Ocheon Seowon

About this place

Ocheon Seowon is a Confucian academy located in Nam-gu, Pohang, and enshrines the spirit tablets of the Goryeo-period civil officials Jeong Seup-myeong and Jeong Mong-ju. It was founded in 1588 by the public agreement of local Confucian scholars to commemorate the scholarship and virtuous conduct of Jeong Seup-myeong and Jeong Mong-ju. Destroyed by fire during the Imjin War, it was rebuilt at its present site in 1612. In 1613 it received the royal charter name 'Ocheon,' and in 1740 Jeong Sa-do and Jeong Cheol were additionally enshrined. Later, after being demolished in 1868, the spirit tablets were buried in the ground and an altar was made at which rites were held, until it was restored in 1975. Within the grounds stand a shrine, a lecture hall, eastern and western dormitories, an inner three-bay gate, an outer three-bay gate, and a ritual-preparation hall (jeonsacheong), among others. The shrine, Sanggyeongsa, is a three-bay building in which the tablets of Jeong Mong-ju, Jeong Sa-do, and Jeong Cheol are enshrined. The lecture hall, Myeongnyundang, consists of a central wooden-floored hall with side rooms on either side.