장경세 張經世

Official and poet who wrote the twelve-song Ganghoyeongunga; pen name Sachon; Magistrate of Geumgu and settler-ancestor of the Heungdeok Jang in Sunchang

Life & career

Jang Gyeong-se (1547-1615) was a mid-Joseon official and poet of the Heungdeok Jang clan, courtesy name Gyeomseon and pen name Sachon. Born in Namwon, Jeolla, he belonged to a clan that was a native (tosung) surname of Namwon, hence "the Namwon Heungdeok Jang". He became a licentiate in 1585 and passed the supplementary civil examination at 43 in 1589, serving as Gyoseogwan Jeoja, Gongju Jeje-gwan, Seungmunwon Bakssa, Vice-Director in the Ministries of Works and Rites, and Jeolla Doyeo.

In 1602 he asked for the post of Magistrate of Geumgu to care for his mother but was dismissed in 1603 for misrule, after which he withdrew and spent his years in poetry. He wrote the twelve-song Ganghoyeongunga, modeled on Yi Hwang's Dosan Sipigok, expressing loyalty to the king and country, and in old age retired to Mt. Pungak in Namwon, where he composed 87 Chinese poems titled Yuseonsa. His collected works are the Sachonjip.

The Sunchang Cultural Encyclopedia names him the settler-ancestor of the Heungdeok Jang at Sujeong-ri, Donggye-myeon, Sunchang: after his grandfather Jang Eung-ryang died, the hut he built for mourning led to settlement, and during mourning for his father Jang Geon (1565) and grandmother (1568) he studied there for about ten years. Sujeong-ri is said to have escaped harm when Namwon fell in the Imjin War. He was enshrined at Juam Seowon in Namwon in 1786, and his descendants divide into the Saseong-gong and Jinsa-gong branches; sources differ on whether the move happened in his time or his grandson's.

The Heungdeok Jang of Sujeong-ri

The Sunchang encyclopedia names earlier forebears: Jang Heon, who beat back Japanese raiders at Unbong and moved from Heungdeok to Namwon; Jang Hap, Jeju Panggwan and Seongongam Jeong; Jang Yun-sin, a third-class merit subject under Sejo who opened the way to settlement at Sujeong-ri; and Jang Gyeong-won, Manho of Eoran-po and Mado, said to be the first buried at the Sujeong ancestral hill. In 2000 the Sunchang Heungdeok Jang numbered 121 households and 329 people, and in 2011 52 households lived in Donggye-myeon; there is a hall Jeonseongjae and ancestral graves below Hyangnobong on Mt. Pungak.

Descendants

The Heungdeok Jang of Sujeong-ri, Donggye, Sunchang divide into the Saseong-gong and Jinsa-gong branches, all descended from Jang Gyeong-se.

Other 흥덕 장씨 figures