Seongju Gigukjeong Pavilion

Gigukjeong was begun by Do Sang-uk, sobriquet Jenam, who wished to create a place for educating younger students, but construction stopped partway through because of a poor harvest. The magistrate of Seongju at the time, Seong Jong-in, praised his intentions while on an inspection tour and funded the building's completion, which was finished in February 1795, the nineteenth year of King Jeongjo. It has long served as a gathering place for men of letters and scholars and as a venue for educating the younger generation. Do Sang-uk held no notable official post, but was an outstanding scholar who trained many disciples and kept up wide ties with the Confucian scholars of the Yeongnam region. In particular, when a royal order was issued early in King Jeongjo's reign to compile gazetteers for every region, he took part in compiling and editing the Seongju gazetteer, and in 1804, the fourth year of King Sunjo, he printed the Sok Jachi Tonggam Gangmok (Continuation of the Outline and Digest of the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government), a sequel to the Zizhi Tongjian, by Kim U-ong, sobriquet Donggang. He also submitted a memorial pointing out that Je Mal, a meritorious subject of the Japanese invasions of 1592–98, had been overlooked for reward; as a result Je Mal was posthumously granted the title Munchung and enshrined at Chungjeolsa Shrine. The building measures three kan (bays) across the front and one kan deep, in a straight, "il" (一)-shaped plan, turned about 30 degrees from true south to face south-east; from right to left it is arranged as a daecheong (wooden-floored hall) followed by two ondol-heated rooms, the ondol rooms being heated from fireboxes (hamsil) at the front and side. Relatively sound timber was used throughout, showing off the rustic timber-working methods of its time, and it retains in relatively good original condition a yeongssangchang (a type of paired lattice window) of a kind widely used in the early and middle Joseon period.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Seongju, Gyeongbuk

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료