Mun Ik-jeom Spirit-path Stele, Sancheong

A sindobi (spirit-path stele) records the lifetime achievements of a king or high official and is erected to the south-east of his tomb; this stele records the achievements of Mun Ik-jeom, a civil official and scholar of the late Goryeo period. Mun Ik-jeom (1329–1398) passed the state examination in 1360, the ninth year of King Gongmin, and served in posts such as Registrar of Gimhae and Sunyubaksa. In 1363, the twelfth year of King Gongmin, he became a seojanggwan (a recording official on diplomatic missions) and travelled to the Yuan dynasty. At that time Choe Yu, a Goryeo man residing in Yuan, attempted to depose King Gongmin and install Deokheunggun, the third son of King Chungseon, as king, but was defeated by Choe Yeong; Mun Ik-jeom was wrongly implicated in this affair and stripped of his official post as soon as he returned home. When he returned, he smuggled a few cotton bolls back concealed inside the cap of a writing brush, and together with Jeong Cheon-ik carried out trial cultivation; after three years of effort they succeeded, and cotton spread throughout the country. Later, Jo Sik composed a poem in praise of this achievement. The stele was erected in 1834, the thirty-fourth year of King Sunjo of Joseon; the stone is said to have been quarried from the water at Ganghwado Island and carried on people's backs for over three years before being set up by the roadside in the village. The stele's shelter later burned down, and in 1943 the Governor-General of Joseon and the Gyeongsangnam-do provincial office moved the stele to its present location.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Sancheong, Gyeongnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료