Gonyanghyanggyo Local Confucian School

A hyanggyo is 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 the people of the region. The date of Gonyanghyanggyo's first construction is unknown, but in 1807, the seventh year of King Sunjo of Joseon, the magistrate of Gonyang County, Sin O, moved it to its present site. The buildings of the school have been repaired several times and have reached their present form through these repeated repairs. It follows the typical hyanggyo layout of lecture halls at the front and shrine at the rear: the lecture hall Myeongnyundang and the east and west student dormitories stand at the front, while the shrine hall Daeseongjeon and its inner gate Naesammun stand behind. Unusually, however, there are no east and west annex shrine halls flanking Daeseongjeon, and Daeseongjeon itself is set at an angle to the rear right of Myeongnyundang, so that the two areas are completely separated in the overall layout. During the Joseon period the school received land, books and government slaves from the state and used them to teach students, but today only the memorial rites are held. It is a site of long history that provides much valuable material for research into the local history of the Gonyang region.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Sacheon, Gyeongnam

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산