Nong-eun Hong Yu-han's Historic Site (Old House)

Overview

The historic site (old house) of Nongeun Hong Yuhan is a shrine belonging to the Diocese of Andong, located in Guguri, Dansan-myeon, Yeongju-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do. It is the place where Hong Yuhan, who embraced the Catholic faith and lived an ascetic life before the founding of the Korean Catholic Church in 1784 by over 30 years, lived alone in faith from 1775 until 1785, the year he died. It is listed as ‘Hong Yuhan Old House Site (Hyucheondong Church)’ in Good News, and as ‘Hong Yuhan Historic Site’ in the Digital Yeongju Culture Encyclopedia, which also records the alternate names Hong Yuhan’s burial-place site and Teacher Hong Yuhan’s historic site.

History

Hong Yuhan was born in Seoul and studied under Seongho Yi Ik. From around 1750, Yi Ik studied Western learning such as True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven, Seven Victories and Chronicle of Foreign Lands together with his disciples, and Hong Yuhan accepted Catholicism not merely as a new learning but as holding a religious element that illuminates the principles of all things in heaven and earth. Encountering opposition from his clan and those around him, he left Seoul and studied Catholicism in Yesan, Chungcheong-do. Good News records that in 1757 he left Seoul for his hometown Yesan and cultivated his faith alone for 18 years.

In 1775, he moved his dwelling to Guguri in Dansan (formerly Gugori), 10 ri east of Sunheung, and began alone a commandment-keeping ascetic life according to True Meaning of the Lord of Heaven and Seven Victories. Every seven days he set one day as Sunday, ceasing all secular work and devoting himself to prayer and meditation, practiced the virtue of chastity, and, not knowing the days of abstinence, made it his principle never to eat fine food. Though he had not received baptism, he sought to live as a believer by keeping Sundays and fasts, and spent his later years in mortification and temperance, prayer and meditation until his death in 1785 at the age of 60. After his pious death, his body was buried in Ugok-ri at the foot of Mount Munsu.

The Diocese of Andong erected a historic-site monument in the courtyard of the Filial Piety Gate on May 27, 1995, on the occasion of the 25 anniversary of the establishment of the diocese and the 210 anniversary of Teacher Hong Yuhan’s death. The Digital Yeongju Culture Encyclopedia records that the site is not well maintained and that the City of Yeongju is carrying out improvement work and pursuing designation as cultural heritage.

Architecture and Space

At the site remain the Filial Piety Gate plaque of Hong Jung-myeong, the grandfather of Hong Yuhan, and the historic-site monument erected in 1995. The Filial Piety Gate plaque is recorded in Good News as having been bestowed in the 4 year of King Gyeongjong (1724), while the Digital Yeongju Culture Encyclopedia records that he was honored as a filial son in 1722 (the 2 year of Gyeongjong), so the years differ from each other. On the front of the monument is engraved ‘Historic Site of Teacher Hong Yuhan of Pungsan, the First Ascetic of the Korean Catholic Church’, and his life is described on its sides and back.

Religious Meaning and Context for Visiting

Although Hong Yuhan was not baptized, he is regarded as the first person to begin a life of faith on his own in that he treated Catholicism not simply as a new learning but as a religion, and he is esteemed as the seed of the Korean Catholic Church. The Digital Yeongju Culture Encyclopedia evaluates this historic site as a place of high historical value as the space of Hong Yuhan’s ascetic life.

Related Places and Figures

• Hong Yuhan: the first ascetic of the Korean Catholic Church. His birth and death years are recorded as 1736–1785 in the Digital Yeongju Culture Encyclopedia.
• Hong Jung-myeong: the grandfather of Hong Yuhan and the protagonist of the Filial Piety Gate plaque.
• Ugok-ri: the place at the foot of Mount Munsu where Hong Yuhan’s body was buried.

References and Sources

1. Catholic Good News of the Archdiocese of Seoul, Holy Sites and Historic Sites ‘Hong Yuhan Old House Site (Hyucheondong Church)’. Confirmed Hong Yuhan’s deeds, the Filial Piety Gate plaque, and the erection of the historic-site monument in 1995.
   https://m.catholic.or.kr/web/holyplace/?seq=2356
2. The Academy of Korean Studies, Digital Yeongju Culture Encyclopedia ‘Hong Yuhan Historic Site’. Confirmed Hong Yuhan’s commandment-keeping life, the current state of the site, the improvement project and its evaluation.
   https://www.grandculture.net/yeongju/toc/GC07401003