Sangcheon-ri Tongdosa Temple Gukjangsaeng Seokpyo, Ulju

This stone monument is a jangsaeng, a marker erected to indicate the boundary of Tongdosa Temple; it is also called a jangseung, or guardian post. A jangsaeng served as a guardian spirit, a milestone and a boundary marker, and is closely bound up with geomantic theory (pungsu) as well as folk belief. This particular marker is chiefly a boundary marker in character. The term 'gukjangsaeng' ('national jangsaeng') indicates that it was erected by royal command. Tongdosa originally had seven such markers, but in 1085, the second year of King Seonjong of Goryeo, the temple reported to the Hobu, the state ministry of revenue, and twelve markers were re-erected; the temple's land is said to have measured about 47,000 bo (a traditional unit of length) in circumference. Of these, two gukjangsaeng stone markers survive today, one in Sangcheon-ri, Sangnam-myeon, Ulju-gun, and the other in Baengnok-ri, Habuk-myeon, Yangsan. The Sangcheon-ri marker was made by dressing the front face of a long natural stone and carving characters into it before setting the stone upright; its upper portion has since broken off, so its original form is unknown. What survives today is about 1.2 m high and 62 cm wide. The characters incised on the front are written in idu, a system for writing Korean using Chinese characters. The stone is badly damaged and the exact content cannot be fully read, but the surviving text broadly indicates that this gukjangsaeng was erected in the twelfth month of 1085, in accordance with a royal order issued in response to a petition submitted in the fifth month of that year.

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Where it is

Region

Ulju, Ulsan

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산