Gongja Wipae Maeanji Stele of Jinhaehyanggyo Local Confucian School

This maeanji stele (a stele marking the site where spirit tablets were buried) is a record that historically attests that in March 1909, the spirit tablet of Confucius, the tablets of the Four Sages enshrined alongside him, and the tablets of the twenty-two Worthies given subsidiary enshrinement—tablets that had been enshrined at Jinhaehyanggyo Local Confucian School—were buried there. In order to occupy Korea, the Japanese colonial authorities concluded a coerced treaty in 1905, stripping Korea of effective control over its finances and diplomacy and thereby beginning their de facto colonial rule, and in 1908 they merged the areas of the then Ungcheon-gun and Jinhae-gun into Changwon-bu. In 1910 they began construction of military port facilities in what is now the Jinhae-gu area, and in 1912 they reorganised the area as Jinhae-myeon. To create the new Jinhae, there could be no existing official town already bearing that name; since leaving Jinhaehyanggyo standing would itself constitute proof that a town called Jinhae had existed, it had to be eliminated. The significance of this maeanji stele therefore goes beyond simply marking the spot where the spirit tablet of Confucius from the old Jinhaehyanggyo was buried; it stands as evidence of the important process by which the former town of Jinhae (present-day Jindong-myeon) was erased from history during the Japanese colonial period. As this maeanji stele attests to these historical facts, it has been designated a Gyeongsangnam-do Cultural Heritage Material in consideration of its historical significance, even though the stele itself is not old.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Changwon, Gyeongnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료