Choe Ik-hyeon Tomb

This is the tomb of Choe Ik-hyeon (pen name Myeonam, 1833–1906), a scholar and loyal subject of the late Joseon dynasty. From childhood he studied the fundamentals of Confucianism, and at the age of fourteen received instruction from the great scholar Yi Hang-no; in 1855, the sixth year of King Cheoljong, he passed the civil service examination. In 1873, the tenth year of King Gojong, he submitted a memorial criticising the Heungseon Daewongun's reconstruction of Gyeongbokgung Palace and his abolition of private Confucian academies, an act that helped bring about the fall of the Daewongun's regime; however, the content of the memorial itself became controversial, and he was exiled to Jeju Island. Following three years in exile, he abandoned any intention of pursuing an official career and chose instead the path of a wijeongcheoksa advocate, one who upheld orthodoxy and rejected heterodoxy. He subsequently submitted memorials opposing the conclusion of the Ganghwado Treaty with Japan, the enforcement of the Danballyeong order to cut short hair, and the unlawful conclusion of the Eulsa Treaty, forcefully asserting wijeongcheoksa doctrine and stressing the need to defend the nation's sovereignty. In 1906, together with his disciple Im Byeong-chan, he raised a righteous army in Sunchang, Jeolla Province, to resist the Japanese invasion, but was captured and exiled to Tsushima Island, where he refused to eat food provided by the Japanese and died after a hunger strike. As a burial site could not immediately be found after his death for his country, he was not buried until April 1907, at Noseong, present-day Noseong-myeon, Nonsan; in November 1909 his son Choe Yeong-jo and a number of fellow scholars joined together to move his remains to their present site. At the entrance to the tomb stands the Chunchu Daeuibi, a stele composed by Yi Seon-geun and inscribed in calligraphy by Kim Gi-seung.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yesan, Chungnam

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물