Han (ethnicity)

Ethnic Han (Chinese: 韓 | Korean: 한) is a term employed by Daehanjeiguk to distinguish its native population. The use of this term dates to the reign of the Emperor Seijong, who decreed that every citizen of Han was formally of the Han race. This move was mostly calculated to help unify the Empire against the threats posed by the Monggols and native Han (Chinese) populations in the Myeong Dynasty. By uniting the people under one banner, there was no need for citizens to defect under the principal of the Myeong "hwa" doctrine.

The modern implication of this definition - since the assumption of the Han Empire's Divine Mandate - has been that every citizen of Han was ethnically Han. When applied in this manner, it is technically used incorrectly, as wikipedia:ethnicity supposedly refers a population with a similar or derived ancestry; in many case, most "Han" have never intermarried and are thus form three separate ethnicities: wikipedia:Koreans, wikipedia:Chinese, and wikipedia:Filipinos. Nonetheless, the term has continued to persist.