Hwaseong City Presents Special Exhibition of Relics from Jeong Yun-yeong, Representative of Sachearon Movement

The Hwaseong Local Museum will hold a "Special Exhibition of Relics Donated by Chogye Jeong Clan" in four parts from the 15th through the end of January next year.

This exhibition will display relics and artifacts of Husan Jeong Yun-yeong (1833–1898), a descendant of the Manjugo branch of the prestigious Chogye Jeong clan from Songsan-myeon.

In 1881, during the Shinsa Sachearon movement that unfolded nationwide in Yeongnam, Gyeonggi, Gangwon, Chungcheong, and Jeolla regions, Mr. Jeong was a key figure who led the sachearon movement in the Gyeonggi region by representing Gyeonggi Province's scholars in drafting the "Cheokhwa Manin Petition."

In the first section of this exhibition, under the theme "Childhood: Composing Poetry," the exhibition centers on a poem that Mr. Jeong Yun-yeong composed at age eleven while climbing Paldal Mountain.

The second section, titled "Academic Exchange: Launching the Sachearon Movement in Earnest," showcases the process through which Mr. Jeong formed his sachearon ideology by exchanging with his teacher Im Heon-hoe and literati of the Hwaseo School.

The third section, themed "Anti-Modernization Movement and Educational Activities," displays relics and artifacts from the period when he actively conducted the sachearon movement, was banished, and subsequently devoted himself to education and writing.

The fourth section exhibits "Reading and Documented Culture" by Jeong Yun-yeong and his descendants.

Key artifacts include books such as the Wibang Jipryak (爲邦輯略), concerning systems and procedures of governance; the Bukjeong Jabyeong (北征雜咏), written while Mr. Jeong was exiled to Hamgyeong Province, describing the customs and landscapes there; and the Husan Munjip (后山文集), a record of a lecture held at Cheongnyong Temple on Seoun Mountain in Anseong.

Additionally, the exhibition includes a collection of letters sent by Gosan Im Heon-hoe, Mr. Jeong's teacher and a leading scholar among independent literati of his time; a saddle used by Mr. Jeong; and works by Songseok Jeong Jae-heung, a great-great-grandson of Husan and regarded as one of the masters of modern running script.

Meanwhile, the twenty-two articles of "Euiman Eun Bongsa" (擬萬言封事) proposed by Mr. Jeong Yun-yeong are evaluated as unconventional policies for state affairs by conservative literati of his time, criticizing discrimination in talent recruitment based on factionalism, regionalism, and aristocratic lineage, and advocating widespread recruitment and appointment of talented individuals.