King Sejong the Great Placenta Chamber Site, Sacheon

This is the site where the placenta chamber (taesil) enshrining the placenta of King Sejong the Great (r. 1418-1450), the fourth king of Joseon, once stood. Based on Taoist thought, which held the placenta to be the source of a person's body, and on geomantic theory (pungsu-jiri), the Joseon royal court set up a Directorate for Placenta Chambers (Taesildogam) to bury the placenta whenever a prince or princess was born. It would then search for an auspicious site (myeongdang) to enshrine the placenta and dispatch an official called an antaesa to have it installed there. In particular, the placenta chambers of princes or royal grandsons who were to succeed to the throne were built as stone chambers. The placenta chamber of King Sejong the Great was looted and damaged by Japanese forces during the Jeongyu War (1597) and underwent extensive repair in 1601, the 34th year of King Seonjo. In 1733, the ninth year of King Yeongjo, a memorial stone (taesilbi) was erected, and a record of the repair, the Taesilsuuigwe (Royal Protocols of the Repair of the Placenta Chamber), was compiled. Later, under Japanese colonial policy, in 1929 Gyeongbokgung Palace, the owner of the placenta chamber, sold all of the surrounding forest land to private individuals, and the placenta chamber itself is said to have been moved to Yangju, Gyeonggi Province. Today, private graves occupy the former site of King Sejong the Great's placenta chamber, and only the memorial stone and some of the chamber's stone components have been gathered together and preserved.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Sacheon, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물