Yesan Hyogyorimaehyang Stele

The Yesan Hyogyo-ri Maehyang Stele carries an inscription cut into the stone on both sides of a central groove. Its contents are as follows. The engraving on the right reads: "On the twelfth day of the third month of the Gyemi year, the [X]6th year (□□六年癸未三月十二日), the monks of Isan and Deokpung, together with the hyangdo [lay Buddhist societies bound by a shared vow], built up an earthen platform, raised this stone, and made their declaration. Leaving the fortress, they carried out maehyang — the burial of fragrant wood along the shore, later retrieved and burned as incense, an act performed in hope of the Buddha Maitreya's coming — at the mouth of Yongo-ri, together with the supervising dogam monks [□□六年 癸未三月十二日伊山德豊袈裟結(緣)香徒□告 城出龍吾里埜頭 埋香庫同]." The engraving on the left reads: "Between the mountain peaks, [burying] ten thousand (一万) [thought to be a count associated with the maehyang] and samchil (三七, carved here as 二七) [likewise thought to be such a number], with abundant offerings of vegetables, the hyangju [head of the hyangdo society] carried out maehyang before [the image of] Maitreya [峯巒間一万 二七□□間□富菜(乘) 香(會)主埋香□(彌)勒前]." The maehyang is presumed to date to the Goryeo period, since the inscription names the places Isan and Deokpung. As Isan and Deokpung were reorganised into Deoksan in 1405, under King Taejong of Joseon, the period in which the two coexisted runs from 1018, under King Hyeonjong of Goryeo, to 1405. Narrowing this further by the sexagenary-cycle year Gyemi gives a range of between 1043 (Gyemi) and 1403 (Gyemi). The maehyang is therefore considered to have taken place sometime within this roughly four-hundred-year span and, given the involvement of monks, is attributed to the Goryeo period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yesan, Chungnam

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물