Eonyanghyanggyo Local Confucian School

Hyanggyo were the official local educational institutions of the Joseon dynasty, where students studied both sajanghak, the composition of poetry and prose, and gyeonghak, the study of the Confucian classics. Hyanggyo buildings are divided into a Munmyo, the Confucian shrine, and a hakdang, the teaching quarters. The Munmyo contains the Daeseongjeon, the main hall enshrining Confucius together with the Four Sages and Two Worthies of China and the Eighteen Worthies of Korea, along with the Dongmu and Seomu, the east and west shrine halls. The hakdang consists of the Myeongnyundang, the lecture hall where students were taught, and the Dongjae and Seojae, the east and west dormitories. Eonyanghyanggyo is said to have first been founded at the foot of Banwolsan Mountain. It was later moved to its present site, then relocated again to the foot of Hwajangsan Mountain, before finally being moved back to its current location. In 1696, the twenty-second year of King Sukjong, when the provincial official Kim Jeong-ha oversaw the move to the present site, only the Daeseongjeon precinct was built at first; the Myeongnyundang and the Dongjae and Seojae were erected in 1700, the twenty-sixth year of King Sukjong. Records show further repairs in 1859, 1870 and 1900. Until 1900 the school is said to have had, in addition to the Daeseongjeon, Myeongnyundang, inner gate and dormitory wings, a Yangmu (paired shrine halls) and a Gyeonggak (scripture hall), neither of which survives today. Eonyanghyanggyo follows the general layout of a local hyanggyo, though the axis of the Daeseongjeon is offset from that of the Myeongnyundang, and it lacks the Dongmu and Seomu. The Daeseongjeon is a gable-roofed (matbae) building three bays wide and three bays deep, built with double eaves in the ikgong bracket style. An unusual feature of the Daeseongjeon is its jucho, the stone bases set on the ground to support the pillars: roughly finished round bases sit on separately placed, irregular square or uneven plinths. The Myeongnyundang is a building five bays wide and two and a half bays deep, with a three-bay wooden-floored hall at the centre flanked by one heated room (ondol) on each side, each fronted by a narrow veranda bay. Its roof is a hipped-and-gabled (paljak) form in the ikgong style, with single eaves and no buyeon, the extended decorative rafters.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Ulju, Ulsan

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산