Gwon Yul Jang Gun Tomb

This is the tomb of General Gwon Yul (1537–1599), pen name Manchwidang, a mid-Joseon civil official and celebrated commander during the Japanese invasions of 1592–98 (the Imjin War). He passed the state examination in 1582, the fifteenth year of King Seonjo, and held various posts; when the Imjin War broke out in 1592, he was appointed magistrate of Gwangju and departed at once for his post. After the capital fell to the Japanese, when Yi Gwang, governor of Jeolla-do, and Gwak Yeong, defence commander, were raising troops, Gwon Yul, as magistrate of Gwangju, served under Gwak Yeong as jungwijang (commander of the central guard). Marching north together to recover Seoul, they attacked the enemy at Yongin, suffered a heavy defeat, and retreated to Gwangju to plan their next move. He then set out north again with over 10,000 troops to retake the capital, entering Dokseongsanseong Fortress in Suwon and fortifying it. Ukita Hideie, commander-in-chief of the Japanese forces, tried to draw the allied troops out of the fortress, but they held it firmly, waging a war of attrition and guerrilla tactics that inflicted losses on the enemy; after several days the Japanese burned their own camp stockade and withdrew to the capital. As the enemy retreated, Gwon Yul sent out 1,000 elite cavalry to ambush their retreat route, killing many Japanese soldiers. In 1593, the twenty-sixth year of King Seonjo, aiming to recover Seoul, he moved his forces to Haengjusanseong Fortress, where soldiers, officials and civilians combined their strength to repel 30,000 Japanese troops. This was the Battle of Haengju, one of the Imjin War's three great victories, alongside the Battle of Jinju and the Battle of Hansando Island. When the Jeongyu War broke out in 1597, he worked to block the enemy's advance northward; in 1599 he resigned his post through old age and illness, returned to his hometown, and died there in the seventh month. He was posthumously honoured with the rank of Yeonguijeong (Chief State Councillor), and in 1604, the thirty-seventh year of King Seonjo, was posthumously named a first-class Meritorious Subject of Military Achievement (Seonmu Gongsin) and ennobled as Yeongga Buwongun. The tomb area today has the general's grave at its centre, flanked by the graves of his first wife, of the Changnyeong Jo clan, and his second wife, of the Juksan Bak clan. In front of the tomb stand a memorial stele, an offering table, an incense-burner stone, and a pair of stone child-figures (dongjaseok); a pair of ornamental pillars (mangjuseok) and a pair of civil-official stone figures (munin-seok) stand to either side. At the entrance to the tomb area stands a sindobi (a memorial stele set up beside the road near a tomb to commemorate the lifetime achievements of a king or high official); because the inscription on the original stele had worn away, it was newly erected in 1861, the twelfth year of King Cheoljong, with the text composed by Sin Heum and the calligraphy, including the jeonaek (the seal-script title at the top of the stele), written by Yi Yu-won.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yangju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물