Hwang Hui Yeongdangji Site

This is the yeongdang, a portrait shrine, where the descendants of Hwang Hui (pen name Bangchon, 1363–1452), a renowned chief minister of the early Joseon dynasty and a model of the cheongbaekri, an official celebrated for incorruptibility, enshrine his portrait and hold memorial rites in tribute to his achievements. It is also called Bangchon Yeongdang, after his pen name. Hwang Hui, still respected today as Joseon's longest-serving chief state councillor, was active through a turbulent period in Korean history spanning the transition from the end of Goryeo to the founding of Joseon. He held a wide range of key posts and worked to establish institutions and systems, making major contributions to consolidating the foundations of the state during the reign of King Taejong. Then, during the reign of King Sejong, he served for more than twenty years as Yeonguijeongbusa, the highest office of the Uijeongbu, the State Council that oversaw the whole of government, directing diplomacy and institutional reform, the establishment of the Four Garrisons and Six Forts, and the flourishing of culture and scholarship centred on the Jiphyeonjeon, the Hall of Worthies, thereby contributing greatly to the prosperous era of King Sejong's reign. When he passed away at the age of ninety in 1452, the second year of King Munjong, he was enshrined as a meritorious subject alongside King Sejong's spirit tablet, and in 1455, the first year of King Sejo, Confucian scholars built a portrait shrine here and enshrined his portrait in tribute to his virtue — an event that took place some 550 years ago. The shrine was entirely destroyed by fire during the Korean War and was restored by his descendants in 1962, in the form that survives today. It measures three kan across the front and two kan in depth, kan being a traditional unit of building bay; the front bay is left open, the side walls serve as firewalls, and the roof is a double-eaved gabled matbae roof. The column heads are finished in the chogikgong, a single-wing bracket style, and the dancheong, the building's multicoloured paintwork, is elegant and restrained. Inside the shrine a gamsil, a small shrine case, stands at the centre housing the portrait; the floor is laid in the umulmaru style and the ceiling is a coffered umulcheonjang ceiling fitted with ceiling boards. The building is enclosed by a rectangular wall, and at the front entrance stands a sotsammun, a three-bay gate with a raised central section. Around the shrine stand Banguijeong Pavilion and Angjidae, where Hwang Hui is said to have spent his remaining years in retirement in the company of seagulls after leaving office, as well as Gyeongmojae, a ritual preparation hall, and the bujomyo, a shrine exempted from the usual removal of ancestral tablets after four generations, of his great-great-grandson Hwang Maeng-heon, known by his pen name Wolheon-gong.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Paju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물