Andong Sohoheon

About this place

Sohoheon is a detached pavilion that Seo Hae (1537–1559), a civil official in the early Joseon period, used as a study. Originally, Sohoheon was a house that Yi Myeong, who built Imcheonggak, constructed for his fifth son Yi Go when he set up a separate household; when Seo Hae married Yi Go's blind only daughter, his father-in-law Yi Go gave it to his son-in-law as a gift. Although Seo Hae reached a high level of scholarship, he died of illness at the young age of 23. Afterward, Seo Hae's wife took their young son Seo Seong (1558–1631) to Seoul, where she made and sold liquor and yakgwa (honey cookies) to fund his studies, and in 1586 Seo Seong passed the state examination at the top of his class. Sohoheon has a daecheong (main wooden-floored hall) of three bays in front and two bays on the side. A raised wooden-floored room (numaru) occupies one bay in front and two bays on the side. The daecheong attached to the numaru bends in an L-shape, and an ondol (heated-floor) room measuring two bays in front and one bay on the side is attached to it, forming a T-shaped floor plan. The roof-edge tiles are carved with two dragons, a feature rarely seen in commoners' houses. The building to the left of Sohoheon is Seo Seong's placenta chamber (taesil). Seo Seong was a disciple of Yulgok Yi I (1537–1584), making this a rare family in which father and son studied under Yi Hwang and Yi I, the two great masters of Neo-Confucianism who held differing doctrines.