신숙주 申叔舟
Early-Joseon statesman & scholar
| Life | 1417 ~ 1475 |
| Era | 조선 전기 |
| Clan | 고령 신씨 |
Life & career
Sin Suk-ju (申叔舟, 1417-1475) was an early Joseon official, scholar and diplomat and the founder of the Munchung-gong branch of the Goryeong Sin clan. His courtesy name was Beomong, his pen names Huihyeondang and Bohanjae, and his posthumous title Munchung. The third son of Second Minister of Works Sin Jang, he was born at his mother's family home in Naju, Jeolla Province. He studied under Yun Hoe and Jeong In-ji and married Yun Hoe's granddaughter, Lady Yun of the Musong Yun clan.
He passed the licentiate examinations in 1438 and a royal civil examination the following year, and as a scholar of the Hall of Worthies he worked with Seong Sam-mun, Bak Paeng-nyeon and others on the creation and study of Hunminjeongeum. In 1443 he went to Japan as secretary to the envoy Byeon Hyo-mun and is said to have been involved on the way back in concluding the Gyehae Treaty with Tsushima. His observations later bore fruit in the Haedong jegukgi (1471), a record of the geography, customs and diplomatic protocol of Japan and Ryukyu. He took part in compiling the Dongguk jeongun and passed the advanced civil examination in 1447. He is said to have been fluent in Chinese, Japanese, Mongolian and Jurchen.
In the 1453 coup he sided with Grand Prince Suyang (King Sejo) and became a Jeongnan merit subject; after Sejo's accession he was enrolled in the first grade of Jwaik merit subjects and made Prince Goryeong (later Grand Prince Goryeong). After serving as Minister of War, Minister of Rites and Left Assistant State Councillor, he campaigned in 1460 as commissioner for Gangwon and Hamgil against the Jurchen of Maolian, and in 1462 he became Chief State Councillor. Under King Yejong he was made an Iktae merit subject for handling the Nam I case, and after King Seongjong's accession a Jwari merit subject, four merit enrollments in all; in 1471 he again became Chief State Councillor. He served six kings from Sejong to Seongjong and took part in compiling the Gukjo orye ui, the History of Goryeo and the Annals of King Sejo. Before his death in 1475 he is said to have urged King Seongjong, who visited him, never to lose peaceful relations with Japan.
Because, unlike the Six Martyred Ministers, he sided with King Sejo, he was criticized by later Neo-Confucian scholars and in fiction, but in recent decades his contributions to the Korean alphabet, diplomacy and defense have been reassessed. His portrait, a designated Treasure, is enshrined at the Gubong Portrait Shrine in Gadeok-myeon, Cheongju. His sons were Sin Ju, Sin Myeon, Sin Chan, Sin Jeong, Sin Jun, Sin Bu, Sin Hyeong and Sin Pil, and his grandsons Sin Jong-ho, Sin Yong-gae and Sin Gwang-han all won renown. The independence activist Sin Chae-ho was his eighteenth-generation descendant.
Grave
Sin Suk-ju's grave is located in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province.
Descendants
He had nine sons and two daughters; his sons Sin Myeon, Sin Jeong, Sin Jun, Sin Bu, Sin Hyeong, and Sin Pil carried on the family line.