Yangyojeong Pavilion

This pavilion was built in the mid-Joseon period by Choe Eung-suk, who retired to the countryside here after the Imjin War, the Japanese invasions of 1592–1598. Choe Eung-suk, a seonggyun jinsa (a licentiate of the state academy, Seonggyungwan), had his clan seat in Jeonju, the pen name Yangyo, and the posthumous title Chunghyeon. His lineage honours Choe Gun-ok, styled Munchunggong, as its founding ancestor, and Choe Chil-seok, styled Wijeonggong, as its secondary founding ancestor. Choe Chil-seok's son, Choe Un, moved from Jeonju to Sujibang in Namwon-bu, and the family lived there for eight generations; it appears that Choe Eung-suk, known as Yangyodang, the ninth-generation descendant of Choe Chil-seok, was the first of the line to settle in Unam, Imsil. During the Imjin War, Choe Eung-suk, then a seonggyun jinsa, escorted the king in his flight, and for this service was enfeoffed as a third-grade Hoseong Gongsin, a Meritorious Subject for Royal Attendance. He later retired to Unam, where he built Yangyojeong and lived there in quiet retreat. The name 'Yangyo', meaning 'two joys', is said to derive from the saying of Mencius, 'The benevolent delight in mountains, the wise delight in water.' From Choe Eung-suk's time onward the family produced twelve jinsa degree-holders, and many scholars praised him in verse; fourteen poems by literary visitors still hang in the pavilion. In 1965, when the Seomjingang River Dam was built, the pavilion was threatened with submersion, and it was moved to its present site above Yosan Park. The building measures three bays across the front and three bays deep, with a hip-and-gable roof. A single-bay room occupies the centre of the pavilion, surrounded by a narrow wooden veranda. Throughout the pavilion there is dancheong, traditional multicoloured decorative painting, along with murals depicting Choe Eung-suk escorting the king and living in quiet retirement after retiring to the countryside.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Imsil, Jeonbuk

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료