Haedongcheongpung Stele

This stele was erected to commemorate the integrity of Jang Gi-seok (pen name Jaha), who inspired anti-Japanese sentiment among Confucian scholars across the country. Jang Gi-seok (1860–1911) lost his parents early and was too poor to study, but at the late age of thirty-nine he began his studies and by forty-three had mastered a broad range of learning. He then devoted himself to educating the next generation. During the Japanese colonial period, when a police chief pressed him to attend a celebration ceremony, he refused and was imprisoned in Daegu Prison. There he began a hunger strike; when he lost consciousness and Japanese police tried to force-feed him, he struck the police chief with his bowl, and died in prison. The stele consists simply of a stele body set upon a flat base stone. The inscription was composed by Kim Chang-suk (pen name Simsan) and written in calligraphy by Kim Ku (pen name Baekbeom). It was erected in 1936 through the combined efforts of Confucian scholars from across the country, but was destroyed by the Japanese the following year and abandoned; after liberation the fragments were recovered and the stele was re-erected. Beside it stands another stele honouring his wife, Mrs Park, who took her own life in protest when Japanese police tried to smash the stele in 1937.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Seongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물