And Grave of Sin Chae-ho Shrine, Cheongju

This is the shrine and grave of Sin Chae-ho (pen name Danjae, 丹齋 申采浩, 1880–1936), an independence activist, journalist, and pioneer of modern nationalist historiography. Sin Chae-ho's clan seat was Goryeong, and his pen name was Danjae. In 1897 he entered Seonggyungwan, studying under Yi Nam-gyu. In 1905 (the ninth year of the Gwangmu era) he became a doctor of Seonggyungwan, but when the Eulsa Treaty was signed that same year he abandoned any intention of entering government service and began writing editorials for the Hwangseong Sinmun. The following year he was invited to become chief editorialist of the Daehan Maeil Sinbo, where he contributed to the recovery of national sovereignty and the awakening of national consciousness. Around the age of twenty-eight, together with Yi Dong-nyeong, An Chang-ho and others, he organised the Sinminhoe, a secret anti-Japanese resistance society. After going into exile abroad in 1910, he devoted himself in earnest to the study of Korean history, writing such works as the Joseon sanggosa (Early History of Joseon) and the Joseonsa yeonguicho (Studies in Korean History). Following the establishment of the Provisional Government in Shanghai in 1919, he threw himself into the independence movement as chairman of the Committee of the Whole of the Provisional Assembly. In 1929 he was arrested by the Japanese police, and while serving his sentence in Lüshun Prison he died there in 1936 for the cause of national independence. In 1962 he was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation of the Republic of Korea. The Sin Chae-ho shrine was first built around 1960 by the Goryeong Sin clan; between 1978 and 1979 the grave site was renovated and the shrine moved to its present location. In 1980, as part of a project marking the centenary of Sin Chae-ho's birth, it was again repaired and refurbished as a portrait shrine; a plaque reading 'Danjae Yeonggak' (Portrait Hall of Danjae) was hung at the front, a gate named 'Jeonggimun' (Gate of Righteous Spirit) was erected before the shrine, and a wall was built around the site. The shrine is a gable-roofed building three bays wide and one bay deep; its interior is a single open wooden-floored room with the portrait enshrined at the centre. Sin Chae-ho's grave was built on the site of the old house where he lived as a child; the burial ground, of about 100 pyeong (roughly 330 m²), is furnished with a gravestone, offering table, stone lantern, civil-official statues, and guardian corner-posts. The gravestone was erected by Han Yong-un and others, and to the right of the mound stands a monument to his life's achievements, erected in 1972 by the Society for the Preservation of Danjae Sin Chae-ho's Historic Sites.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Cheongju, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물