Taejongdae (Hoengseong)

Taejongdae is located just above the ticket office of Chiaksan National Park in Gangnim-myeon. It is a place where the story of Taejong Yi Bang-won and his teacher, Ungok Won Cheon-seok, is passed down. Ungok Won Cheon-seok, one of the four scholars at the end of the Goryeo Dynasty, was the teacher of Yi Bang-won, who later became King Taejo of the Joseon Dynasty. Feeling disappointment and anger over Taejo's overthrow of Goryeo and the bloody struggle for the throne among his sons, Ungok refused all official posts and left Gaeseong to live in seclusion in Gangnim-ri. In 1415, before Bang-won ascended to the throne, he visited this rugged mountain area to meet his former teacher Ungok, hoping to reinstate him in office and discuss state affairs. However, Ungok, who was upright and firm in his convictions, avoided meeting Bang-won and deliberately hid in the valleys of Chiaksan. Knowing that Bang-won was searching for him, Ungok told an old woman washing clothes by the stream to say, if anyone came looking for him, that he had gone toward Hoengjiam, and then fled in the opposite direction. Bang-won followed the old woman's directions to find his teacher but ultimately could not find Ungok and returned. The place where Bang-won stayed at that time was called 'Jupildae,' and later, when Bang-won ascended to the throne as King Taejong, it came to be called 'Taejongdae.' Later, when Taejong, now king, summoned Ungok again, Ungok, unable to defy the royal command, dressed in mourning clothes and entered the palace, where he silently protested Taejong's inhumane slaughter of his brothers.