Chungnyeolsa Shrine, Namhae

Chungnyeolsa Shrine in Namhae, also known as Noryang Chungnyeolsa, was built to honour the loyalty and spirit of Yi Sun-sin, who died for his country at the Battle of Noryang in the year the Japanese invasions of Korea came to an end. Together with Chungnyeolsa Shrine in Tongyeong, it has used the same royal plaque inscribed 'Chungnyeol' from the very beginning, and it was built under King Injo. After Yi Sun-sin died in battle, his body was enshrined here for a time. The first shrine came into being when, in the tenth year of King Injo (1632), Confucian scholars built a small house on the old site and held memorial rites there. In the ninth year of King Hyojong (1658), sixty years after Yi Sun-sin's death, the cramped and shabby old building was torn down and a new one built. Later, in the fourth year of King Hyeonjong (1663), the shrine received, together with Chungnyeolsa Shrine in Tongyeong, a royal plaque bestowed by the king. A memorial stele recording these facts stands beside the shrine; its inscription was written by Song Si-yeol in the second year of King Hyeonjong (1661), and the stele itself was erected in 1663 by Bak Gyeong-ji and others. In earlier times a small hermitage called Hochungam stood beside the shrine, and it is said that ten monks and one monk-commander from Hwabangsa Temple took turns coming to guard it. It is also recorded that after Yi Sun-sin's death, a monk named Jaun, who deeply admired him, brought several hundred sacks of rice and held memorial rites in his honour; Jaun had originally served as a monk-soldier under Yi Sun-sin. Chungnyeolsa Shrine may be described as the shrine of the guardian spirit watching over the sea off Noryang where Yi Sun-sin fell. The grounds contain a stele pavilion, an inner three-gated gate, an outer three-gated gate and an administration building. In the garden behind the shrine there remains a grave marking the spot where Yi Sun-sin's body was temporarily buried, and there is a stele for the shrine written by Jeong In-bo in 1948.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Namhae, Gyeongnam

Designation

Historic Site · 사적