Gugangseowon Confucian Academy

This is a seowon, a Confucian academy, enshrining a portrait and spirit tablet of Yi Je-hyeon (pen name Ikjae) to commemorate his scholarship and virtuous conduct. Yi Je-hyeon was a scholar and statesman of the late Goryeo period. As a scholar, Yi Je-hyeon was an outstanding Confucian who played a crucial role in introducing and developing Neo-Confucianism. He was also a master in the field of literature, leaving behind many poems and prose works and raising Goryeo's literature in Classical Chinese to a new level. He likewise left significant achievements in historical scholarship. His surviving works are the ten-volume Ikjae nango and the two-volume Yeogong paeseol. Gugangseowon was originally built as a portrait shrine to Yi Je-hyeon during the reign of King Gongmin of Goryeo (r. 1351–1374), and was reestablished as a seowon in 1686, the twelfth year of King Sukjong. However, it was closed under the order abolishing seowon academies in 1871, the eighth year of Emperor Gojong's reign, and was restored in 1904 by local Confucian scholars. The academy's layout divides its grounds in a "field" (田) shape, enclosed by an earthen wall. On the left side, the outer gate, lecture hall, inner gate and shrine are arranged along a single axis, while on the right side stand a caretaker's house and a book-storage hall. Inside the book-storage hall are preserved a portrait of Ikjae and the printing blocks of his collected works. The academy has served both in offering rites to the sage and in local education, and memorial rites are held every year in the second and eighth lunar months.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gyeongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료