Cheongsong Sim Clan Toehyudang Lineage Documents

1. Contents of the material. The bound volumes comprise the Gyogwan-gong Silgi (1 volume, 20.5 × 30 cm), a manuscript factual record of Sim Myeong-jip (pen name Sueun, 1808–1883), and the Yangmu Wonjong Gongsin Nokgwon (1 volume, 21.5 × 32 cm), a merit-subject certificate listing those who distinguished themselves in suppressing the Musin Rebellion in the fourth year of King Yeongjo (1728); its opening lines, printed 'Muhallyang Sim Tae-jun', show that the certificate was issued to Sim Tae-jun. The individual documents open with four royal certificates (gyoji): one (80 × 67 cm) issued in 1891 to Sim Tae-jun, then Jeolchung Janggun and acting Deputy Commander of the Yongyang Guard, granting him the posthumous honorary rank of Deputy Minister of the Board of Taxation and concurrent Comptroller of the Uigeumbu; one (65 × 56 cm) of the same year raising the title of his wife, Lady Seo, from Sukbuin to Jeongbuin, as a wife's title rose with her husband's rank; one (80 × 65 cm, undated, with its date and top and bottom sections missing) conferring on the filial son Sim Myeong-jip the post of Jobong-daebu, Tongmong Gyogwan, presumed from the Gyogwan-gong Silgi to date from the 26th year of Emperor Gojong (1889); and one (68 × 56 cm, undated) granting the title of Sukbuin, in accordance with her husband's post, to the Gyeongju Kim clan lady, Sim Myeong-jip's wife, likely also in 1889. The remaining documents, chiefly dating from 1863 to the 1870s, trace in unusual detail the long campaign by Confucian scholars across the county to have Sim Myeong-jip's filial conduct officially honoured. A notice (gomok, 78 × 110 cm) of the first month of 1863 from the village and ward heads of Sugok to the ri office reported the facts of his conduct and asked that it be passed to the county and provincial offices. A series of circular letters (tongmun) followed through 1863, passing between the townships of Sanik, Juksan (Moro-dong), Ando, Daegok and others, each urging Sugok-dong, Sim Myeong-jip's home village, to take the lead in a formal petition campaign (jeongjang undong); one such letter (59 × 51 cm, its opening missing) came from the Confucian scholars Yi Cheol-myeong of Dongsan, Jinju, and Seo Yang-bo of Jukdong, Jinhae. In the third month of 1863 a petition (sangseo, 62 × 86 cm) from Confucian scholars of eight townships — Sanjok, Anin, Sanik, Namsan, Gu-Daegok, Sin-Daegok, Daesan and Sangni — asked the magistrate to honour him; in the eighth month a joint petition (deungjang, 55.5 × 92 cm) from the commoners of Sanjok-myeon asked that the matter be reported to the provincial government office; and in the tenth month a report (pumbo, 82 × 101 cm) asked that he at least be exempted from corvée labour pending full honours. An undated list of signatories (yeonmyeongjang, 41 × 62 cm) including Jo Seong-ryeon records names from this campaign, though which petition it belonged to is now unknown. The campaign continued in 1864, when Confucian scholars of several townships led by Jo Gwang-sik of Sanjok-myeon again petitioned the magistrate (sangseo, 64.5 × 102 cm), and in 1865, when Gyeongsang-do Confucian scholars petitioned the provincial governor (sangseo, 76 × 90 cm) and the residents of Sugok-dong petitioned the magistrate (deungjang, 63 × 105 cm). A petition (soji, 62 × 100 cm) of the fifth month of 1865 from Gang Yu-yeong of Sangju and Jeong Taek-su of Jinju to the magistrate of Haman noted that, although the provincial governor had been asked to grant the honour, his ruling had merely ordered further investigation, and complained that Sim Myeong-jip was being treated as an ordinary commoner despite honours at county level being no great matter; it asked again for the honour to be granted. In the ninth month of 1865 Confucian scholars from eleven Gyeongsang-do counties — Haman, Jinju, Hapcheon, Seonsan, Uiryeong, Hamyang, Samga, Seongju, Geochang, Sancheong and Mungyeong — petitioned the Board of Rites directly (sangseo, 74 × 106 cm), and in the twelfth month the Sanjok-myeon community