Hyojasong Painting Memorial Gate Stele

Song Do, of the Yeonan Song clan, was a filial son who lived in Ulsan in the early Joseon period. He was the first person from the Ulsan region to earn the saengwon qualification, a preliminary civil service literary degree, and he devotedly nursed his ailing parents for more than ten years. When his mother fell gravely ill and longed for raw fish, he was too poor to obtain any, so he wept as he struck the ice of a frozen pond — whereupon, it is said, a crucian carp leapt out. Likewise, when he needed offerings for an ancestral rite, a pheasant is said to have flown down from the mountain of its own accord. When both his parents died in succession within a single year, he carried earth and stone himself to build their graves, and in keeping with Confucian ritual he erected a shrine to house their spirit tablets, paying his respects there every dawn and holding memorial rites at the proper times. At a time when Buddhist-style funerals were still the norm, Song Do's filial conduct stood out remarkably. Word of this reached the royal court, and in 1428, the tenth year of King Sejong, he was commended as a filial son and honoured with a jeongnyeo, a memorial gate or monument. This is recorded in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty and in the Sinjeung Dongguk yeoji seungnam (Newly Augmented Dongguk yeoji seungnam), among other sources. The name of the village Hyomun-dong ('village of the filial gate') is also said to derive from this story. According to the Yeonan Song clan genealogy, the memorial stele originally stood in Hyomun-dong but was moved and re-erected near a pond west of Ulsan Dohobu, the seat of the Ulsan county magistrate, in 1737, the 13th year of King Yeongjo. The front of the stele bears the inscription 'Hyoja Seonggyun Saengwon Song Do ji ryeo' (Gate of the filial son and Sungkyunkwan licentiate Song Do), while the back records an account of his filial deeds. A broken stele standing to its left, bearing the phrase 'Gangxi imjin, eighth month', appears to have been erected in 1712, the 38th year of King Sukjong. The stele and its protective pavilion, formerly located in Ujeong-dong, Jung-gu, were relocated to this site in 2006.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jung-gu, Ulsan

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산