Jungnimseowon Confucian Academy

This seowon (Confucian academy) was founded to hold memorial rites for earlier scholars — Yulgok Yi I, Ugye Seong Hon, Sagye Kim Jang-saeng, Jeongam Jo Gwang-jo, Toegye Yi Hwang and Uam Song Si-yeol — and to educate later students. Yi I (1536–1584) was born at Ojukheon House in Gangneung. From childhood he studied under his mother, Sin Saimdang, and passed the state examinations with top honours nine times. Together with Yi Hwang he is regarded as a representative scholar of Joseon Neo-Confucianism: where Yi Hwang placed greater weight on principle, Yi I placed greater weight on experience. Seong Hon (1535–1598) did not sit the state examinations and devoted himself solely to scholarship. From a young age he exchanged scholarly views with Yi I, and though recommended for many official posts he declined them, before finally entering official life at Yi I's urging. This academy was first built in 1626, the fourth year of King Injo, under the name Hwangsanseowon, to honour Yi I and Seong Hon. Kim Jang-saeng's tablet was added later, and in 1665, the sixth year of King Hyeonjong, it received the name "Jungnim" bestowed by the king and became a royally chartered academy, with the tablets of Jo Gwang-jo, Yi Hwang and Song Si-yeol then added. It was subsequently demolished under the academy-abolition decree of Heungseon Daewongun. An altar was set up in 1946 and memorial rites continued there, before the shrine hall was rebuilt in 1965. The academy's buildings are reached through a hongsalmun (red spiked gate) and the outer three-gated gate, beyond which stand the east and west study halls, the inner three-gated gate, and the shrine hall. To the right of the shrine hall stand a monument commemorating the rebuilding of Jungnimseowon and a marker recording the former site of Hwangsanseowon. The shrine hall measures three bays across the front and one bay deep, with a gable roof shaped like the character "人" (person) when viewed from the side. As an academy honouring only sages enshrined in the Munmyo (Confucian shrine), memorial rites are held here on the fifteenth day of the third and ninth lunar months.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Nonsan, Chungnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료