King Haotai Stele

King Haotai Stele

The King Haotai Stele is a cultural tourism attraction. Officially titled “Stele of the Great King Haotai of Goguryeo,” it is also known as the “Stele of the Wide and Peaceful King Haotai of Goguryeo.” It is a memorial stele erected for King Dangun, the 19th ruler of the Goguryeo Kingdom (374–413) during the Eastern Jin Dynasty.

Introduction: Surrounded by green mountains and clear waters, the ancient city of Ji’an appears like a tranquil lotus leaf floating on a lake, while the King Haotai Stele, standing tall in the city for over 1,500 years, resembles a glistening dewdrop on that leaf—radiant and captivating. Known as the “First Stele of the East,” the King Haotai Stele is located at the foot of Yushan Mountain, about 4 kilometers east of downtown Ji’an City, Jilin Province, in the Tonggou Plain. It was erected in honor of the tomb of the 19th king of Goguryeo, “King Haotai.” Towering, dignified, and entirely dark in hue, historical records indicate that the stele was built in the 10th year of the Yixi era (414 AD) during the reign of Emperor An of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, making it 1,590 years old. It was carved from a single massive column of breccia tuff, with only slight modifications made to its shape. The stele stands 6.39 meters tall, with varying widths on each of its four sides, ranging between 1.34 meters and 2 meters. Weighing approximately 37 tons, the stele is roughly cylindrical in shape, without a top stone. The entire stone monument stands directly atop an irregular granite slab without any external support. King Haotai, whose personal name was Dangun, ascended the throne at the age of 18 in 391 AD and died at the age of 39. His posthumous title was “Great King Haotai, Who Brought Peace and Prosperity Across the Vast Land Under Heaven.” Research by experts suggests that the 22 years of King Haotai’s reign marked an unprecedented period of prosperity in Goguryeo’s history. Leveraging strong economic and military power, he launched campaigns in all directions—seizing Liaodong, driving out Japanese pirates, invading the Han River region, and subjugating Buyeo—dramatically expanding Goguryeo’s territory. The King Haotai Stele was erected by King Changsu (his successor) in memory of his father’s achievements. The four sides of the stele are inscribed with text in Chinese clerical script, bold and solemn. There are 44 vertical lines of text on all four sides, each line separated by ruled margins, with 41 characters per line, totaling originally around 1,775 characters. Over a thousand years of weathering, along with fires set during the late Qing and Republican eras to remove moss and inappropriate rubbing practices, have caused some damage to the stele. Currently, only about 1,600 characters remain legible. While the general meaning of the inscriptions is clear, there is considerable debate among scholars regarding punctuation, historical interpretation, and archaeological issues, leading to numerous publications and differing scholarly views. The content of the King Haotai Stele can be divided into three main parts. The first part is relatively short, consisting of 6 lines, mainly narrating the mythological origins of the Goguryeo kingdom and describing the prosperous and bountiful era under King Haotai’s rule. The second part, which forms the core of the inscription, spans 22 lines and provides a detailed account of King Haotai’s military campaigns and territorial conquests. The third part, covering 16 lines, documents the number and origin of households assigned to guard the tomb, as well as the related tomb-guarding system. According to experts, only three known written artifacts from Goguryeo history survive today, and the King Haotai Stele is the most comprehensive among them. Due to the scarcity of historical documentation about this ancient people, this stele—engraved with 1,775 Chinese characters—provides a relatively complete and wide-ranging record of historical facts from the height of the Goguryeo regime. As such, it holds significant value for the study of Goguryeo’s politics, military, culture, institutions, traditions, and its relationships with Silla, Baekje, and the Japanese archipelago. This invaluable stele remained hidden and overgrown for a full ten centuries. It wasn’t until 1877 (the third year of the Guangxu reign in the Qing Dynasty), when Huanren County was established, that a clerk named Guan Yuanshan discovered the stele during official duties. After making several rubbings of the inscriptions, the texts were eventually brought to Beijing, revealing to the world that this mountainous and watery region had once been the site of flourishing prosperity and even the origin of several major historical events and upheavals. After its discovery, the King Haotai Stele became the focus of research by scholars from China, Japan, Korea, and Western countries. In 1928, local businesses and residents in Ji’an raised funds to build a wooden stele pavilion to protect the monument. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, both national and local governments placed great emphasis on its preservation. Cracks on the stele were repaired, and chemical treatments were successfully applied to seal and protect it from weathering and erosion, proving highly effective. In 1982, a magnificent new replica-style pavilion was constructed. Last year, bulletproof glass was installed on all four sides of the pavilion, and special personnel were assigned to closely guard the stele. In addition, the government relocated residents living near the King Haotai Stele and Haotai Royal Tomb, and improved the surrounding environment, allowing the stele and tomb to complement each other beautifully. On July 1, 2004, the King Haotai Stele, together with the Haotai Royal Tomb, was approved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site by the 28th session of the World Heritage Committee.

Original text: In the days of old, when our founding ancestor, King Zhu-mu, established the kingdom, he came forth from Northern Buyeo, born as the son of the Heavenly Emperor and the daughter of the River God. She cleaved an egg, from which he was born—a child with a divine... [text continues with historical narrative in classical Chinese]