Heonanseolheon Hall Tomb

This is the tomb of Heo Nanseolheon (許蘭雪軒, 1563–1589), a poet of the mid-Joseon period. Her given name was Cho-hui, and Nanseolheon was her pen name. Her clan seat was Yangcheon; her father was Heo Yeop, and her brothers, Heo Bong and Heo Gyun, were both celebrated writers. Around the age of fifteen she married Kim Seong-rip of the Andong Kim clan. She later suffered the loss of a beloved son and daughter, and, adding grief to grief, lost the child she was carrying as well. Her natal family was also caught up in a criminal case at court, and her brother Heo Gyun was subsequently exiled — one tragedy following another. Having thereafter lost her will to live, she consoled her sorrow with books and Chinese-style poetry, living an unfortunate life until her death in 1589 at the young age of twenty-seven. Through delicate language she gave voice to a distinctly feminine sensibility, creating a unique and melancholic poetic world of her own. Some of her works were given by her brother Heo Gyun to the Ming poet Zhu Zhifan, and in 1606 they were published in China as the Nanseolheonjip. Heo Nanseolheon's tomb originally stood about 500 m to the right of its present location but was moved to the current site in 1985. Apart from the civil-official statues, the gravestone, stone lantern, stone figures, guardian corner-posts, and retaining stones around the mound are all of recent manufacture. The graves of her two children lie side by side in front of the tomb, to its left.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gwangju, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물