Gongju Sohangnihyojahyangdeok Stele

Two steles standing side by side within a single stele pavilion honour the filial devotion of Hyangdeok. Hyangdeok lived during the reign of King Gyeongdeok of Silla; when his parents suffered from poverty and illness brought on by famine and epidemic disease, he cared for them with the utmost devotion, even cutting his own flesh to feed them. On hearing of his filial conduct, the king granted him 300 seok of rice, a house, and land, and had a stele erected to make his deed widely known. The village where Hyangdeok had lived was thereafter called Hyojari, "the village of the filial son". The stele standing on the right as viewed from the front is the older of the two; its upper part has been cut off, leaving only the lower portion. Among the phrases carved on it is the expression "jungnip" (重立, "re-erected"), suggesting that, although it dates from the Unified Silla period, it is not the original stele set up in King Gyeongdeok's time. The stele on the left has its body set upon an octagonal base, with the upper edge of the body rounded off; this stele, too, was erected to honour Hyangdeok's filial devotion, its inscription composed and the stele raised in 1741, the seventeenth year of King Yeongjo of Joseon, by the provincial governor Jo Yeong-guk. Hyangdeok was the first person in Korea to be officially honoured for filial conduct, and since a record of him is preserved in the Samguk sagi, this site also carries great significance in the history of filial piety.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gongju, Chungnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산