Sinsunggyeom Site, Gokseong

The Sinsunggyeom Site, Gokseong refers to four sites associated with Sin Sung-gyeom: Yongsanjae, Deogyangsa, Gyemaseok, and Yeongjeokbigak. They may be described one by one as follows. Yongsanjae is a site centred on the place where General Sin Sung-gyeom, posthumously titled Jangjeolgong, a first-class meritorious subject in the founding of Goryeo, was born and grew up. He was born in Guryong-ri, Moksadong-myeon, Gokseong County; he placed first in the civil examination and trained in the martial arts, and as a great general he contributed to the founding of Goryeo. In the tenth year of King Taejo of Goryeo (927) he died in battle at Dongsu, Daegu, in the king's place, becoming a model of loyalty. The site for Yongsanjae was prepared in 1868, the fifth year of King Gojong of Joseon, and a memorial stele marking his former residence was erected in 1897, the thirty-fourth year of Emperor Gojong's reign. An altar was installed in 1929, and Yongsanjae and the Guryongmun gate were built in 1960; memorial rites are still held every year on the middle jeong day of the ninth lunar month. The site was rebuilt in 2000 with government support and donations from descendants, and in 2004 a statue was erected, giving it its present, sanctified scale. Deogyangsa was built in 1589, the twenty-second year of King Seonjo of Joseon, to commemorate General Sin, who was from Gokseong, the founding ancestor of the Pyeongsan Sin clan, and a first-class meritorious subject of Goryeo's founding. It was also an educational institution where local Confucian scholars gathered to hold memorial rites for General Sin, worshipped as the tutelary deity of Gokseong, and to teach Confucian students. The academy burned down entirely during the Japanese invasions of 1592-98, but its shrine hall and spirit tablet alone survived, said to have been protected by the general's spirit. From 1603, the thirty-sixth year of King Seonjo, the shrine and academy were rebuilt, and in 1695, the twenty-first year of King Sukjong, it received the royally bestowed name-plaque "Deogyang" - a historic seowon. It was dismantled in 1871, the eighth year of King Gojong, under the order abolishing seowon, but was restored in 1934 through the efforts of local Confucian scholars and descendants. Gyemaseok is said to be the stone to which Sin Sung-gyeom, posthumously Jangjeolgong, founding ancestor of the Pyeongsan Sin clan, tethered his horse while training in the martial arts. Born in Guryong-ri, Moksadong-myeon, he trained here in Samtae-ri and, in 927, the tenth year of King Taejo of Goryeo, died in battle at Dongsu, Daegu, in the king's place, becoming a model of loyalty. The stone now stands 365 cm high, 47 cm wide and 40 cm thick, in the form of a pillar-shaped standing stone. Carved into its lower-middle section are the characters reading "the horse-tethering stone of Lord Sin Jangjeol". The stone continues to be venerated as the guardian spirit of Samtae-ri village, and it is said that no one dares touch it carelessly. Yeongjeokbi is said to take its name from the belief that Sin Sung-gyeom's spirit left its traces here. Its stele body stands on a three-tiered square base, topped with a roof stone shaped like a traditional Korean hip-and-gable roof. According to its inscription, after Sin Sung-gyeom died for his country a divine horse carried his severed head in its mouth to the mountain behind Taeansa Temple, near his hometown, where it wept for three days before starving to death; an altar was then set up in his honour for memorial rites. In 1934, monks of Taeansa Temple together with descendants including Sin Hyeon-mo gathered at the place where the general's head was said to be buried, and on digging down about three metres they did indeed find a stone case there. Accordingly, in September 1937 his descendant Hyeon-mo composed an inscription recording this discovery, and Jo Won-gyu of Haman wrote the calligraphy.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gokseong, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물