Gijang Local Confucian School

A hyanggyo is a local educational institution established by the state to hold memorial rites for Confucius and other sages and to provide education and moral instruction for local residents. Gijang Local Confucian School was first built in 1617, the ninth year of King Gwanghaegun of Joseon. A record of its 1855 renovation, the sixth year of King Cheoljong, titled the Seongmyo jungsugi, survives, and most of the buildings standing today date from that renovation. The layout follows the jeonhak-humyo arrangement, with Myeongnyundang, the space for education, placed at the front, and Daeseongjeon, the space for rites, at the rear. The surviving buildings include Daeseongjeon, Myeongnyundang, the Dongjae and Seojae (east and west dormitories), Punghwaru Pavilion, and the inner and outer three-bay gates, Naesammun and Oesammun. Daeseongjeon measures three kan across the front and three kan along the side, with a gabled (matbae) roof that forms the shape of the character 人 (person) when viewed from the side. Inside are enshrined the spirit tablets of Confucius and other sages of China and Korea. Myeongnyundang is the lecture hall where students gathered to study; the bays on either side are ondol-heated rooms, while the central three bays form a wooden-floored hall. During the Joseon period the school received land, servants and books from the state to support the teaching of students, but today its educational function has ceased and only its role in holding memorial rites remains.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gijang, Busan

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물