The Man Who Brought the Walnut Is in the Goryeosa's Biographies of Treacherous Officials: The Gwangdeoksa Walnut and Yu Cheong-sin

At a glance

Tree

Walnut Tree of Gwangdeoksa Temple, Cheonan

Age · era

16th year of King Chungnyeol of Goryeo (1290, according to legend), about 400 years old, Natural Monument in 1998

Story

The Korea Heritage Service portal signboard introduces the Gwangdeoksa walnut tree of Cheonan as the walnut tree known to be the oldest in Korea, and writes that Yu Cheong-sin (Yeongmilgong), who spoke Mongolian well and traveled to Yuan China many times, when he returned from Yuan escorting the king's carriage in 1290 (the 16th year of King Chungnyeol), brought a walnut sapling and nuts, planting the sapling at Gwangdeoksa Temple and the nuts in the front yard of his hometown house. Because of this story the place is called the site where walnut trees were first planted, and a stone monument reading "Site Where Master Yu Cheong-sin First Tasted Walnuts" stands in front of the tree. However, the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture writes that if the tree is about 400 years old, it is presumed to be a later tree rather than the one first planted, and says there are now about 260,000 walnut trees around the area. Yu Cheong-sin, the hero of the story, came from a family that had served for generations as buguk officials (buguk-ri), and, thanks to his service of traveling several times as an envoy to Yuan because he spoke Mongolian well, won the favor of King Chungnyeol and later rose to the rank of chief minister. But in his later years he failed in a movement in Yuan to enthrone the Prince of Shim and a scheme to set up a Yuan province in Goryeo, could not return home, and died in Yuan in 1329, which is why his name appears in the Goryeosa's Biographies of Treacherous Officials.