Hwasun Jeongamjogwangjo Jeongnyeo Remains Stele

Jeokryeo refers to a place to which a person was exiled or banished, and a yuheobi is a stele erected to record a person's former presence there for later generations. This stele records the exile to this place of Jo Gwang-jo during the reign of King Jungjong of Joseon. Jo Gwang-jo (1482–1519), whose pen name was Jeongam, passed the civil service examination in 1515, the tenth year of King Jungjong, and held posts including Jeonjeok of the National Confucian Academy (Seonggyungwan), Inspector at the Office of the Inspector-General (Saheonbu), and Assistant Section Chief of the Ministry of Rites. In 1519, the fourteenth year of King Jungjong, he rose to Inspector-General (Daesaheon), but after the Gimyo Purge he was banished to this Neungju region, and on 20 December of that year he was made to drink poison by royal order. He had sought to remove the established political factions and build a new political order, but did not live to see it realised; only in the reign of King Seonjo was he posthumously promoted to Chief State Councillor and enshrined in the Confucian shrine. Later, shrines and private academies were established in various places by students who admired his scholarship and character. The stele consists of a body set on a base stone and topped with a capstone. The base stone is a natural rock shaped like a turtle. The front of the body bears the inscription 'Memorial Stele for Master Jeongam Jo's Place of Exile' carved in two lines of regular script (haeseo), while the back records the history of his exile. The crescent-shaped capstone is carved on the front with two entwined dragons and on the back with a dragon rising on the clouds. The stele was erected in the fourth month of 1667, the eighth year of King Hyeonjong, by Min Yeo-jo, who was then magistrate of Neungju; the inscription was composed by Song Si-yeol and the calligraphy written by Song Jun-gil.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Hwasun, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물