Early Joseon official, Inspector-General of the Censorate and naval commander (founder of the Gwiraejeong-gong branch)
| Life | 1429 ~ 1503 |
| Era | 조선 전기 |
| Clan | 고령 신씨 |
Sin Mal-ju (申末舟, 1429-1503) was an early Joseon official and the founder of the Gwiraejeong-gong branch of the Goryeong Sin clan. His courtesy name was Jajip and his pen name Gwiraejeong. His great-grandfather was the calligrapher-painter Sin Deok-rin, his grandfather Third Minister of Works Sin Po-si, and his father Second Minister of Works Sin Jang; he was the youngest of five brothers, the third of whom was Sin Suk-ju.
He passed the licentiate examination in 1451 and the civil examination in 1454. Because his brother Sin Suk-ju was then Royal Secretary, a celebration was held at home, and King Danjong is said to have sent thirty bottles of wine. After King Sejo's accession he was enrolled as a second-grade minor merit subject and served as a remonstrance official in the Office of the Censor-General, section chief in the Ministry of Rites, Third Inspector, Censor and Inspector-General of the Censorate, and Third Minister of Punishments. Under King Seongjong he held provincial posts as Magistrate of Jeonju, Magistrate of Jinju, Governor of Changwon and Army Commander of Right Gyeongsang, was again made Inspector-General of the Censorate in 1487, and later served in the Office of Ministers-without-Portfolio and as Naval Commander of Jeolla.
He married a daughter of Seol Baek-min of the Sunchang Seol clan, and a widely told story says that after King Danjong was forced to abdicate he gave up office and retired to his wife's home in Namsandae village, Sunchang, where he built the Gwiraejeong pavilion. The annals, however, record that he continued to hold office afterward, and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture considers the story an inaccurate account of his life; the annals do show that he was dismissed for a time in 1470 after staying in Sunchang too long.
In 1499, at the age of seventy, he invited nine elders of Sunchang to a fellowship gathering and left a preface and the painting Sipno gyechukdo depicting it; some suggest the painting was by his wife, Lady Seol, who was skilled in poetry, calligraphy and painting. Lady Seol's Exhortation to Virtue is a designated Treasure. Namsandae village became a home of the Goryeong Sin, producing his grandson Sin Gong-je and his descendant Sin Gyeong-jun. Under King Seonjo he was enshrined with Sin Gong-je at the Hwasan Seowon in Sunchang.
His descendants include his grandson Sin Gong-je (Minister of Personnel, honored for incorruptibility), the seventeenth-century writers Sin Yu and Sin Hon, the Silhak scholar Sin Gyeong-jun and the painters Sin Han-pyeong and Sin Yun-bok.