Stone Jangseung Guardian Posts in Gasan-ri, Sacheon

Three pairs of stone jangseung (guardian posts) stand at various spots in Gasan-ri village. Two male figures on a high hill behind the village and two female figures in a field opposite are called sangsinjang (upper guardian generals); two male figures beneath the village's sacred guardian tree, in an area called Beoksugol, are called hasinjang (lower guardian generals). Originally four pairs were erected, but one pair of hasinjang female figures was stolen; replacements were made and set up on the same spot in 1980, and these replacements were excluded from the folk heritage designation. Of the six surviving jangseung, the male figures resemble the stone civil-official statues placed before tombs, with youthful faces. They wear an official's cap, hold a hol — a tablet an official clasped in both hands when attending the king, worn with ceremonial court dress — and are dressed in an official's court robe. The face is oval, the corners of the eyes slightly raised, and the nose a long triangle; the mouth is firmly closed, giving a stern impression. The female jangseung wear their hair in two topknots, are dressed in a long jangot overcoat, and likewise hold a hol in two clasped hands. Their faces are round, with protruding eyes. This village once held a jochang, a storehouse for the temporary keeping of goods paid to the state as tax; tribute from seven neighbouring districts was gathered here before being sent on to Hanyang (Seoul) by sea. Rites were held praying for the goods' safe arrival, and it is said that offerings were likewise laid out before the jangseung as part of the same rite, suggesting that these posts served both to guard the jochang and as objects of prayer for safe sea transport. Thought to date from the Joseon period, the jangseung went on, even after the jochang was abolished, to serve as folk guardian posts protecting the village and warding off epidemics. They are of considerable significance in showing how an object of state-level prayer was transformed into an object of folk belief.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Sacheon, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Folklore Heritage · 시도민속문화유산