Hullyeong Seowon

About this place

Hullyeong Seowon was founded in 1699 (the 25th year of King Sukjong) by the public agreement of local Confucian scholars to commemorate the fidelity and moral learning of Bak Yang-mu, a civil official of the Goryeo period, and to enshrine his spirit tablet. Later, the tablets of other distinguished Confucian scholars such as Bak Gye-eun, Bak Maeng-mun, and Bak Ran were additionally enshrined; the academy conducted ancestral rites and took charge of the education and moral edification of the local people. However, after it was demolished in 1869 (the 6th year of King Gojong) under the Daewongun's order to abolish the seowon academies, it was preserved as a village school (seodang) and was promoted back to the status of a seowon in 1998. Upon entering the mountain-shaped main gate, one finds, across a courtyard, the lecture hall—a tiled building with a hip-and-gable roof measuring seven bays across the front and one and a half bays deep. At the right front of the lecture hall are arranged the eastern dormitory, a four-bay tiled building with a hip-and-gable roof, and Sungjeolsa, a three-bay tiled building with a gable roof.