Hwanin

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Hwanin

Hangul	환인
Hanja	桓因
Revised Romanization	Hwan-in
McCune-Reischauer	Hwan-in

Hwanin, (also pronounced "Han-in" 한인) or Divine Regent is a figure in Korean mythology.

According to the budoji(1953), Hwanin is the grandson of Hwang-gung 황궁(黃穹), one of the Four Men of Heaven and considered a direct ancestor of the Korean people. In the later Dangun mythology he is portrayed as the Emperor of Heaven himself, with his son Hwanung 환웅(桓雄) and his grandson Dangun being the mythical founder of Korea.

Hwanin 환인(桓因) is an alias of Indra.^[1]Hwanin 환인(桓因) is the name on Buddhism of Indra, this name is widely used in east Asia.

Hwan-In is a pronunciation of the Chinese letters "환인 桓因" This is merely ancient Korean oral language written with Chinese written language letters with similar sounds.^{[citation needed]} Basically, 하늘님 Hanul-nim is in pure Korean, which means "Sky Highness" (the suffix "님 -nim" is addressed towards a person of higher rank, much like "-sama" in Japanese). It changed orally from "하늘님 Hanul-nim" into "하느님 Haneuh-nim" and finally, ancient scholars have rewritten this according with similar sounding Chinese Letters: 桓因. In modern Korean, these particular Chinese letters are pronounced as "환인(Hwanin)." But the majority of the Koreans today, not knowing this, recognize 환인 (Hwanin) as a name for a person, not knowing it actually is a demorphed form of a heavenly title, referring to a heavenly deity.

In short, the legend refers that in the ancient times, ancient Koreans regarded themselves as a people led, or led by a descendent of a heavenly deity.