Sillabi Monument in Naengsu-ri, Pohang

This stele was found by a villager ploughing a field in 1989, and it serves as a certificate confirming a division of property. It is a squarish natural stone, broad at the bottom and narrowing upward, inscribed on three faces: front, back and top. The inscription is barely worn and so well preserved that it can be read by eye. There are 231 characters in all, in what appears to be regular script but with much of the air of clerical script, so that in form and hand it closely resembles the Goguryeobi Monument in Chungju (a national treasure) and the Sillabi Monument in Bongpyeong-ri, Uljin (a national treasure). It records a decision on the ownership of property and the inheritance of a man named Jeolgeori, and has the character of an official document. Nobles of each district took part in settling the property dispute, which shows the limits of Silla royal power before it was strengthened. It also records the customs of the time, in which an ox was slaughtered to ask the will of heaven and rites to heaven were performed. The cyclical year gyemi and titles such as Jidoro Galmunwang in the text suggest it was raised in 503, the fourth year of King Jijeung of Silla. As a state stele showing the form of the early legal order handling royal commands, it is a precious source for understanding the society of the time, and an important object for the study of Silla history and of epigraphy.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Pohang, Gyeongbuk

Designation

National Treasure · 국보