Gongju Iyutae Historic Remains

In the mid-Joseon period, together with Song Jun-gil, Song Si-yeol, Yun Seon-geo and Yu Gye, Yi Yu-tae was counted among the so-called Five Sages of the Mountains and Forests of Chungcheong. A great Confucian scholar and a thinker on statecraft who carried forward the mainstream of ritual studies in Hoseo (the Chungcheong region), Chorye Yi Yu-tae spent his final years at this site. It has continued to serve as a traditional seowon (a Confucian academy for study and ancestral rites) that carries on and teaches his thought and spirit, and today it contains his old house and Yongmun Seowon. Yongmun Seowon originated with the Jungdong Seojae and Yongmun Seojae, study halls where Yi Yu-tae wrote his works and taught his disciples. Jungdong Seojae was where his residence once stood, while Yongmun Seojae stood on the site now occupied by Yongmun Seowon and the head house, and was where his disciples lived and studied. Yongmun Seojae was later renamed Yongmun Seosa by his descendant Hoeun Yi Jae-won (1773–1841), who for a time held memorial rites there for Yi Yu-tae; this was discontinued, however, because holding private memorial rites for a former sage without official permission was deemed improper. In the course of resisting the Japanese colonial land survey, during which the family was imprisoned several times for anti-Japanese activities, the buildings dating from Chorye's own time lost much of their original form. Confucian scholars and descendants, regretting this loss, restored and rebuilt Yongmun Seowon on the site where Yongmun Seojae had stood.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Gongju, Chungnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료