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........