Hwangganhyanggyo Local Confucian School, Yeongdong

A hyanggyo was a local educational institution built by the state to hold memorial rites for eminent Confucian scholars and to provide Confucian education and moral instruction to local residents. Hwangganhyanggyo was built on the hill behind the village in 1394, the third year of King Taejo, but was moved inside the earthen-walled fortress in 1666, the seventh year of King Hyeonjong. It was repaired in 1752, the twenty-eighth year of King Yeongjo, and again in 1872, the ninth year of Emperor Gojong. The surviving buildings comprise the Daeseongjeon shrine, the Myeongnyundang lecture hall and ancillary buildings such as the Gojiksa (caretaker's quarters), arranged in the "study in front, shrine behind" layout, with the space for learning at the front and the space for memorial rites at the back. The Myeongnyundang, the lecture hall where students studied, is five bays wide and two bays deep, with an ornate hip-and-gable roof whose gable end forms the shape of the character 八 (eight). The Daeseongjeon, the shrine honouring Confucius and other sages, is three bays wide and two bays deep, with a plain gabled roof whose end takes the shape of the character 人 (person). The lotus-flower pattern carved on the foundation stones suggests a mixture of temple architecture with pavilion and residential building styles. During the Joseon period the school received state support to teach students, but after the Gabo Reforms of 1894 its educational role ceased, and today only the spring and autumn memorial rites continue to be held. The books kept here are valuable material for the study of local history.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yeongdong, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산