Deoksanhyanggyo Local Confucian School

A hyanggyo is a local Confucian school established by the state to hold memorial rites for Confucius and other sages and to educate and morally instruct the people of the region. The exact date when Deoksanhyanggyo was first built is not known, but it is said to have been founded during the reign of King Injo of Joseon (r. 1623–1649). Records show that the Daeseongjeon, the shrine hall, was repaired in 1682, the 8th year of King Sukjong, and it was renovated again in 1987. The buildings are arranged without an outer three-doored gate (oesammun): the Myeongnyundang, the space for education, stands directly at the front, with the Daeseongjeon, the space for ancestral rites, behind it, following the "school in front, shrine behind" layout typical of hyanggyo. The Daeseongjeon measures three kan across the front and three kan along the side (kan being the traditional unit of a structural bay), and has a gabled roof that, seen from the side, forms the shape of the character 人 (person). Inside are enshrined the spirit tablets of Confucius together with sages of China and Korea. The Myeongnyundang, the lecture hall where students gathered to study, measures seven kan across the front and one kan along the side, and its roof is likewise gabled. In the Joseon period the school received land, slaves and books from the state to teach its students, but today its educational function has ceased, leaving only its role in ancestral rites.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yesan, Chungnam

Designation

Provincial Monument · 시도기념물