Yi Un-yong Tomb, Uiryeong

Yi Un-yong is known to have been born in 1562 in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province, the son of Yi Mong-sang, who had served as magistrate (hyeollyeong) of Namhae. In 1592, when the Imjin War broke out, he distinguished himself as the manho (garrison commander) of Okpo at the Battle of Okpo. In 1604 he was honoured as a Seonmu Meritorious Subject and granted the title Siksenggun, and in the ninth month of the same year he became Samdo Sugun Tongjesa, Naval Commander of the Three Provinces. After his death in 1610, the second year of King Gwanghaegun, he was posthumously awarded the post of Minister of War. The tomb was originally located in Cheongdo, but twenty years later, in 1630, it was moved to its present site by his son Yi Am, then magistrate of Pyeongtaek. The site is currently maintained by the Milseong Son clan, descended through the female line, and its history is recorded in detail on his tomb stele, written by Yi Sik (pen name Taekdang). The burial ground preserves, together with Yi Un-yong's tomb, a complete set of stone furnishings: a tomb stele, an offering table (sangseok) and incense-burner stone (hyangnoseok), a pair of dongjaseok (child-shaped guardian figures, two in total) and a pair of mangbuseok (stone pillars erected before the tomb, two in total). The burial mound is a round mound about 3 metres high and 6 metres in diameter, with dressed stones laid neatly around its base; a supporting stone projects outward at the base, with stones resembling myeonseok (facing stones) placed above it. Distinctively, at the rear of the mound, on the higher side of the hill, no stones were laid around it, and a long tail-like extension projects outward instead. Judging from its appearance, the mound does not seem to have been significantly repaired in later periods, and it is also unusual in being shaped more pointed than round. The tomb stele has a base but no roof. Its surface is worn but still legible, and the full text of the inscription has already been translated and included in the Siksenggun Silgi (True Records of Lord Siksenggun), allowing a good understanding of his life and military achievements; the floral pattern carved on the base remains clearly visible. The dongjaseok figures are relatively low, standing around 80 cm tall, and both take the same form as munin-seok (civil-official stone figures). Apart from the faces, the carving as a whole survives in relatively good condition.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Uiryeong, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물