Okcheon Local Confucian School

A hyanggyo is an educational institution built by the state to hold memorial rites for eminent Confucian scholars and to provide Confucian education and moral instruction to local people. This school was first built in 1398, the seventh year of King Taejo of Joseon, was burned down during the Japanese invasions of 1592, and was later rebuilt. The dilapidated school was restored in 1961, and further repairs in 1966 and 1974 brought it to its present form. The buildings that survive today are the Daeseongjeon Hall (a Chungcheongbuk-do Cultural Heritage Material), together with the Myeongnyundang lecture hall, the Dongjae and Seojae dormitories, the inner and outer three-gates (Naesammun and Oesammun), and the caretaker's quarters (Gojiksa). The Daeseongjeon, the shrine hall, enshrines the memorial tablets of Confucius and of Confucian scholars from China and Korea. The Myeongnyundang is the lecture hall where students gathered to study, and it also served as a source of moral instruction. During the Joseon period the school was supported by land, books and servants granted by the state, but after the Gabo Reform of 1894 it lost its educational function, and today only its function of holding memorial rites remains. The school preserves many books valuable for the study of the local history of the Okcheon region in the late Joseon period, including the Yuan, the Cheonggeumnok, the Seonan and the Gyoan.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Okcheon, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산