Jo Heon Jeonjanggijeok Stele, Cheongju

This stele was erected in honour of Jo Heon, a righteous-army (uibyeong) leader of the Joseon period. It originally stood in Seomun-dong, Sangdang-gu, Cheongju, but was moved to its present site in Jungang Park during the Japanese colonial period. Jo Heon passed the state examination in 1567, the twenty-second year of King Myeongjong, and thereafter held a succession of offices, devoting himself to correcting the government of the state. When the Japanese invasions broke out, he raised a righteous army in Okcheon and, joining forces with the monk-soldier commander Yeonggyu, recaptured Cheongju fortress. When the Japanese forces sought to seize the whole of Chungcheong province with Geumsan as their base, Jo Heon led 700 righteous soldiers together with Yeonggyu to fight the enemy at Geumsan; although they inflicted heavy losses on the enemy, their numbers were too few, and in the end all of them died in battle. The stele consists of a body set on a square base stone and topped with a large roof stone. The name of the stele is carved horizontally across the top of the front of the body, with the inscription written vertically below it. It was erected in 1710, the thirty-sixth year of King Sukjong, after the war had long ended; the inscription was composed by Kim Jin-gyu and written by Yi Su-dang.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Cheongju, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산