This paper clarifies that the “Stele of the Northern Shrine” was written by King Kojong, the 26th King of Chosun Dynasty and that it was built in 1887 in the yard of the northern part of Seoul, currently Myeongryun-dong, Jongro-gu.
This paper furthermore examines the structure and the main contents of the epitaph: while King Kojong acclaimed the contributions of Guan Yu, the King never addressed Guan Yu with a title higher than ‘King,’ and consciously positioned him in the rank lower than the King of Chosun. This is the very first paper regarding Stone Stele of the Northern. More meaningful is that this paper reveals that the records relevant to Guan Yu on the epitaph, considering its six details, are not based on Chen Shou’s history book Records of the Three Kingdoms, but based on Mao Zhonggang’s adaptation of the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
The six aforementioned details are as follows: Guan Yu’s rank was called ‘Hanshoutinghou (漢壽亭侯)’; Guan Yu read The Spring and the Autumn Periods; Guan Yu kept a candlelight vigil until morning in order to protect the two wives of Liu Bei; Guan Yu’s life was evaluated based on ‘The Courtesy of Monarch and Courtier (君臣之禮)’ and ‘The Difference Between Men and Women (男女之別)’; Guan Yu flooded Cao Cao’s seven armies; and Guan Yu’s death came since ‘Heaven did not help Han Dynasty.’
It can be also learned from The Daily Records of Royal Secretariat of Chosun Dynasty that King Kojong read the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms for pleasure, Sima Guang’s history book Zizhi tongjian for basic reference, Zhu Xi’s Zizhitongjiangangmu for supplementary reference, and Chen Shou’s Records of the Three Kingdoms for in-dept reference. King Kojong actively accepted the fictional content of the novel on Stone Stele of the North. Because suffering from the Im o Military Revolt and The Gapsin Coup, he needed a story above all at the time which “would make subjects have loyalty (to the king)”.