Hwang Kyung-Han Tomb

Overview

The Tomb of Hwang Gyeong-han is a gravesite on Hachuja-do, Chuja Islands, managed as a holy site by the Diocese of Jeju. It is the burial place of Hwang Gyeong-han, the only son of Hwang Sa-yeong, who was martyred in the Silk Letter incident during the Sinyu Persecution, and Maria Jeong Nan-ju, who was exiled to Jeju. It holds the story of him, who was left on Chuja Island at the age of two and grew up in the O family.

History

According to Good News, Hwang Sa-yeong married Maria Jeong Nan-ju, the daughter of Jeong Yak-hyeon, the eldest brother of Dasan Jeong Yak-yong, in the year he passed the jinsa examination in 1790, and their son Gyeong-han was born in 1800. In 1801, during the Sinyu Persecution, he was arrested in connection with the Silk Letter incident and martyred outside Seosomun Gate in November; afterwards his widowed mother was exiled to Geoje Island, his wife to Jeju Island, his only son Gyeong-han to Chuja Island, and all family property was confiscated.

Good News reports that the Ilseongnok, Sahakjingui and other records contain the sentence that, because he was under 2 years old, he was not strangled under the law but exiled as a slave to Chuja Island in Yeonggwang County. According to the transmitted story, Jeong Nan-ju bribed the boatman of the escort boat, and the boatman in turn bribed the two guards with alcohol, and the infant Gyeong-han was set down at Hwangsae Rock at the southwestern tip of Yecho-ri, Hachuja-do, while the guards reported that the child had died on the voyage and been buried at sea.

Gyeong-han was taken in by a fisherman surnamed O and grew up as his son. It is said that his name and birth year, found in the white collar detached from the jeogori he was wearing, revealed that he was Hwang Gyeong-han. The Seogwipo Newspaper, citing a story handed down on Chuja Island, says that a wife who was feeding grass to cattle nearby heard a baby crying and took him in, and identifies the adoptive father as O Sang-seon, a fisherman of Yecho-ri. Gyeong-han, raised in the O household, married and had two sons, Geon-seop and Tae-seop, and his descendants are said still to live on Chuja Island. It is said that a custom arose on Chuja Island against marriage between the O and Hwang families.

After his death, Gyeong-han was buried on the middle ridge of the mountain south of Sinyang-ri. The O family house where Gyeong-han lived burned down in 1965, and the infant clothes and family documents kept in the house were also lost.

According to Good News, Father Lacroux of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, sent for the Jeju mission in 1900, met Hwang Gyeong-han’s grandson in 1909 while traveling to and from Chuja Island and learned the whole story. Father Lacroux wrote to Father Charleboeuf to report the miserable life of Gyeong-han and his descendants, and Father Charleboeuf introduced it in a mission magazine. With donations from French benefactors, Father Lacroux bought a house and farmland for Hwang Gyeong-han’s grandson.

There are records that missionaries entered Chuja Island starting in May 1908 to evangelize, and from 1956 a Catholic mission chapel under the jurisdiction of Jeju Jungang Church began. In 1988, the Chuja mission chapel was transferred to the jurisdiction of Seomun Church, and the faithful of the Chuja mission chapel have cared for the Tomb of Hwang Gyeong-han. In 1999, the Diocese of Jeju purchased about 600 pyeong of land around the tomb and promoted its development as a sacred precinct with a small park, as part of the project commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Jeju mission.

When the old mission chapel building erected in 1975 was heavily damaged by a typhoon in 2001, construction of a new church began in July of that year, and the blessing ceremony for the new church, with 1 basement level and 2 above-ground levels, was held on June 30, 2003. Equipped with a daycare center and a mortuary, it has rooms and a dining hall that can accommodate about 20 people, and is used as lodging for pilgrims (Good News).

Architecture and Space

According to a contribution by the vice chief of Chuja Township published in the Jeju Ilbo, a tear-shaped cross and a statue of the two-year-old infant Hwang Gyeong-han were installed on the rock at Mulsaeng-i Kkeut facing the tomb of Hwang Gyeong-han. The cross, 3 meters wide and 5.5 meters high, expresses Maria Jeong Nan-ju’s tears gathering on the cross and rising to heaven, and the baby statue holds a rosary in its hand, lying down with both arms raised to heaven. The two works were produced after consultation with experts and local residents.

Meaning for Faith and Context for Visiting

According to Yonhap News on January 15, 2018, Jeju Island announced that it would develop the Tomb of Hwang Gyeong-han, its 111th Catholic pilgrimage site, into a nature and ecology recreation park to attract tourists and revitalize the local economy. The project cost was about 20 hundred million won, with completion expected the following year.

Related Places and Persons

• Maria Jeong Nan-ju: Gyeong-han’s mother, who lived as a government slave in Daejeong-hyeon, Jeju; her tomb is at the Daejeong Shrine.
• Alexio Hwang Sa-yeong: Gyeong-han’s father, martyred in the Silk Letter incident.
• Chuja mission chapel: the mission chapel that has cared for the tomb.

References and Sources

1. Good News Catholic Information, Tomb of Hwang Gyeong-han in the Diocese of Jeju. Confirmed the exile of Hwang Sa-yeong’s family, Gyeong-han’s upbringing and descendants, Father Lacroux’s support, the Chuja mission chapel and the development as a sacred precinct in 1999, and the mission chapel church in 2003.
   https://maria.catholic.or.kr/sa_ho/list/view.asp?ctxtOrgNum=2372&menugubun=holyplace
2. Jeju Ilbo, “Catholic Holy Site: The Tomb of Hwang Gyeong-han on Chuja Island and the Cross of Tears”. Confirmed the size and form of the Cross of Tears and the baby statue.
   http://www.jejunews.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=1978804
3. Seogwipo Newspaper, “Following the Baby’s Crying on the Rock by the Sea..” (June 21, 2017). Confirmed the story of Gyeong-han’s discovery handed down on Chuja Island and his adoption into the O family.
   https://www.seogwipo.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=139737
4. Yonhap News, “Tourism Development of the ‘Tomb of Hwang Gyeong-han,’ Son of Catholic Martyr Hwang Sa-yeong” (January 15, 2018). Confirmed the designation as the 111th pilgrimage site and the plan to develop a recreation park.
   https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20180115119600056