Gogyeongmyeong Documents held at Pochungsa Temple

These documents relate to Go In-hu and Go Jong-hu, sons of Jebong Go Gyeong-myeong (1533–1592), and to Pochungsa; they record the efforts of his descendants to maintain the shrine, and the honours given by the state to loyal subjects and filial sons. Go Gyeong-myeong was a civil official of the mid-Joseon period; in 1558 he placed first in an examination held at Seonggyungwan personally overseen by the king, and in the same year he also passed the munkwa civil service examination as top candidate. When the Japanese invasions of 1592 broke out, he gathered government troops who had fled from various places and fought the Japanese invaders, then raised a righteous army, assembling more than 6,000 volunteer soldiers to resist. The collection consists of two myeongmun, commemorative writs; one ibanmun, a certification document; four gyoji, royal edicts; and two yumuk, autograph writings. The myeongmun record how, in 1601, the state built Pochungsa for Go Gyeong-myeong and his sons so that rites could be held there in spring and autumn, and even bestowed a royal plaque on it, whereupon his sons, deeply moved, donated their paddy fields and slaves to Pochungsa in perpetuity. An ibanmun is normally a document by which a government office certifies the sale or purchase of paddy fields or slaves; the one included here is a certificate by which the government office certified the state's grant of five gyeol, a traditional land-area unit, of paddy field to the family of the loyal subject Go Gyeong-myeong. The gyoji comprise the edict Go Gyeong-myeong received on passing the munkwa examination, the edict issued when he was granted the posthumous title "Chungnyeolgong," and the edicts issued when Go In-hu and Go Jong-hu received posthumous promotions in rank. The yumuk consist of a proclamation written by Go Gyeong-myeong himself and a calligraphic inscription reading "Sedokchungjeong" (世篤忠貞), meaning "generation after generation devoted to loyalty and integrity." They are valued as important materials showing the state's honours for a family that fulfilled both loyalty and filial piety, and illuminating the spiritual history of past generations.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Nam-gu, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산