Hangang River Jeong Gu Spirit-path Stele

This stele is the spirit-path stele (sindobi) of Jeong Gu (pen name Hangang, 1543–1620), a figure of firmly established standing in the history of Joseon Neo-Confucianism. The stele was first erected in 1633, the eleventh year of King Injo, near Jeong Gu's grave on Changpyeongsan Mountain, behind Gatmal village in Suseong-ri, Suryun-myeon; when his grave was later moved to Inhyeonsan Mountain in Geumsan-ri, Seongju-eup, the stele was relocated in 1668, the ninth year of King Hyeonjong, to its present site within the grounds of Hoeyeon Seowon (a Confucian academy, itself a Tangible Cultural Heritage site). The stele survives complete and intact, with its shaft (bisin), its capstone carved with hornless dragons (isu), and its tortoise-shaped base (gwibu) all preserved. The capstone is deeply carved with a design of paired dragons and ruyi-head scrolls, and the tortoise base is shallowly carved in relief with a tortoise-shell pattern. The stele stands 390 cm tall overall; the shaft alone is 230 cm high, 106 cm wide at the front, and 29.5 cm thick. At the top of the front face, the title is carved in seal script: "Spirit-path Stele Inscription for Munmokgong, Master Jeong Hangang", each character measuring 6 cm wide and 9 cm tall. The inscription proper is carved across all four faces of the shaft, in characters 2 cm wide and 2.2 cm tall. The text was composed by Sin Heum (pen name Sangchon), the main inscription was written by Kim Se-ryeom (pen name Dongmyeong), and the seal-script title was written by Kim Gwang-hyeon (pen name Subuk). The Hangang Jeong Gu Spirit-path Stele is valuable not only for its considerable age, but also because it embodies the historical standing of Jeong Gu, who inherited the Neo-Confucian teachings of his maternal great-grandfather Kim Goeng-pil (pen name Hanhwondang), one of the Five Sages of the East; who built on this foundation to integrate the schools of Toegye and Nammyeong into a new scholarly lineage, laying the groundwork for Silhak, or Practical Learning; and who, treating the whole universe as the proper field of scholarly inquiry, was a great scholar versed in medicine, history, astronomy, geomancy, ritual studies and many other fields.

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Where it is

Region

Seongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산