Najumunbawimunam Hermitage

This rock is linked to the birth legend of Mun Da-seong, the founding ancestor of the Nampyeong Mun clan. It lies on a slope, so that it appears 6 m high and 5 m wide when viewed from the front, but only about 1 m when viewed from behind. The Sinhaebo, the founding genealogical record of the Nampyeong Mun clan written in 1731, the twenty-first year of King Yeongjo of Joseon, and the Honam-eupji (a gazetteer of the Honam region) held at the Kyujanggak archive, record the following: the magistrate of this county at the time found a baby crying on a rock at Jangja Pond and took the child in to raise. Because the child showed a gift for writing, he was given the surname "Mun" (文, meaning "letters"), and because he grasped the principles of things well, he was named "Da-seong"; the rock on which the baby had been found was named "Munam" ("Mun Rock"), and the child was made the founding ancestor of the Mun clan. Although the legend lacks the sanctity of myth, it sets out a specific, bounded time and place and points to concrete physical evidence, making it a representative clan-origin legend whose credibility is well supported.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Naju, Jeonnam & Gwangju

Designation

Provincial Folklore Heritage · 시도민속문화유산