Yi Yeong-nam Grave, Jincheon

General Yi Yeong-nam (1563–1598) was a military official of the mid-Joseon period, born in Gijeon-ri, Jincheon-gun. He passed the special military examination (byeolsi mugwa) in the third class in 1577, the seventeenth year of King Seonjo, and from his first appointment as Yulpo-gwollan (garrison commander of Yulpo) in 1592, the twenty-fifth year of King Seonjo, served under Won Gyun during the Japanese invasions of Joseon, holding posts such as Sobipo-gwollan and Ganggye-bupangwan. When Won Gyun, the Right Naval Commander of Gyeongsang Province, tried to flee after Dongnae Fortress fell to the Japanese forces, Yi Yeong-nam requested reinforcements from Yi Sun-sin, the Left Naval Commander of Jeolla Province, leading to the formation of a combined fleet. He went on to take part in numerous engagements, including the naval battles of Okpo and Sacheonpo and the great victory at Hansan. In 1598, the thirty-first year of King Seonjo, serving as Garipo-cheomsa (garrison commander of Garipo), he died for his country alongside General Yi Sun-sin at the Battle of Noryang. His servant recovered the body and buried it in his hometown of Gijeon-ri, Jincheon, and in 1605, the thirty-eighth year of King Seonjo, he was posthumously honoured with the rank of Jeolchung janggun and named a first-class Seonmu Wonjong Merit Subject, a title granted to those who aided in suppressing the Japanese invasions. The grave has a round mound about 600 cm in diameter and 240 cm high, its base ringed with guardian stones carved with the twelve zodiac deities. In front stand an offering table and stepped stone platforms, and to the left and right one civil-official statue and one stone pillar each; a stele recording General Yi Yeong-nam's achievements was erected to the right in 1983. These stone furnishings are in good condition but are recent additions. To the left lies the grave of his horse. Above his grave lie the joint grave and gravestone of his parents, Yi Sa-jong and Lady Jin of the Gwangju Jin clan, and the grave and gravestone of his grandfather, Yi Geuk-in. A reexamination of Garipo-cheomsa General Yi Yeong-nam based on primary sources has corrected the dates of his birth and death and the details of his parentage through the Manryeok Sibi-nyeon Gapsin Chu Byeolsi Munmu Bangmok (the roster of the special military and civil examinations held in the gapsin year, the twelfth year of the Wanli reign, 1584), and has fully substantiated the facts concerning the Garipo-cheomsa Yi Yeong-nam from Jincheon through detailed analysis and source criticism of the Garipo-cheomsa Seonsaengan (register of Garipo garrison commanders) and the Seonmu Wonjong Gongsin Nokgwon (register of merit subjects). General Yi Yeong-nam was a mid-Joseon military official who distinguished himself in numerous naval battles during the Japanese invasions, saving the country in a time of peril. However, because another man of the same name was active at the same period, descendant clans came to record the two men's activities mixed together. This prompted a careful verification of the facts, and research has now confirmed that the man who died for his country as Garipo-cheomsa at the Battle of Noryang was Yi Yeong-nam of the Yangseong Yi clan, from Jincheon. Although General Yi Yeong-nam's grave follows the typical Joseon-period form and was newly built in recent times, it has been designated in order to honour the achievements of a general who, through countless naval battles during the Japanese invasions of Joseon—the greatest national crisis of the mid-Joseon period—saved the country from peril.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jincheon, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물