Damyang Pyeongjangdonggwangsan Kim Clan Remains Stele

The Pyeongjangdong Remains Stele consists of a pedestal, a stele body and a capstone. It was erected in 1739, the gimi year, two years after Kim Jin-dong and others took the initiative in 1737, with the participation of clan members. On the front of the 249 cm-high stele is inscribed 'Stele of the Remains of the Silla Prince'; to the right of this, under the heading 'Stele Inscription', is a text of 119 characters, and to the left are inscribed 26 characters giving the names and official posts of the four people who took part in erecting the stele. On the back, under the heading 'Verso Inscription of the Remains Stele' written by Kim Jin-sang, are 180 characters of text, together with 23 characters recording the date it was erected and the name of the calligrapher. The stele's pavilion is a single bay wide and a single bay deep, with a hip-and-gable roof. The content of the inscription on the back reads as follows: thirty ri to the north-west of Gwangju county, backed by Buldaesan Mountain and facing Seoseoksan Mountain, lies the place called Pyeongjang-dong — formerly Seoildong — the site of the remains of our founding ancestor, Lord Kim, a prince of Silla. The prince's personal name was Heunggwang. Towards the end of Silla, sensing that turmoil was coming to the kingdom, he withdrew into seclusion here, and from this time the Kim clan took Gwangsan as its clan seat. From his son Sik onward, eight Pyeongjangsa, a senior state council post, emerged in succession, and so the village came to be called Pyeongjang-dong. Passing through Goryeo and into the Joseon dynasty, his descendants flourished further, with renowned ministers and great scholars following one after another — truly because the hidden brilliance and cultivated virtue of the prince sheltered his descendants, and also because of the auspicious energy of the mountains and rivers. Alas! Fearing that the prince's grave might be lost and forgotten, we, his clansmen, consulted together and had this stone carved to record it. Although the stele was erected in 1739, two earlier texts also record that this was the ancestral seat of the Gwangsan Kim clan: the 'Preface to Poems on Gwangsan County', written by the Goryeo-period scholar Kim I during the reign of King Chungnyeol, and the 'Account of the Remains of Pyeongjang-dong', written by Kim Hyeon-roe in 1471, the second year of King Seongjong of Joseon. Pyeongjang-dong, in Daejeon-myeon, Damyang, where the stele stands, originally belonged to Gwangsan (Gwangju), but in 1914 it was incorporated into Daejeon-myeon, Damyang County, from what was then Daechi-myeon, Gwangju County. This stele is a valuable case study for research into the origins of Korean clans. It is also a useful example, from the perspective of local history, for tracing the process by which a village's place name was determined. Furthermore, it has scholarly value as research material on the origins of surnames and clan seats in the Jeollanam-do region.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Damyang, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물