Daejeokgwangjeon Hall Junggeon Sangnyangmun Gate of Haeinsa Temple, Hapcheon

A sangnyangmun is a document written when a building is constructed or partially repaired, recording the reasons for the work or the relevant historical facts, prayers for the prosperity and wellbeing of the building's owner, the composed text itself, the names of those who carried out the work, and the date the ridge beam was raised. Types include the changgeon sangnyangmun, written when a building is first constructed; the jungsu sangnyangmun, written when an aging building is repaired; and the junggeon sangnyangmun, written when an existing building is rebuilt. The Junggeon Sangnyangmun of Daejeokgwangjeon Hall of Haeinsa Temple, Hapcheon was written in 1818, the 18th year of King Sunjo, by the late-Joseon calligrapher and scholar Chusa Kim Jeong-hui, then aged 33. At the time, Kim Jeong-hui's father, Kim No-gyeong, was serving as governor of Gyeongsang-do and took part in the reconstruction project at Haeinsa; he accordingly had Kim Jeong-hui write the Haeinsa Junggeon Gwonseonmun, an exhortation to donate for Haeinsa's rebuilding, in 1817. This sangnyangmun was discovered in the ridge beam during repair work on Daejeokgwangjeon Hall in 1971, and the original is now kept at the Haeinsa Museum of Sacred Buddhist Art. In its place in the beam, a facsimile copy together with a record of the repair was installed. Haeinsa suffered seven fires over the 176 years from 1695 to 1871; the sixth, in 1817, the 17th year of King Sunjo, caused enormous damage, destroying every building except the Janggyeongpanjeon Depositories. To help prevent and suppress such frequent fires, Kim Jeong-hui appended a Yukwisa, or Six Guardians' Verse, at the end of the sangnyangmun. This records the names of the sixteen buddhas of the eight directions from the Parable of the Magic City chapter of the Lotus Sutra and the buddhas of the six directions from the Amitabha Sutra, serving as a kind of secret formula for preventing and quelling fire. The sangnyangmun is written in gold paint on dark blue silk, with characters 4.1 cm high and 3.5 cm wide, set out in the haeseo, or standard, script across 67 lines of 20 characters each. Predating the full development of Kim Jeong-hui's distinctive "Chusa style," the writing is neat and dignified, clearly adhering to established convention rather than boldly asserting his own individuality. This sangnyangmun is the only surviving example of Kim Jeong-hui's calligraphy at Haeinsa; it is said that, out of respect for the calligraphy of the monk Manpa Uijun, who had stayed at the temple and won renown for his own writing, Kim Jeong-hui left no calligraphy of his own there otherwise. The sangnyangmun is a representative example of Kim Jeong-hui's early work, showing that from his youth he had, through his family, formed a deep connection with Buddhism. It is also regarded as an extremely valuable source for understanding the history and cultural significance of Haeinsa.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Hapcheon, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산