Namcheonsa Temple

This shrine houses the spirit tablets of Son Hong-rok and An Ui, civil officials of the mid-Joseon period. When the Imjin War broke out in 1592, Pyeongyang, Seoul and Gyeongju fell within 40 days, and the situation remained perilous. At this critical moment, the two men persuaded the hesitant local government officials and moved the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, then kept at the Jeonju History Archive, together with the portrait of King Taejo (Yi Seong-gye) enshrined at Gyeonggijeon Shrine, to a cave on Naejangsan Mountain. They then carried these treasures on via Ganghwa to Myohyangsan Mountain, protecting them throughout the 7 years of the war. Jo Byeong-hui, a later scholar, judged that their efforts were comparable to the achievement of repelling an army of 100,000. At the time, the Annals were kept at 4 locations — Chunchugwan, the royal history office in Seoul, and Chungju, Seongju and Jeonju — of which 3 were destroyed by fire; the sole surviving set, from the Jeonju Archive, prevented a break in the historical record and allowed the vast history of early Joseon to be carried forward. This shrine was built in 1676, the second year of King Sukjong, and enshrines the spirit tablets of Kim Hu-jin and Kim Man-jeong alongside those of Son Hong-rok and An Ui. It was later damaged during the time of Heungseon Daewongun and rebuilt in 1926. It measures 3 kan — a kan being the bay, or unit of measurement, between the pillars of a traditional Korean building — across the front and 2 kan on the side, with a gabled (matbae) roof that forms the shape of the Chinese character 人 (person) when viewed from the side.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jeongeup, Jeonbuk

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료