Samwol Stele, Cheongju

The Samwol Stele in Cheongju is a monument erected in 1796 (the twentieth year of King Jeongjo) by the descendants of Kim Yun to honour the merit of Samwol, a slave of the Joseon period. On the hillside leading up Mongnyeongsan Mountain from Yangji-ri in Ochang-eup lies the grave of Kim Yun of the Cheongpung Kim clan, and the Samwol Stele stands to the right of this grave as one faces it. The stele consists of a stone shaft set on a square pedestal. The front is carved with the inscription '忠婢三月之碑' ('Monument to the Loyal Servant Samwol'), and the back records an account of Samwol's merit. Made of granite, the stele is covered in moss and has an air of venerable age. According to the inscription, Samwol was a female slave of the Cheongpung Kim household. In 1489 (the twentieth year of King Seongjong), when Kim Yun, the eldest son of the family, was three days old, his mother died, and Samwol nursed and raised him in her place. Kim Yun married at eighteen, but he too died prematurely, leaving behind a posthumous child. Samwol devotedly cared for and raised this child, and when he grew up he rose to the military post of uhu, and the family prospered greatly. Believing that all this merit belonged to Samwol, Kim Yun's descendants are said to have erected this stele to honour her. The Samwol Stele was erected in 1796, about 150 years after Samwol's death. Its text was composed by Kim Jong-su, who served as Left State Councillor under King Jeongjo, and the calligraphy was written by the eighty-year-old Kim Chi-hui. At a time when almost no monuments survive to show the life of slaves in the early Joseon period, this is an important piece of heritage providing material for the study of the social and everyday history of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, including the status order of the time such as the relationship between a yangban household and its slave.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Cheongju, Chungbuk

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료