Baeksegak in Seongju

About this place

Baeksegak in Seongju is a building that Song Hui-gyu (1494–1558), who had served as Jibui of the Saheonbu (Office of the Inspector-General) and in other posts in early Joseon, began building in 1551 (the 6th year of King Myeongjong) and completed the following year. A legend is handed down that "on rainy nights at midnight, the clatter of horses' hooves is heard so loudly that no one but the head of the family line can bring himself to sleep for fear." The complex consists of Baeksegak itself, a shrine, a caretaker's quarters, and a restroom, among others. The floor plan of Baeksegak is square (口-shaped), and it is characterized by the fact that no iron nails were used at all—holes were bored and the members bound together with bush-clover twigs—and that no plane was used, the timber being dressed solely with a hand adze. Baeksegak is a memorial facility of the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs deeply connected with the independence movement; it was used as the site where the Paris Letter (Parijangseo) incident of the North Gyeongsang Confucian scholars' association was deliberated. It is also said that here the Confucian scholar Gongsan Song Jun-pil composed a nationwide proclamation urging the Confucian community to rise up, and that together with his disciples he made the Korean national flags to be handed out at the independence demonstration on the Seongju market day of April 2, 1919.