Munjeonggongjogwangjomyo Shrine and Spirit-path Stele

Jo Gwang-jo (1482–1519), whose pen name was Jeongam, was a civil official of the early Joseon period who served as Daesaheon (Inspector-General) and other senior posts. Through his studies grounded in the Sohak (Lesser Learning) and the Geunsarok (Reflections on Things at Hand), he devoted himself to Neo-Confucian scholarship and became the leader of the Sarim, the literati faction, inheriting the scholarly lineage of Kim Jong-jik. He argued for realising a kingly government based on jichi juui, the doctrine that true governance must rest wholly on Confucian virtue, holding that Confucianism should be the foundation of both politics and moral instruction. In 1519 he met his death in the Gimyo Purge of literati, instigated by Hong Gyeong-ju, Nam Gon and Sim Jeong of the Hungu faction, the entrenched clique of meritorious officials. Jo Gwang-jo's tomb is a single mound in which he is buried together with his wife, Lady Yi. Before the mound stand a tombstone, a stone table, an incense-burner stone, a pair of ornamental stone pillars (mangjuseok) and stone civil-official figures. The tombstone, of round-topped, square-based (wonsubangbu) form, appears to have been erected around 1585, the same year as the spirit-path stele. The spirit-path stele, built at the entrance to the tomb grounds and likewise of round-topped, square-based form, was erected in 1585; its inscription was composed by No Su-sin, written out by Yi San-hae, and its seal-script title was written by Kim Eung-nam. This spirit-path stele and tombstone of Jo Gwang-jo became an important model for the form of stone monuments at the tombs of Joseon-period scholar-officials in later periods.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongin, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물