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영어

There are many aboriginal clans in Kangwon province. A clan with a surname, representing the paternal lineage, is classified depending upon whether or not his place of origin, bon(本), coincides with his place of residence. At the beginning each bon of clans had coincided with his place of residence. After some clans migrated to other places from his original place caused by the elevation of high social status, branching the family, or finding refuse, etc., their bon had not corresponded to their resident place. According to this change of their residential distribution, the aboriginal clans can be grouped chiefly into various clans, for instance, tosong clans (土姓), mangsong clans(亡姓), soksong clans(續姓).
During Kory? period each country in Kangwon province had two or three tosong clans. Some of then exist up to now. At that time tosong clans of Kangn?ng, Ch'unch'?n and Wonju, the locally influential ones, promoted to two groups of social status: government officials and provincial secretaries. In the late Kory? Khitan and Mongolian invasions had disruptive effects in the correspondence between the place of origin and residence, as they forced then to leave the place of their ancestors. This implies that the distribution of mangsong clans was made in the northeastern and northwestern region of Kangwon province.
In addition to that, tosong clans in other provinces and Kangwon province alike have immigrated and diffused in Kangwon province. As a result they are what is called soksong clans. A representative example of other provices was the clan of Andong Kwon(安東 權), and an example of Kangwon province the clan of Chongson Chon(善 全). Through Kory? dynasty until middle Yi-dynasty this residential diffusion has continued and become more popular. This seem to have something to do with the population growth, the enlargement of tillable land, and the adoption of new crops and agricultural techiqnues. Consequently, the study of the residential distribution and change of aboriginal clans in Kangwon province, helps to understand the local history and culture of Kangwon province. Besides, this is a good topic in Cultural Geography of Korea and requires research work at several geographical scales.