Jijidae Stele

Jijidae Stele stands on the ridge of the old Jiji-hyeon pass, once the boundary between Hwaseong and Gwangju. It was erected in the seventh year of King Sunjo (1807) at the suggestion of the Hwaseong royal inspector Sin Hyeon (申絢, 1764–1827), to commemorate the profound filial devotion of King Jeongjo, the twenty-second king of Joseon. It is said that whenever King Jeongjo travelled to pay his respects at Hyeollyungwon (顯隆園, present-day Yungneung Royal Tomb in Hwaseong-si), the tomb of his father Crown Prince Sado, he would lament, "Why is this taking so long?" even though the tomb could already be seen below, because the journey to reach it felt so slow. It is also said that on his way back to Hanyang after paying his respects, once he crossed this pass his father's tomb could no longer be seen, and in his longing he would linger there in tears for a long while. For this reason, as the place where the king's procession was always delayed, it came to be called Jijidae, using the character for "slow" (遲) twice. The stele stands on a square pedestal, with a stone body 156 cm high, 56 cm wide and 33 cm thick, topped with a house-shaped capstone. On the front, above the inscription, is the title "遲遲臺碑銘" (Jijidaebimyeong), written in seal script by Hong Myeong-ho (洪明浩), Governor of Hwaseong; the text of the inscription was composed by Seo Yeong-bo (徐榮輔) and the calligraphy done by Yun Sa-guk (尹師國). The inscription explains that after King Jeongjo moved Hyeollyungwon to Hwasan and paid his respects there with rites every first month of the year, on his way back to the palace he could not bear to leave, and would stop his carriage at Jiji-hyeon and linger there for a long time, because his longing never left Hwaseong for a moment. It compares this to Confucius, who, on leaving the state of Lu, said, "How slow, how slow are my footsteps!" — not that Confucius deliberately walked slowly, but that he was unaware of his own slow pace. Our late king's slow steps, likewise, could not help but be slow and lingering out of that same longing. The Book of Rites says, "A filial son's thoughts are as if his parent might come in again at any moment," but only the utmost sincerity can reach such a state. And so this stele rises here as a record of the king's feeling, and the recording official bows his head to set down this boundless meaning in writing. Around the stele remain a stone platform inscribed with the characters for "Jijidae" and a hamabi (下馬碑), a stone marker instructing anyone passing to dismount from their horse.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Suwon, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산