Seowon ( Korean : 서원 ) were the most common educational institutions of Korea during the Joseon Dynasty . They were private institutions, and combined the functions of a Confucian shrine and a Confucian school. In educational terms, the seowon were primarily occupied with preparing young men for the national civil service examinations . In most cases, seowon served only pupils of the aristocratic yangban class. On 6 July 2019, UNESCO recognized a collection of nine seowon as World Heritage Sites .
6-579: The Oksan Seowon is a seowon located at Oksan-ri, Angang-eup in the city of Gyeongju , North Gyeongsang Province , South Korea. Seowon is a type of local academy during the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897). It was established by Yi Je-min, (李齊閔), the minister of Gyeongju and local Confucian scholars in 1572, the fifth year of King Seonjo 's reign, to commemorate the scholarly achievement and virtue of Confucian scholar and politician Yi Eon-jeok (1491–1553). Hoejae Yeongjeok left office and built
12-464: A handful closed. The provincial yangban were outraged by these measures, and this is among the reasons that Daewon-gun was driven from power in 1873; however, the seowon remained closed. Seowon , Korean Neo-Confucian Academies is a World Heritage Site consisting of a selection of nine seowon : In 1741 ( Yeongjo 17), when seowon were abolished due the corruption associated with them and because of their role in factional politics,
18-745: The Sarim Neo-Confucian scholars. While the exact year of seowon introduction in Korea is not known for certain, in 1418 King Sejong issued rewards to two scholars for their work in setting up seowons in Gimje and Gwangju . The first seowon to receive a royal charter was the Sosu Seowon in Punggi , presided over by Toegye , which was given a hanging board by King Myeongjong in 1550. While historian Michael Shin mentions that
24-545: The 8th century under the Tang dynasty , and were later dismantled under the Yuan dynasty to become preparatory schools for the imperial examinations under government control. Most seowon were closed by an edict of the regent Daewon-gun in the turbulent final years of the 19th century. He banned the unauthorized construction of seowons in 1864, and removed their tax exemption in 1868; finally, in 1871, he ordered all but
30-613: The earliest seowon was established in North Gyeongsang by Ju Sebung (1495–1554). Large numbers of seowons were established by leading seonbi (literati), or by local groups of yangban families. Some of the Sarim scholars who retired to villages in the wake of literati purges of the 16th century used the seowons as their political bases. They were modeled after early private Chinese academies of classical learning shuyuan . The latter originated in
36-563: The main building as the main building in the stream of Oksan in Gyeongju's Angang-eup near Yangdong Village. For this reason, after Hoejae died, Oksan Seowon was built near Dokrakdang. Oksan Seowon is located in Seshimdae, and it means to wash one's mind with water falling from Yongchu and seek learning through nature. Seowon Seowons first appeared in Korea in the early Joseon Dynasty , whose establishment were driven mainly by
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