Nampyeong Mun Clan Historical Documents held at Changnyeong Bangmulgwan

A petition (sangseo) of the eleventh month of 1857, submitted to a secret royal inspector (amhaeng-eosa) by residents of Gakchodong-myeon, Daegu (part of the document is damaged), states that the Confucian community of Daegu, moved by the devoted filial piety shown by Mun Il-tae of Daesan-ri, Gakchodong, towards his mother, had petitioned the Daegu prefectural office and the provincial government office (gamyeong); these had granted rewards of food and money, but no report had yet been sent to the court so that a commendation gate (jeongnyeo) could be granted. It asks that the court be informed so that the honour of commendation might be bestowed; the rescript reads that the matter is commendable and shall be investigated further. A petition of the fourth month of 1862, from the Confucian scholar Seo Gak-chan and others to the provincial governor, repeats the request, noting that petitions had already been sent to the provincial and local offices and to the inspector in 1857, with rewards given but no commendation; the rescript again defers to further deliberation. A petition (soji) of the same month, from Yi Gye-mun and others of Gakchodong to the magistrate, asks that the matter be reported to the provincial office; the rescript calls the conduct outstanding and admirable. Further petitions by Seo Gak-chan in the second month of 1864 and the seventh month of 1865 repeat the request to the provincial governor, each met with a rescript deferring to public opinion, the latter noting that gifts of rice and meat already showed the conduct to be genuine. A soji of the seventh month of 1865 from Yi Gye-mun and others again asks the magistrate to report the case; the rescript again defers to further opinion. A petition of the third month of 1867 from the scholar Yi Mun-bang and others of Gakchodong to the inspector, one of the fifth month of 1868 from Daegu scholars to the inspector, and another of the same month from Seo Gak-chan and others to the provincial governor — the last noting that Mun Il-tae had moved to the area from elsewhere and had no close kin in Daegu — all received rescripts praising the conduct but again postponing action, one remarking that the proper time for reporting it had already passed. A petition of the tenth month of 1874 from Gwak Su-ro and other Daegu scholars to the inspector met the same response. A petition of the fourth month of 1883 from Yi Mun-bang and other scholars of Gakchodong-myeon to the inspector likewise asked that commendation await further public opinion. A petition of the second month of 1885 from U Hae-ok and other scholars of Gakchodong-myeon to the provincial governor records that Mun Il-tae had moved four years earlier to Ganjeok-dong, Changnyeong, and had died there without a son in the gyemi year (1883); the rescript, calling his conduct admirable, finally promises that commendation will follow. In the third month of 1891 the Ministry of Rites issued an ib-an (certifying document) recording that, following a memorial to the throne by the Gyeongsang Province scholar Yi Mun-bang and others, the court had deliberated and the king had approved the granting of a commendation gate for the filial piety of the late scholar Mun Il-tae; the state would supply the timber and craftsmen needed to erect the gate, and all household levies, grain-loan dues and other miscellaneous corvée duties imposed on his descendants would be waived. In the same month the Ministry sent an official dispatch (gwanmun) to the Gyeongsang provincial governor ordering that Daegu prefecture be instructed to carry this out. A petition of the ninth month of 1891 from Mun Jeong-tae of Changnyeong, Mun Il-tae's younger brother, asked the governor to order the local magistrate to erect the gate accordingly; a directive (hacheop) of the same month from the magistrate to the headman of Gakchodong-myeon and the village head of Daesan instructed that the timber and craftsmen needed, to be supplied by the state, be provided and the work reported once done. A soji of the eleventh month of 1891 from Mun Jeong-tae, Hak-su and Jeong-hyeon of Ganjeok-dong, Goam-myeon, asked that the necessary measures be carried out in line with the Ministry's documents and the governor's earlier rescripts, which was granted. A further petition of the same month from Mun Jeong-tae to the governor argued that, since the Daesan village in Daegu where the gate was to be built was only a place where his brother had lodged for a few years, while Changnyeong was the town where he himself had been born and raised, the gate should instead be erected in Changnyeong; the governor agreed to issue the necessary dispatch. A soji of the second month of 1892 from Mun Jeong-tae of Ganjeok-dong, Goam-myeon, Changnyeong, asked that the household levies and grain-loan dues on the descendants be waived under the earlier documents, which was granted. A further soji of the sixth month of 1893 states that the levies had not in fact been waived by the local official concerned despite the earlier order, and asks again that this be done, with the magistrate ordering a certificate to be issued accordingly. Two royal appointment documents (gyoji) are also included: one of the sixth month of 1890 appointing Mun Jeong-tae deputy commander of the Yongyangwi Guard with the honorary military rank of Jeolchung-janggun, concurrently serving as a commander of the Five Guards; and one of the twelfth month of 1891 posthumously granting Mun Il-tae the honorary office of Dongmong-gyogwan with the rank of Jobong-daebu, the document noting at its close that this was granted because his filial conduct was outstanding. The submitted documents number twenty-two in all. Most relate to the campaign to commend the filial piety of Mun Il-tae (1834-1888; recorded in the clan genealogy as Su-seong), a descendant of Mun Ik-jeom, styled Samudang, of the Nampyeong Mun clan; the remaining two are gyoji issued to Mun Il-tae and his younger brother Mun Jeong-tae (1836-1895; recorded in the genealogy as Jeong-seong). By type they comprise twelve sangseo, five soji, one ib-an, one gwanmun, one hacheop and two gyoji, all dating from the latter half of the nineteenth century. The documents show that the Confucian community and residents of Daegu sustained a petition campaign for more than thirty years, from before 1857, before a commendation gate was finally granted by the court in 1891 — by which time Mun Il-tae had already died (the year of his death is given differently in the petitions and the genealogy; the 1885 petition states he died in 1883 without a son). The clan genealogy shows that Du-eon, son of his younger brother Mun Jeong-tae, was in fact adopted as his heir. A considerable number of documents from the course of the campaign and the erection of the gate survive, but not all: the petitions from before 1857 are missing, as are the original memorial to the king and the provincial office's instruction to Daegu prefecture referred to in later documents, and some of the sangseo and soji presumably submitted along the way also appear to have been lost. Given this incompleteness, the documents fall somewhat short as a basis for heritage designation on their own terms; yet they contain one striking feature. A commendation gate is normally erected where the honoured person actually lived, but here it was not: although Daegu residents had worked for years to see it built there, in the end, through the appeal of his younger brother living in Changnyeong, the gate was erected not in Daegu but in the Mun family's home village in Changnyeong.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Changnyeong, Gyeongnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료