again reported the facts and the history of the petitions to the magistrate (pumbo, 71 × 88 cm). In 1868 Confucian scholars of the county petitioned a secret royal inspector (sangseo, 63 × 85 cm) to have the matter reported to the king, and in 1870 Jo Seong-ryeon, Yi Seung-yeop and Jo Un-sang of Sanjok-myeon petitioned the magistrate (sangseo, 61 × 88 cm) noting that, despite repeated petitions, no royal grace had yet followed, and asking that the case be forwarded to a higher authority. Four further undated petitions from Jo Seong-ryeon and, in three cases, also Yi Seung-yeop and Jo Un-sang, addressed respectively to a secret royal inspector (66 × 88 cm and 62.5 × 87.5 cm), to the magistrate (75 × 91 cm) and again to a secret royal inspector (61 × 98 cm), repeat the same request that years of petitioning be finally answered with a royal grace. The campaign's outcome survives in two documents, probably of 1889: an official certificate (ip-an, 86 × 120 cm) issued by the Board of Rites, recording that, following a petition by Han Jin-yeop and other Gyeongsang-do Confucian scholars, a jeongnyeo, a commemorative monument, was granted for Sim Myeong-jip's filial conduct and his descendants exempted from miscellaneous corvée duties; and an interoffice document (gwanmun, 92 × 32 cm, its end missing) from the Board of Rites to the governor of Gyeongsang-do announcing the grant and instructing that the timber and craftsmen needed to erect the commemorative gate be supplied at government expense, to which is attached, in the form of a slip, the governor's further instruction to the magistrate to carry out the order and report to the provincial office. A small number of other documents complete the archive: a commendation (Sim Hyoja Pyojeong, 42 × 57 cm) written in 1864 by the relative Kim Jeong-u (pen name Geumho) recording and praising Sim Myeong-jip's filial conduct; two elegies (jemun) written in the eighth month of 1863 by his son-in-law Jo Gil-u of Haman (37 × 46 cm) and his grandson-in-law Jo Hui-je (36.5 × 41.5 cm) at the first-anniversary memorial rite for a member of the Cheongsong Sim clan; a letter (ganchal, 36 × 40 cm) of 1862 in which Yi Myeong-jip explained to the clan a matter concerning his parents' grave, to which the clan's brief note of acceptance is unusually attached; a circular letter (tongmun, 43 × 37.5 cm) of 1857 in which officers of Sugok protested that woodcutters of Morogok had illegally felled protected trees at Sim Myeong-jip's ancestral grave and torn their clothing when challenged; and a petition (soji, 34.5 × 53 cm) of 1867 in which Sim Ui-myeong of Sugok asked the magistrate to identify whoever had secretly buried a body near his family's grave-mountain at Gaganbong-dong, Juksan. 2. Investigator's comments. The submitted material comprises two bound volumes and thirty-five individual documents, the latter including 4 gyoji, 10 sangseo, 2 soji, 2 deungjang, 2 pumbo, 1 gomok, 1 ip-an, 1 gwanmun, 7 tongmun, 2 jemun, 1 ganchal and 2 of other types. All date from the latter half of the nineteenth century, and since most are damaged — in particular, many have lost the section giving the date — their source value might be thought reduced; even so, the quantity is considerable and some items are notable in content. The material chiefly concerns Sim Tae-jun (1690–1756), who distinguished himself in the Musin Rebellion, and his fifth-generation descendant Sim Myeong-jip (1808–1883), who received a jeongnyeo for his filial conduct, together with a few other documents such as those relating to a grave-site dispute. It is rare to find documents that so vividly show the process by which Confucian scholars across different parts of a county circulated tongmun to build consensus before launching a full-scale petition campaign to honour an act of filial piety; several of the letters here urge Sugok-dong itself, the village concerned, to take the lead in the campaign to honour Sim Myeong-jip.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Haman, Gyeongnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료