I was in Korea recently as a guest of the Sungkyunkwan — not the modern university, but the original Confucian academy that is over 1,000 years old. Today, the Sungkyunkwan is the headquarters for the Confucian organization. The conference I attended was a training session for leaders of Confucian organizations from across the country — the hyanggyo and seowon in every area of Korea. I was asked to talk about my views of the standing of Confucianism in 21st-century Korea.
I should first make sure that the reader understands how the Confucian organization is structured, and what the "hyanggyo" and "seowon" are. The current Confucian structure is patterned on the educational system of the Joseon and Goryeo dynasties — that is, there was one central “university” in Seoul, the Sungkyunkwan, and supporting government schools in each county, the hyanggyo, as well as and the private schools, the seowon, located in many locales across the country.
The Sungkyunkwan was larger than the hyanggyo and seowon, but it provided the structural format for each of schools. That is, that in each place there were buildings for teaching — a lecture hall and dormitories, and supporting cafeteria buildings, for each school was a live-in facility, where students would come to the school to live for periods of time as they studied.
The Sungkyunkwan in Seoul was larger than all the hyanggyo and seowon, but the two main buildings, one for study and one for ceremonies, were in reverse location — that is to say that the building for ceremonies at the Sungkyunkwan was in the foreground, but in all the hyanggyo and seowon, the building for ceremonies was in the background. And the study hall was in the foreground at the hyanggyo and seowon, but is located behind the worship building at the Sungkyunkwan. The lecture hall of the Sungkyunkwan is on the face of the 1,000 won note today. The visage is that of (Toegye) Yi Hwang, on the right side of the note, but in the center, the longish building, is the Myeongnyundang, the lecture hall of the Sungkyunkwan.
The Sungkyunkwan was founded in the early Goryeo period, and thus is over 1,000 years old — located in Gaeseong first, then moved to Seoul shortly after the advent of the Joseon Dynasty in 1392. Today, the Sungkyunkwan is better know for the modern university which bears the same name, but the original Joseon-period complex is still there, below the hill where the modern university sits. The modern, private university is now run by Samsung.
One of the prominent new buildings on campus is the 600 Anniversary Hall, which commemorated in 1998 the 600th anniversary of the campus' relocation to Seoul in 1398. I suppose it's good Korean humility to claim only 600 years, when they just as easily could have claimed 1,000-year history. I’m neither Korean, nor humble, so I like to proudly claim that the Sungkyunkwan is older than Oxford — the consensus for “oldest university in the world" founded in 1096.
One may claim that the Sungkyunkwan for most of its history was a “religious school” teaching only Confucianism, and was not a “true” university with multiple areas of study. But I am quick to point out that in the initial centuries of Oxford, it was primarily as religious school that taught the dogma of Christianity. Therefore, the Korean school has just as valid a claim to fame as the one of the oldest universities in the world.
Which brings me back to the supporting schools, the hyanggyo from the beginning, and then after the 16th century, the private schools, the seowon. I don’t think Oxford had anywhere near as many supporting schools as we find in Korea with hyanggyo in every county and then numerous seowon after the seowon movement started.
Confucianism is an academic study, indeed, but in my presentation I argued that the core values of Confucianism — filial piety, loyalty, benevolence, justice, etiquette, knowledge and family relationships — are necessary for teaching children of a moral value system. The problem has been that beginning about 300 years ago, Confucianism became entwined with patrilineality and male dominance. My presentation to the heads of hyanggyo and seowon was that Confucianism can only survive and find acceptance in 21st-century society by divorcing itself from male-dominance and patrilineal ideology.
I think my ideas are quite revolutionary, but they were widely accepted at the seminar filled mainly with older men. They know that Confucianism today is being pilloried by the Korean population, particularly those of the female variety. They know they are getting beaten up and on the verge of total rejection — as advocated by many today, including a large number of people who regularly denounce Confucianism on my YouTube channel.
I think the audience liked what I had to say and see it as one way to save Confucianism in the 21st century. We shall see.
Mark Peterson (markpeterson@byu.edu) is a professor emeritus of Korean, Asian and Near Eastern languages at Brigham Young University in Utah.
Nationwide Confucian conference
77
0
16.05.2024
I was in Korea recently as a guest of the Sungkyunkwan — not the modern university, but the original Confucian academy that is over 1,000 years old. Today, the Sungkyunkwan is the headquarters for the Confucian organization. The conference I attended was a training session for leaders of Confucian organizations from across the country — the hyanggyo and seowon in every area of Korea. I was asked to talk about my views of the standing of Confucianism in 21st-century Korea.
I should first make sure that the reader understands how the Confucian organization is structured, and what the "hyanggyo" and "seowon" are. The current Confucian structure is patterned on the educational system of the Joseon and Goryeo dynasties — that is, there was one central “university” in Seoul, the Sungkyunkwan, and supporting government schools in each county, the hyanggyo, as well as and the private schools, the seowon, located in many locales across the country.
The Sungkyunkwan was larger than the hyanggyo and seowon, but it provided the structural format for each of schools. That is, that in each place there were buildings for teaching — a lecture hall and dormitories, and supporting cafeteria buildings, for each school was a live-in facility, where students........
© The Korea Times
visit website
login
who are we?
contact us
qosheapp
Toi Staff
Gideon Levy
Belen Fernandez
Tarik Cyril Amar
Rami G Khouri
Dr Ramzy Baroud
Mort Laitner
Bradley Blankenship
