Return of Park Jeongyang's Wife's Grave... Donated After Research by American Professor

Life Record of Yangju Jo Clan... Presumed Lost Before Joint Burial
Professor Peterson Accidentally Purchased It at an Antique Shop
"Cherishing and Investigating It, Calling Her 'Mrs. Jo'"

Mark A. Peterson, Professor Emeritus at Brigham Young University, is an authority on Korean studies in the United States. He has served as editor of the UNESCO-published Korea Journal and as chair of the Korean Studies Committee of the Association for Asian Studies in the U.S. He has also authored numerous works, including The Creation of Confucian Society: Changes in Adoption and Inheritance Systems in Mid-Joseon (2000). Last July, on his YouTube channel "Frog Outside the Well," which he operates, he introduced a square plate he had acquired at an antique shop.

"(On the white porcelain plate) there was a person's name and the word 'buin' (wife), so I thought it might be a tombstone inscription (墓誌, a stone or plate buried with the deceased recording their life). (...) The title Hojo Panseo is a very high-ranking official. Ban Nam Park clan's Park Jeongyang. He is famous for being the first ambassador to the United States. Because China opposed it, he left the country like a stowaway. This is not Park Jeongyang's tombstone but that of his wife, Yangju Jo clan."

It was a blue-and-white porcelain tombstone inscription titled Baekja Cheonghwa Jeongbuin Yangju Josshi MojI (白磁靑畵貞夫人楊州趙氏墓誌), recording the life of Yangju Jo (1841?1892), the first wife of Park Jeongyang (1841?1905), the first plenipotentiary minister to the United States. The plate contains 122 characters describing her life, character, and family relations. Yangju Jo bore Park Jeongyang one son and two daughters. She died in 1892 and was buried in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. A Cultural Heritage Administration official explained, "Jo was reburied with Park Jeongyang's tomb in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, in 1921," adding, "Judging from the condition of the tombstone, it is presumed to have been lost for unknown reasons before the reburial."

This precious record summarizing the traces of her life has returned to her descendants. The Cultural Heritage Administration and the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation recently announced on the 31st of last month that they had received the tombstone as a donation from Professor Peterson and delivered it to the Ban Nam Park clan. Peterson purchased the tombstone at an antique shop in Seoul while working as a manager for the Korean Fulbright Foundation from 1978 to 1983 and kept it for about 40 years. He devoted considerable attention to researching the contents inscribed on the plate and investigating Jo and her family.

The return process began when Professor Peterson introduced the tombstone and expressed his intention to return it to the descendants. Coincidentally, an employee of the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation’s U.S. office who watched the video connected Professor Peterson with the Ban Nam Park clan’s Jukcheon Gongpa branch in Korea, facilitating the donation. In October last year, the tombstone was temporarily entrusted by both parties and exhibited at a special exhibition commemorating the 140th anniversary of Korea-U.S. diplomatic relations held at the Korean Legation in Washington D.C.

A Cultural Heritage Administration official said, "Professor Peterson attended the donation ceremony held at the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation in Mapo-gu, Seoul, and expressed his happiness at being able to return the tombstone to the descendants." He added, "He had always cherished the tombstone, calling it 'Mrs. Cho,' and when asked if he could touch it one last time, he looked at it for a long time, perhaps feeling a sense of regret."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.