Yangsucheok Stele to a Filial Son, Cheongju

This is a stele erected in the early Joseon period to honour the filial conduct of Yang Su-cheok, a filial son. According to the story handed down about this stele of filial piety, Yang Su-cheok, who came from the butcher (baekjeong) class, lived together with his two younger brothers at present-day Biseon-geori in Undong-dong, Sangdang-gu, Cheongju. He had a poor reputation among those around him and was not filial towards his aged mother. When his mother took to her bed, he intended to carry out goryeojang — the folk practice, popularly associated with Goryeo custom, of abandoning an infirm elderly parent to die. At this, a man named Gyeong Dae-yu (also called Gyeong Yeon), renowned as a filial son and living in Hyochon-ri, Namil-myeon, Cheongju, heard of this and summoned the three brothers to rebuke them; deeply moved, the three brothers thereafter devoted themselves wholeheartedly to the filial care of their mother. One day, when their mother fell gravely ill and took to her bed, Yang Su-cheok went into Cheongju fortress town to have medicine prepared, but on his way back a flood had risen and he could not cross the Woreuncheon Stream, and he lamented his fate. Suddenly the waters of the stream parted so that he could cross, and he brewed the medicine and nursed his mother back to health. The Yangsucheok Stele to a Filial Son consists of a granite stele body set on a square pedestal stone. The body of the stele measures 34×112×23 cm. On the front is carved the inscription "楊水尺孝子碑" (Yangsucheok hyojabi, "Stele to the Filial Son Yang Su-cheok"), and the back is presumed to have originally recorded the background and date of its erection, but the inscription is now very difficult to read owing to extensive weathering. It stands beside the road leading from Cheongju towards Wolo-dong, and as a result it is in a very poor state of preservation. It is extremely rare for a stele honouring filial conduct to have been erected for a person of the lowly baekjeong class like Yang Su-cheok, and the stele therefore has value as a cultural heritage that can serve as educational material for citizens.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Cheongju, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물