk and the official Kim Ju-ho are listed as Sangsan Kim on Wikipedia.
Kim Su line, Kim Jo line, Sangsan-gun branch
Branch divisions vary by lineage and jokbo; confirm your own branch in your family's records.
김득배(Goryeo general, one of the Sixteen Merit Subjects), 김귀영(Left State Councillor under Seonjo), 김덕함(Chongbaengni official and Inspector-General under Injo), 김성숙(independence activist and monk), 김주호(Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, mayor of Busan)
Tap a name for the full profile (life, career, grave, descendants).
상산 김씨 figures recognized as independence patriots (National Independence Hall / Gonghun public data). Tap a name for the citation.
Korean Wikipedia lists Bongsan, Seosan, Yeonpung, Yecheon, Jeju, Hongwon and Hampyeong Kim as seats branched from Sangsan Kim. None has its own page on this site, so check any relationship in your register.
Wikipedia names Kim Bi-gung, Kim Seong (Kim Yu), Kim Il, Kim Geo-do, Kim Su (遂), Kim Jun, Kim Su-gyun, Kim Heup and Kim Il-nam as founders of lines, but how these map onto today's branch names was not confirmed. Only the Sangsan-gun branch of the Cheolsan lineage is confirmed, via Kim Seong-suk's article.
Sangju was made a state (Sangju, 上州) in 524 under Silla King Beopheung, and in 1392 the provincial governor's office moved there from Gyeongju, making it the political centre of Gyeongsang. The governor's seat moved to Daegu in 1596. Because Sangsan is an alias of Sangju, other surnames such as the Sangju Park are also sometimes written Sangsan, so always check surname and seat together.
Public records on this seat are fragmentary: many listed figures appear only as names and offices. This site introduces only people it could verify. Ask your elders for the register to confirm whether your line goes back to Kim Su or Kim Jo, then consult the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture and the National Institute of Korean History databases. The clan association and register publication year were not confirmed.
The 상산 김씨 clan association can be found in the Korean E-Jokbo Library clan-association directory.
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