Stele of Royal Preceptor Seongak at Hoeamsa Temple Site, Yangju

This stele stood at the Hoeamsa Temple Site and was erected in memory of the monk Naong, a Buddhist master of the late Goryeo period. Naong (1320–1376) entered Hoeamsa Temple in 1344 and became a monk there. Having returned from Yuan China in 1358, he declined the king's summons and lived in seclusion at Guwolsan Mountain, Geumgangsan Mountain and elsewhere, before returning once more to Hoeamsa Temple, where he had the temple rebuilt on a grand scale. He practised the Buddhist teachings alone until he passed away at Silleuksa Temple at the age of fifty-seven; after his death he was given the posthumous title 'Seongak', and the stele was erected the following year. The stele is in an archaising style resembling that of Tang-dynasty China, and no separate capstone was placed on it. Instead, two dragons are carved on the upper part of the stele's body itself, with a space left between them for the title of the stele. The stone tortoise bearing the stele is carved from a large stone in a simple, somewhat abstract technique, whereas the dragons carved on the head of the stele are neat yet dynamic in execution. The text of the inscription was composed by Yi Saek and written out by Gwon Jung-hwa, and it records the life and achievements of the monk Naong. The inscription is written in clerical script, the first example of this script since the Stele of King Gwanggaeto the Great of Goguryeo and the Jungwon Goguryeo Stele, appearing only at the very end of the Goryeo period. It thus provides a valuable gauge of how far the study of clerical script had advanced by that time. In 1997 the protective shelter burned down and the body of the stele was damaged; after conservation treatment by the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, it was entrusted for safekeeping to the Gyeonggi Provincial Museum in 2001. At the original site of the stele, the tortoise-shaped base that once supported it still remains, and a replica stele modelled on the original form has been erected there.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yangju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Treasure · 보물