Wigyeseowon Confucian Academy, Goseong

Wigyeseowon was founded in 1844, the tenth year of King Hyeonjong, to honour the memory of Yi In-hyeong, Yi Ui-hyeong, Yi Ryeong, Yi Hyeon and Yi Eung-seong. Yi In-hyeong passed the jinsa examination, a preliminary civil service examination, in 1455, the first year of King Sejo, but declined to take office at such a young age, believing that early office would foster arrogance. He later placed first in the state examination in 1468, the fourteenth year of King Sejo, and held a succession of official posts. After his death, in 1498 his corpse was exhumed and beheaded because he had been a disciple of Kim Jong-jik, but he was later posthumously honoured as Minister of the Board of Rites, the highest post in that ministry. The academy was closed under the decree of Heungseon Daewongun abolishing Confucian academies, and was rebuilt in 1963, at which time Yi Je, Yi Gyu, Yi Ye-hyeong and Yi Ji-hyeong were also enshrined there. Wigyeseowon in Goseong stands facing south at the upper end of a valley. It follows the jeonhakhumyo arrangement, with the lecture hall where students studied placed on the lower part of the slope and the shrine housing the spirit tablets on the higher ground. The shrine, lecture hall and outer gate are set out in a neat, orderly line along a north–south axis. The shrine, Sungdeoksa, measures three bays across the front and three bays to the side. It has a narrow bay at the front and a timber-floored room at the rear in which the spirit tablets are enshrined. Its roof is a gable roof (matbae-jibung), in which the roof planes rise to meet at the central ridge, leaving triangular gable walls at the sides. The lecture-hall precinct is arranged in an open square around the lecture hall, with the outer gate at the front and the east and west dormitories flanking it on either side. The lecture hall measures five bays across the front and two bays to the side, with a central section of three bays combining a wooden floor and heated rooms, and a heated room with a narrow veranda floor at each end. Its roof is a hip-and-gable roof (paljak-jibung) with square eaves and a triangular upper section. It has five purlins resting across the columns to carry the rafters, and is finished in the somo-sujang style, with small brackets supporting the purlins and tie-beams. The east dormitory measures four bays across the front and one and a half bays to the side; because its roof slopes down on all four sides it is a hipped roof (ujingak-jibung), trapezoidal at the front and triangular at the sides. The west dormitory is one bay smaller than the east dormitory but otherwise of the same construction. The outer gate, Yuinmun, is three bays across the front; it is a sotsol-sammun gate, its central section built higher than the flanking wings so that a palanquin could pass through.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Goseong, Gyeongnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료